|
Resources
|
|
|
Taking Over an Industrial SME in 2026: Lessons From an Acquirer
Taking over an industrial SME in 2026 is not about inheriting a company: it is about agreeing to become its steward before becoming its author. France is entering a decade of large-scale transmissions — some 500,000 business leaders could hand over their companies by 2032, according to the Direction générale des entreprises (DGE). For the person taking over, the challenge is almost never the financial structuring. It lies elsewhere: in posture, in legitimacy, and in the way one transforms a business without fracturing it.
This is the thread of a conversation we recorded for the Visconti Talks podcast with Nicolas Coudert, who took over Sinthylène, a sixty-year-old industrial SME, supported by his Visconti coach Yannick Chammings. This article draws out its lessons and sets them against the backdrop of business acquisition in France in 2026.
Acquiring a company is no longer a niche route. Driven by the ageing of company owners, the transmission market is opening at a pace rarely seen. Bpifrance Le Lab estimates that 370,000 companies could change hands by 2030. In April 2026, the French State presented its "Objectif Reprises" plan at Bercy, extending the Mission Reprise launched in 2025: a letter of awareness sent from the age of 55 to every company owner, a unified national guide, and the aim of reaching 25,000 sellers or buyers a year.
The paradox is acknowledged by the public authorities themselves: taking over a business remains less valued than founding one, particularly within professional education. The figures bear this out. Around 37,000 disposals are recorded each year since 2022, yet only 2% of SMEs are affected annually, against 13% of large companies. And fewer than 30% of sellers begin their preparations more than two years before the disposal, when a successful transmission is best anticipated over three to ten years.
Against this backdrop, one profile stands out: the leader who comes from elsewhere. A senior figure from tech, consulting or a large group, who chooses to take over rather than to found. Nicolas Coudert belongs to this generation of acquirers. He left the corporate world for an industrial SME based in Pont-de-Vaux, specialising in technical solutions that protect buildings against climate hazards.
Taking over a sixty-year-old company when you are not its founder raises a question that founding ignores: how do you lead a story that began without you? The know-how is there, the teams too, the clients as well. The acquirer does not arrive on a blank page but within a narrative already written, one that must be continued without being betrayed.
This is the whole meaning of the episode's title: transforming without fracturing. The phrase takes three words; the practice takes several years. Nicolas Coudert speaks candidly about the rarely voiced questions of business acquisition: building one's legitimacy, stepping into a trajectory while allowing it to evolve, managing acquisition debt without harming the company, and never losing sight of the women and men who hold it together.
His coach, Yannick Chammings, knows this terrain from the inside. Before joining the Visconti collective, he founded and led Witekio for twenty years, a technology SME sold in 2022. Fundraising, structuring, internationalisation, transformation: experiences that give the support real substance — that of one leader speaking to another.
An acquirer's first form of capital is not financial but relational. The legitimacy of a leader who takes over is not proclaimed on day one; it is earned through the consistency of the days that follow. Listening before deciding, understanding the craft before changing it, honouring commitments over time: credibility settles in through successive proofs, not through statements of intent.
You do not take over a company against its past, but from it. An SME with several decades behind it carries a culture, shared reference points, a collective pride. The astute acquirer begins by honouring this heritage — becoming its continuator — before imprinting their own direction upon it. The transformation that lasts is the one that grafts the new onto the existing, without abrupt disavowal.
Most acquisitions rest on a leveraged structure (LBO), which burdens the company with debt to be repaid. Two paths then open up: compressing costs, or growing the business. Nicolas Coudert chose the latter — reducing the debt through development rather than through drastic cuts. A decision that preserves the tool, the skills and the momentum, where mechanical austerity often weakens the very thing it claims to save.
In an industrial SME, value does not lie solely in the machines or the order book: it lives in the teams who hold the know-how. A successful takeover protects this human capital first. Attention paid to people is not an afterthought; it is a condition of continuity.
A takeover concentrates a rare number of decisions into a few months, along with a new form of solitude. The acquirer settles trade-offs they have not seen mature and commits the company on matters they are still discovering. Having a trusted third party — a peer who has led, who questions without judging and helps one see clearly through the fog of the present — improves the quality of decisions as much as the composure with which they are made.
