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Ekinops unveils “Bridge” strategic plan: accelerating Ekinops’ leadership in the fastest-growing market segments

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PARIS, March 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — EKINOPS (Euronext Paris – FR0011466069 – EKI), a leading supplier of telecommunications solutions for telecom operators and enterprises, unveils today its strategic plan – Bridge – kick-started at the end of 2024.

The purpose of Bridge is to consolidate Ekinops’ leadership in fast-growing market segments for its two product lines, Access and Optical Transport.The goal of Bridge is also to position Ekinops as a supplier of integrated telecommunications solutions, including equipment, software and related services which qualifies the Group for the most strategic projects led by telecom operators and enterprises.Thanks to Bridge, Ekinops intends to be recognized as one of the players offering end-to-end solutions to the global telecoms market.

Bridge: enhancing Ekinops’ two product lines with new and innovative solutions

In Optical Transport, Ekinops will build on its expertise and success in the Metro Optical Transport segment and its WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) products. Bridge will not only boost Ekinops’ presence in the Longhaul market already addressed but also, thanks to highly innovative new technologies, enable it to become a major player in the fast-expanding DCI (Data Center Inter Connect) segment.

This DCI market is fast-developing, with a growing number of new datacenter projects, both intended for artificial intelligence (AI) and for sovereignty purposes as well as the distribution of vast international data streams. In this context, Bridge will deliver a new range of optical solutions based on new chassis, new management software, including OneOS6, and all related modules, with multiple innovations to ensure a competitive advantage.

In the next few years, the DCI market is expected to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between +13% and +20%[1].

Regarding Access, Ekinops benefits from a strong installed base with over four million routers deployed worldwide and the trust of telecom operators, many of whom are Tier 1. This success is owing to the Group’s unique “One Box, One OS” approach, providing the most advanced connectivity service on the market using a single router.

Bridge will take Ekinops a step further, with the ambition of penetrating the network cybersecurity market, also known as SASE (Secure Access Service Edge). For Ekinops, the challenge ahead is to become one of the first players in the world to deploy all connectivity and secure telecom services for enterprises within a single system and a robust Cloud offering.

To achieve this, Ekinops will leverage its proven SD-WAN solution, adopted by major customers, and complement it with a Secure Service Edge (SSE) offering. Initially, Ekinops will enhance its OneOS6-integrated firewall with additional functions and then develop a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution, also known as SSE, to secure web traffic for enterprises and their mobile users. With these combined technologies, Ekinops will have a product line enabling it to address the SASE market segment, predicted to grow at an annual rate of between +13% and +28%[2] over the next few years.

By developing new high value-added solutions, Ekinops will operate at the heart of booming market segments. The combined evolutions in Access and Optical Transport solutions will therefore enable the Group to considerably increase its addressable market size by 2026.

Bridge: a growth-oriented plan, focused on the DCI and Cybersecurity Markets

With Bridge, Ekinops prioritizes growth while betting on a market recovery, anticipated by all in 2025, and by focusing on products the market will need in 2026 and 2027. As such, Ekinops is targeting a gradual return to revenue growth, particularly in the United States, in a still complex and demanding market context.

FY 2025 will be the first of implementation for the Bridge strategic plan. Ekinops bolstered its leadership team and announces the appointment of Harald Bock as Chief Product Officer as of February 1st, 2025. Harald Bock draws on his extensive experience driving innovation, product development and strategy in the telecommunications industry with companies such as Infinera, Coriant, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Ericsson. Under his leadership, the new DCI and cybersecurity products will be released end-2025, early-2026, and will contribute to boosting sales from 2026 onwards.

The clients for the new products developed through Bridge, and the decision-makers within these clients, will be the same as those currently purchasing Ekinops’ existing products and services. Significant commercial synergies will emerge from these new products for operators, through upselling to their customers. Operators will thus be able to position themselves in the adjacent, fast-growing segments of DCI and cybersecurity.

As part of Bridge, the R&D department resources have been aligned to match the new strategic initiatives. R&D investments for the development of new DCI and SASE solutions, as outlined in the Bridge framework, have been launched without significantly increasing overall R&D expenditure.

Bridge: quickly return to double-digit growth and achieve an EBITDA margin close to 20%

Through Bridge, Ekinops aims to quickly return to double-digit growth, generating more than 30% of its annual revenue from Software & Services by 2028, including over 50% as ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue).

This brisker pace of growth over the next years will combine organic development as well as acquisitions, boosted by Ekinops’ robust financial position. The Group’s innovative R&D capabilities, its firm foothold in its key markets and the trust established among its customers are cornerstones of this ambition.

In profitability terms, the Group seeks to achieve an EBITDA margin close to 20%.

Bridge also includes a CSR component, enabling Ekinops to forge a long-term commitment to its social and environmental impacts.

[1] Source: Omdia, Cignal AI & Dell’Oro Group
[2] Source: Omdia, Cignal AI & Dell’Oro Group

EKINOPS Contact
Didier Brédy, Chairman and CEO 
contact@ekinops.com

Investors
Mathieu Omnes, Investor relation
Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 92 
momnes@actus.fr

Press
Amaury Dugast, Press relation
Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 74 
adugast@actus.fr

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2634787/BridgeAnthem.jpg
Logo  – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/814911/5200963/Ekinops_Logo.jpg

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SOURCE Ekinops

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Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

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Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

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Air Products to Expand Industrial Gas Supply for Samsung Electronics’ Next-Generation Semiconductor Fab in South Korea

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New investment underscores the company’s long-term commitment to Korea and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry 

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE:APD), a world-leading industrial gases company and serving Samsung globally, today announced it has been selected by Samsung to supply industrial gases for its new advanced semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Under the agreement, Air Products will build, own and operate multiple state-of-the-art production facilities and a bulk specialty gas supply system to supply nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and hydrogen for Samsung’s new semiconductor fab. The new facilities are expected to come onstream in multiple phases from 2028 through 2030.

Air Products has a long track record of executing multiple phase expansions in Pyeongtaek to support Samsung’s growing manufacturing needs. This latest project represents Air Products’ largest investment to date in the semiconductor industry and will establish Pyeongtaek as the company’s single largest operations site globally supporting the electronics industry. 

“Air Products is honored to be selected once again by Samsung and to have their continued confidence as a trusted partner supporting their strategic growth plans,” said SR Kim, President, Air Products Korea. “This significant investment reinforces Air Products’ role as a leading global supplier to the semiconductor industry and underscores our long-standing commitment to supporting our strategic customers with safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

Air Products has served the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to many of the world’s leading technology companies. The company has operated in Korea for more than 50 years and has established a strong position in electronics and manufacturing sectors.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 85 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world’s largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2025 sales of $12 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedInXFacebook or Instagram.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/air-products-to-expand-industrial-gas-supply-for-samsung-electronics-next-generation-semiconductor-fab-in-south-korea-302757497.html

SOURCE Air Products

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