Hector Fratty

Over 25 years ago Valeo bought a specialist maker of actuators to develop some of the first electric headlamp levellers. These were at the time expected to become mandatory in Europe. By and by, successful development of various levellers paved the way for development of more complex products like DBL and Bi-, Tri-, and multifunction optic actuators.
About 8 years ago, the outfit started to diversify their customer base by selling levellers to most of Valeo Lighting’s competitors. But belonging to Valeo was a high hurdle to becoming a key supplier for the other main lighting suppliers; Valeo’s actuator people were understandably regarded as competitors.
Finally, facing the big challenges of developing LED front lighting, Valeo decided to let the AML activity become autonomous to increase their focus on innovation and leverage their growth beyond Valeo. The spinoff and organisation of AML Systems as a standalone company took effect on 1 July 2010.

DVN asked questions to CEO Eric Julien and VP of Sales and Business Development Jean-Eric Peugeot:

DVN: What did you do before taking on the management of AML?
Eric Julien: I have been working in the field of actuators round the world for almost 25 years and came back to France 5 years ago to manage the AML activity and contribute to its international development.

DVN: What is your feedback 2 years after starting the new company?
E.J.: All our expectations have been met, with an overachieved business plan and a renewed focus on innovation allowing us to foresee a bright future.

One of our first targets was to grow further our innovation capabilities, which we could demonstrate at the occasion of recent DVN workshops with concepts like our proposal for an easy to integrate flying spot or a motorless actuator.