To take over is to lead differently. The SME leader already operates in an environment they do not fully control — economic conditions, taxation, insolvencies — and yet, all else being equal, two companies do not meet the same fate; the difference lies in the clarity and decisions of the person in charge, as we analysed in our article «Choose France: 93 billion for others, and for your SME?».
To this, a takeover adds its own shifts. The arrival of investors in the capital changes the leader's role: strategic pressure, trade-offs, new governance requirements. The posture expected in a committee or on a board is no longer that of the operational leader alone — a subject we addressed in our resource on the posture of a director and board member. A takeover moves the leader from "doing" to "enabling others to do", and from execution to trajectory.
These issues echo those of family transmission, where the question of handing over and of the successor's legitimacy arises with the same acuity — we develop them in our dossier family business transmission: issues, taxation and strategy.
A takeover engages years and rarely a second chance. It is precisely in this period — taking up the role — that executive coaching produces the most effect. Not to tell the acquirer what to decide, but to help them decide better: clarifying the vision, structuring the first hundred days, arbitrating between heritage and transformation, going the distance without becoming isolated.
Visconti Partners' conviction can be stated in a single line: the leader is the first architect of their company's success. Our coaches are all former leaders, trained at the Visconti Academy, able to support a takeover in any sector and at any scale — micro-business, SME, mid-cap or large group. Nicolas Coudert's journey with Yannick Chammings illustrates this: a leader supported by a peer who has himself taken over, structured and sold a company. We also document, through our capital evolution client cases, how support underpins the pivotal moments in a company's life.
Are you preparing or have you just begun a takeover? Meet a Visconti coach for an initial conversation about your situation, or listen to the full episode with Nicolas Coudert.
How many companies will be available to take over in France by 2030? Bpifrance Le Lab estimates that around 370,000 companies could be handed over by 2030. Looking to 2032, the Direction générale des entreprises points to nearly 500,000 leaders who could sell their companies, driven by retirements.
Do you need an industrial background to take over an industrial SME? No. A growing number of acquirers come from tech, consulting or large groups. What makes the difference is not prior knowledge of the trade, but the ability to listen to the teams, to build one's legitimacy and to step into the company's history before reshaping it.
How can a takeover be financed without weakening the company? Most takeovers rely on a leveraged structure (LBO). Two strategies exist to repay the debt: reducing costs or growing the business. Favouring growth, as Nicolas Coudert did at Sinthylène, preserves the industrial tool, the skills and the commitment of the teams.
How does an acquirer build their legitimacy? Through successive proofs, not through declaration. Understanding the know-how before changing it, honouring commitments over time, and involving the teams in decisions establish a credibility that the status of leader alone does not confer.
Is executive coaching useful during a takeover? Yes, particularly when taking up the role. A coach who has led themselves helps the acquirer to structure their first decisions, to arbitrate between heritage and transformation, and to break the isolation inherent to this period. At Visconti Partners, this support is provided by former leaders.
In 2026, taking over an industrial SME is no longer a fallback choice: it is an entrepreneurial path in its own right, carried by a generation of leaders who would rather continue a story than write a new one. Its success rests less on the figures of the purchase than on the soundness of a posture. Transforming without fracturing, growing without disowning, deciding without becoming isolated: three demands that support makes bearable.
Let us talk about your takeover project.
Visconti Partners presents its advice, inspiration, and case studies to help you unlock your potential and that of your business.
View all articles
Four leaders describe, on the record in the VISCONTI Talks, what they would have done differently. Not their successes their mistakes.
A company's competitiveness begins with the strategic clarity of its leader. Vision, the ability to make trade-offs and foresight: how executive coaching turns these into a lasting advantage. Primary keyword: executive coaching Secondary keywords: corporate governance, communication coaching
.png)
What if the competitiveness of your company depended... on the flows of your supply chain? French industry is changing. Don't be a spectator.
.jpg)
100,000 open source deployments, an innovative startup, a radical vision: Georges-Bastien Michel, CEO of Reversense, shares his rise in the demanding world of cybersecurity. An atypical leader to be discovered without delay!
In this new episode of VISCONTI TALKS, Jean Philippe MARTIN, partner coach at VISCONTI, welcomes Hervé VARILLON, CEO of Crédit Agricole Leasing & Factoring. Hervé VARILLON shares his personal journey, from his birth in Lyon to his passion for Greece and football. On...
