With a surface area that has tripled in size, the new facility now occupies over 1000sq.m and hosts a vast area dedicated to service and training. It also has several dedicated spaces including a showroom for staging live demos, several rooms for seminars and training courses, along with an extended sales open space.
The new office is headed by Pascal Gervais, regional director, Christie for France. He enthused, "Following more than ten years of constant growth and successful brand development in the French market, and since we exceeded our capacity, it was time for Christie to offer a brand new office adapted to the needs of the market. We are now looking forward to welcoming our Partners and clients in this brand new facility. They will benefit from our dedicated training and services area in particular, which represents a unique proposition for a projection manufacturer in France."
Backed by an extensive network of Partners, Christie has been providing dedicated support and training to the French market since 2001, when the office originally opened to meet a growing demand for a much needed local facility. Today Christie works with a pool of partners, including Ciné Digital Service and Ymagis for the Entertainment Industry, while partners such as IEC, Utram and Axians look after Christie's LCD, 1-Chip, 3-Chip DLP business products and Spyder products. On the rental staging side, Christie works with key partners such as ETC , Mvision, Groupe Dushow in France and ADC Production in Belgium.
Bucking the trends, Christie France has been constantly hiring new people to meet the growing demand for Christie products, solutions and services. As a result, it doubled the number of engineers and technical heads since last year.
Pascal Gervais confirms,"This is part of the normal course of our growth, having built a successful brand in France through the years. He added, "At this time of global economic uncertainty, seeing a world leader in visual solutions investing on staff and infrastructure is a great testimonial of Christie's commitment and trust towards the French market and its dynamic economy. "
Since 2008, and despite the difficult economic climate, Christie's business in France experienced over 200% growth and the number of employees was multiplied by three. Some of Christie's most significant work in France includes the installation of Christie MicroTiles on the BFM Business broadcast set, the usage of high-powered equipment by leading rental stagers in France to illuminate the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides and l'Arche de la Défense; and the recent installation of LCD projectors at the artistic hub l'Imaginarium in Tourcoing.
In the cinema industry, Christie is used by leading post-production house Eclair Group, has been the Technical Partner of the Cannes International Film Festival since 2006 and recently played a key role with Partner 2Avi in breaking the World Record for the largest 3D projection when it screened the final episode of the Harry Potter Series in Bercy.
The French office covers various territories including France, the Netherlands, Belgium West and North Africa.
Over the last 12 months, Christie announced important developments for various branch offices in EMEA, including the opening at the end of 2011 of a dedicated branch in Madrid, Spain, a new purposed built facility in Dubai to further support the development of the Christie brand in the Middle East in May this year, quickly followed by the set up of an office in South Africa in June, the first in the Southern hemisphere.
(Jim Evans)
