"Jiangsu has unique charms for its long history, great landscape, classical gardens and ancient water towns, to name a few. That’s why I came to Jiangsu,” said Le Flem.
Looking forward to the future, Le Flem is full of confidence in the Chinese market. He said a new plant is expected to be put into use by 2020, with a capacity increase of 10 percent.
历史和文化完美融合、经济快速发展，让他“来了就不想走。”傅雷感叹：“这些年，，江苏变化翻天覆地，很难一一列举，但是印象最深的还是高铁，简直就是奇迹。从南京出发，20分钟到镇江，一小时到上海......江苏的历史吸引我来到这里，江苏的发展让我留在这里。”
展望未来，傅雷对中国市场充满信心。他透露，阿雷蒙正在规划新厂房，预计2020年投入使用，届时产能将提高10%。“我们希望在江苏取得更大发展，共享经济发展成果。”
Founded in 1865 in southeastern French city Grenoble, ARaymond is a worldwide leader holding a real expertise in fastening and assembly solution, mainly serving automotive market. In 1996, ARaymond established a joint venture company in Zhenjiang, and it now boasts five wholly-owned companies and a joint venture company, which have a total investment of 46 million euros and over 600 employees.
"The reform and opening up has injected strong momentum into the entire auto sector,” Le Flem said. With the improvement of people's living standards and the auto sector’s development, hundreds of thousands of families began purchasing cars after 2000, leading to a major change in lifestyle. Now more and more families choose to drive by themselves for travelling. Meanwhile, progress in infrastructure has also driven the growth of automotive industry.
ARaymond has more than 10 foreign employees working in Zhenjiang. Once they settled down, they don’t want to leave because of the company's continuous development, the comfortable life here, and safe environment for their children. “Jiangsu is the right place to stay. You can see it by yourself,” said Le Flem.
傅雷告诉记者，阿雷蒙集团在镇江有10多位外国员工，他们来之前总有一些顾虑，但是在这里生活一段时间之后都不想离开。
The history of Jiangsu attracted him to visit, and it’s the province’s development that draws him to stay. “Jiangsu has a long list of great changes, but what impresses me most is the fast-developing infrastructures, highways, bridges, tunnels, etc. And the high-speed rail is one of the miracles,” Le Flem added.
In response to diversified consumer needs, ARaymond has developed a localization strategy, with localization of both production and technology, and also increased investment in research and development. At present, ARaymond Zhenjiang has a total of 36 engineers, and the R&D investment accounts for 3 percent of annual sales.
In 2017, ARaymond’s sales revenue in China reached 800 million yuan. “Today, ARaymond Zhenjiang's sales in two to three days are equivalent to that of the whole year in 1999, which was hard to imagine in the past,” said Le Flem.
Le Flem thinks that China’s market is becoming more and more open with the foreign investor-friendly business environment. Among the new moves, China has released a new negative list for foreign investment in the country's pilot free trade zones, and the policy to reduce the tax and fees charged to businesses will be equally applied to Chinese and foreign companies. China’s economy growth has entered a new stage of opening up.
傅雷把公司取得的成绩归因于改革开放。“以前多少人有私家车？现在，每个中国家庭有1—2辆私家车也不稀奇。以前道路坑坑洼洼、尘土飞扬，现在四通八达、干净整洁，想不发展都难。”
1999年，24岁的法国小伙儿傅雷（Emmanuel Le Flem）来到镇江，成为法国阿雷蒙集团的一名工程师。他本来打算两年任期结束就回国，没想到一住就是19年。如今，傅雷已成为阿雷蒙企业管理咨询（上海）有限公司首席执行官。
Emmanuel Le Flem of France came to Zhenjiang city, Jiangsu province to work as an engineer of ARaymond Network in 1999, when he was 24 years old. He had planned to return to France at the end of his two-year term. After living in China for 19 years, however, Le Flem, now CEO of ARaymond Enterprise Management Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, regards Jiangsu as his "second home".
As the public is getting more aware of environmental protection, ARaymond is also strengthening the R&D of new energy auto parts. Raydiall Automotive Interconnections Solutions (Zhenjiang) Co., Ltd., a joint venture by ARaymond and the Raydiall Group of France has tapped the market with its high-speed data connectors and new energy charging devices.
The demand for local talents has also increased for ARaymond. On January 8 this year, ARaymond, Jiangsu University and ESTIA (the Institute of Advanced Industrial Technologies) in France signed an agreement to provide students with globalized education and practices, with the aim of cultivating engineers with international competitiveness.
"Having higher requirements for cars, consumers are no longer satisfied with buying a mass-produced vehicle like in the past,” said Le Flem.