Schneider Electric SE is a French
multinational company
A multinational company (MNC), also referred to as a multinational enterprise (MNE), a transnational enterprise (TNE), a transnational corporation (TNC), an international corporation or a stateless corporation with subtle but contrasting senses, i ...
that specializes in digital automation and energy management. It addresses homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries, by combining energy technologies, real-time automation, software, and services.
Schneider Electric is a
Fortune Global 500
The ''Fortune'' Global 500, also known as Global 500, is an annual ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by ''Fortune'' magazine.
Methodology
Until 1989, it listed onl ...
company, publicly traded on the Euronext Exchange, and is a component of the
Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index
In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an index that measures a stock market, or a subset of the stock market, that helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calculate market performance.
Two of the ...
. In FY2020, the company posted revenues of €25.2 billion.
Schneider Electric is the
parent company of
Square D
Square D is an American manufacturer of electrical equipment headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts. Square D is a flagship brand of Schneider Electric, which acquired Square D in 1991.
The company was listed on the New York Stock ...
,
APC, and others. It is also a research company.
Head office
Schneider Electric has had its head office in
Rueil-Malmaison
Rueil-Malmaison () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. It is located from the centre of Paris. In 2017, it had a population of 78,152. It is one of the wealthiest suburbs of P ...
, France since 2000. This headquarters previously housed Schneider subsidiary Télémécanique
while the parent company occupied a site in
Boulogne-Billancourt
Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious Communes of France, commune in the Parisian area, located from its Kilometre zero, centre. It is a Subprefectures in ...
.
The company uses an international operations model
wherein its key personnel and large numbers of its staff are spread across main offices in Reuil-Malmaison,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
,
Noida
Noida, short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, is a planned city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Noida is a satellite city of Delhi and is a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) o ...
,
and
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
.
History
1836-1963
In 1836, brothers
Adolphe
''Adolphe'' is a classic French novel by Benjamin Constant, first published in 1816. It tells the story of an alienated young man, Adolphe, who falls in love with an older woman, Ellénore, the Polish mistress of the Comte de P***. Their illicit ...
and
Joseph-Eugene Schneider took over an abandoned foundry in
Le Creusot, France. Two years later, they created Schneider & Cie, focusing primarily on the steel industry. Schneider & Cie rapidly grew, specializing in the production of heavy machinery and transportation equipment. In 1871, following France's defeat in the
Franco-Prussian War, it developed a main activity of manufacturing weapons with the encouragement of the government in Paris. It eventually became a complex group with industrial activities in many sites in France and abroad, including in Russia before 1917 and in Czechoslovakia between 1919 and 1938.
[
]
1963-1999
In the 1960s, Schneider was absorbed by Belgium's Empain group
The Empain group was a loose grouping of companies founded by Édouard Empain (1852–1929) of Belgium and controlled by the Empain family.
From 1881 until merging with Schneider & Cie in 1969, the companies engaged in a broad range of activities ...
, which, in 1969, merged it with its own corporate structures to form Empain-Schneider. In 1980–1981, the Empain family sold its controlling stake to Paribas
The Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (“Bank of Paris and the Netherlands”), generally referred to from 1982 as Paribas, was a French investment bank based in Paris. In May 2000, it merged with the Banque Nationale de Paris to form BNP Paribas ...
, which was in turn nationalized in 1982. In the 1980s and 1990s, the company, by then again named Schneider, divested from steel and shipbuilding and focused mainly on electricity through strategic acquisitions. These included Télémécanique in 1988, Square D in 1991, and in 1992.
Timeline since 1999
1999: Schneider Group acquired Lexel. In May 1999, the Schneider Group was renamed Schneider Electric.
The company became an ITER supplier.
2014: Schneider Electric advertised a cooperation with German power supplier RWE
RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. The company is Europe's most climate threatening Company, the world's number two in offsh ...
.
2016: Schneider acquired the British retail brand Tower Electric.
2017: Schneider Electric took control of AVEVA Group PLC, a provider of engineering and industrial software based in the UK.
2018: Schneider Electric acquired Larsen & Toubro's Electrical & Automation (E&A) business in a cash deal for (excluding the marine business and Servowatch Ltd. then, currently a part of L&T E&A business).
2019: Schneider launched Schneider Electric Exchange.
2020: In February 2020, Schneider made a €1.4 billion takeover bid for German company RIB Software, closing the deal in July 2020. In September 2020, Schneider Electric launched a new equipment that would help electricity distribution companies in Nigeria to fix grid faults.
Also, in 2020, Schneider Electric acquired ProLeiT AG, a supplier of industrial control and MES software.
2022: In September 2022, Schneider Electric hit over 6-year high and surged 12% in a weak market.
Aveva acquisition
Schneider made its first attempt to combine with Aveva in 2015. Then, in 2017, Schneider managed to combine with the British Group, Aveva. Indeed, it was agreed that Schneider would take 60% stake in an enlarged industrial software business with Aveva. In 2022, Schneider took over the remaining shares of the British company. Nevertheless, Aveva, whose activities perfectly fit those of Schneider, would still exist as an independent entity.
File:SE History-19cent-IC-900x500.jpg, 1838: "La Gironde", the first French locomotive
File:Schneiderlogo1950.jpg, The Schneider logo in the 1950s
File:Telemecanique brochure.jpg, One of the first brochures for Telemecanique industrial control products. Telemecanique was acquired by Schneider Electric in 1988.
Acquisitions and divestments
Organizational structure and offer
Since 2019, Schneider Electric has been operating business units: Energy Management, Industrial Automation, and Services.
Energy Management
The Energy Management business provides products for the management of energy in medium voltage and grid automation, low voltage and building automation, secure power and cooling applications.
Services
The Services business includes three divisions: Global Field Services, Energy and Sustainability
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...
Services, and Smart grid
A smart grid is an electrical grid which includes a variety of operation and energy measures including:
*Advanced metering infrastructure (of which smart meters are a generic name for any utility side device even if it is more capable e.g. a f ...
Services.
EcoStruxure
In 2016 Schneider Electric launched the next generation of EcoStruxure – an IoT-enabled architecture. The EcoStruxure platform uses Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure, often referred to as Azure ( , ), is a cloud computing platform operated by Microsoft for application management via around the world-distributed data centers. Microsoft Azure has multiple capabilities such as software as a ...
.
In April 2019, the company launched Schneider Electric Exchange, an open business platform.
Research and development investment
In its Innovation Summit North America, Schneider Electric expressed its aim to assess emerging technologies, support and subsidize startups through guiding them. In FY2021, Schneider Electric announced that its research and development expenses were around 855 million euros.
See also
* Creusot steam hammer
The Creusot steam hammer is a giant steam hammer built in 1877 by Schneider and Co. in the French industrial town of Le Creusot. With the ability to deliver a blow of up to 100 tons, the Creusot hammer was the most powerful in the world until 18 ...
References
External links
*
Schneider Electric global blog
{{Authority control
CAC 40
Companies based in Île-de-France
Companies in the Euro Stoxx 50
Companies listed on Euronext Paris
Conglomerate companies of France
Electric transformer manufacturers
Electrical engineering companies of France
Electrical wiring and construction supplies manufacturers
Electronics companies of France
French brands
Locomotive manufacturers of France
Manufacturers of industrial automation
MES software
Multinational companies headquartered in France
French companies established in 1836
Manufacturing companies established in 1836