Friday, July 17, 2026
“Europe can remain competitive provided it capitalizes on its strengths: innovation, quality, and the ability to produce critical components locally,” says Dominique Lavilla, CEO of NTN Europe
NTN Europe, a specialist in ball bearings and a subsidiary of the Japanese NTN Corporation since 2007, is inaugurating a new headquarters in Annecy on Thursday, July 9.
On this occasion, Dominique Lavilla, Managing Director of NTN Europe, looks back on the strategy of the leading private employer in Haute-Savoie, which has been disrupted by the electrification of the automobile and Chinese competition.
L’Usine Nouvelle - On July 9th, you are opening a new innovation center. What is your objective?
Dominique Lavilla, Managing Director of NTN Europe - Our objective is clear: to accelerate our ability to anticipate technological disruptions in order to remain competitive. That is why we wanted to bring all our teams together on a single site, in order to gain agility, performance and competitiveness.
The €40 million investment we made also served to modernize infrastructure, focusing on four key areas: the mobility of tomorrow, eco-responsible industry, digitalization, and advanced technologies. In parallel, nearly €10 million has been spent over the last five years to strengthen NTN Europe's research, testing, and prototyping capabilities.