FINALIST 2019
Together with his brother Jean, Yves Proteau shares in the ownership and leadership of APN Global, a leader in the manufacturing of high-precision metallic parts for the industries of aerospace, life sciences, defense and commercial sector.
Proteau focusses on innovation, process automation, exportation and business acquisition to accelerate the growth of APN. And it works! Sales multiplied by 25 and the number of employees by 10 since he joined the family SME in 2004.
Being the best in the world means to be able to compete with worldwide competitors and win!
Today, APN groups together six highly innovative businesses with over 160 employees and operates two factories in Québec City and two others in California.
Exporting counts for 80% of sales and Proteau is stepping up efforts to continue diversifying APN products and markets. For example, in 2017, APN concluded another strategic transaction by acquiring a Quebec SME that is very active in China, AFP.
4.0 Pioneer
Moreover, Proteau has made APN an Industry 4.0 pioneer here in Quebec. This shift, which began in 2011, provides great competitive advantages to the business, both in terms of productivity and manufacturing quality.
Here too there’s no time to be complacent. The business just integrated 10 other state-of-the-art robots and is managing a project to implement industrial procedures which includes, in particular, artificial intelligence for automating certain manufacturing decisions.
APN received the prestigious Grand Prize, SME of the Year in aerospace, of the the 2018 Gilles-Demers Awards.