Walloon SME Elneo Acquires Rivals in France and Netherlands
Walloon industrial SME Elneo has completed a strategic double acquisition, purchasing French company Alto Instruments and Dutch firm Airtec Pneumatic Engineering in a move that significantly strengthens its European market position. The acquisitions, announced on June 16, 2026, boost the Liège-region company’s revenue to €30 million and its workforce to 105 employees.
Strategic Expansion
The double acquisition marks a milestone for Elneo, a specialist in compressed air and industrial fluids headquartered in Awans, Belgium. Alto Instruments, a French company, brings deep expertise in instrumentation and calibration with a complementary product range, while Airtec Pneumatic Engineering, based in Epe, Netherlands, specializes in pneumatic components for machine manufacturers, as reported by La Libre Belgique.
According to EuropeSays, the acquisitions will allow Elneo to export its technical expertise while accompanying its Belgian clients on international projects. The transaction was conducted through Elneo Partners N.V., the holding company created in 2024 to facilitate employee share ownership.
A Family Business Transformed
Elneo traces its roots to 1968, when Henri and Claire Bouhy founded the company as Technofluid. Rebranded as Elneo in 2012, the company has evolved from a traditional family business into a multi-site industrial player under the leadership of Jonathan Bouhy, the founder’s grandson, who took over in 2016. Today, Elneo operates five sites across Awans (headquarters), Wetteren, Olen, France, and Canada, serving approximately 3,000 clients including industrial giants such as GSK, ArcelorMittal, AB InBev, Walibi, John Cockerill, and Galler.
The company operates in three interconnected departments: Compressors (production of compressed air), Pneumatics (use of compressed air for motion systems), and Instruments (measurement for all types of fluids). As Jonathan Bouhy often remarks, as quoted by Paris Match Belgique: “We are everywhere, but nobody knows it.”
Pioneering Employee Ownership
What truly sets Elneo apart in the Belgian industrial landscape is its innovative employee share ownership model. In February 2024, Jonathan Bouhy launched the Participative Share Ownership Plan (PAP) through Elneo Partners N.V., allowing employees to invest in the company. By mid-2025, 40% of employees had become shareholders, with investments ranging from €1,000 to €200,000.
“It’s the best investment they can make in their lives,” Bouhy told AKTus – CCI, the Walloon Chamber of Commerce publication. “It’s not about distributing symbolic crumbs, but truly sharing the fruits of growth. When an employee invests €10,000 in the company, they can hope to get €50,000 back in ten years. But deep down, the primary motivation is love for the company. I dream that in 5 or 10 years, this model will have become the norm.”
Maxime Defawes, a Sales Engineer in Pneumatics at Elneo, described the impact of becoming a shareholder: “My job hasn’t changed, but my way of thinking has. I realized that my impact wouldn’t only come through my individual sales. Today, I’m involved in creating our new B2B webshop and I organize joint sales visits to better share our expertise.”
The employee ownership model appears to be a key driver of engagement and retention. The M&A advisory firm Factor & Ros, which advised Airtec on the transaction, confirmed the sale to Elneo Partners N.V., noting that Airtec will now have the opportunity to further grow and strengthen its position in the Benelux market.
Ambitious Growth Targets
Elneo has signaled that these two acquisitions are just the beginning. The company has set an ambitious target of reaching 250 employees by 2030 and has initiated discussions with a company in Italy and several others in Belgium. According to Elneo’s official website, the company’s vision is built around the principle of “Growing Together” — a philosophy that extends both to its employees through share ownership and to its international expansion strategy.
What’s Next
For Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium, Elneo’s expansion demonstrates that regional SMEs can successfully compete on the European stage. The company’s combination of technical expertise, innovative employee ownership, and strategic acquisitions offers a model for industrial growth that other Belgian SMEs may look to emulate. With discussions already underway in Italy and at home, Elneo appears well on its way to building what Jonathan Bouhy describes as a “European ecosystem” of united companies under a shared banner with common values.