MADE IN ERUOPE: Private Equity Meets Engineering: Eurocircuits Becomes The Centerpiece Of A Long-Term Strategy

What happens when founders decide legacy matters more than an easy exit? I sat down with Eurocircuits’ Founding Partner Dirk Stans to unpack a deal that keeps the company’s engineering DNA intact while unlocking the resources to scale. Instead of becoming the 'fifth wheel' of a sprawling industrial group, Eurocircuits becomes the strategic core of a new platform—built around its digitally native approach, dense customer orchestration, and hard-won process IP.Dirk and I explore the road to the partnership with Avedon Capital Partners: early talks with industrial buyers who didn’t quite grasp the uniqueness of the model, a healthy skepticism about private equity, and then a meeting with a team whose long-term thesis matched the founders’ own plan. This isn’t a three-to-five-year flip. It’s long-horizon thinking that respects continuity for 750 employees and thousands of customers. Day one, nothing breaks: management stays, customer interfaces stay, supplier relationships stay. What changes is pace, ambition, and the confidence to start a multi-year strategy knowing a thoughtful handover is built in.We also dig into why private equity is active in EMS despite modest EBITDA margins. Many EMS firms are self-financed and generate steady cash, and the category offers predictable mid-single-digit growth. But Dirk argues the essential point: finance should serve technology, not lead it. The real job isn’t trading components; it’s building reliable electronics with deep process understanding. That focus has kept Eurocircuits ahead, and with aligned capital, they aim to scale without losing what makes them special. If you care about succession, platform-building, and keeping engineering at the center of manufacturing, this conversation offers a clear, practical blueprint.If this resonated, follow the show, share with a colleague, and leave a quick review—what’s your take on PE as a force for long-term industrial growth?MADE IN EUROPE is a Global Electronics Association podcast hosted by Philip Stoten and produced and published by SCOOP. For more information on Global Electronics Association visit https://www.electronics.org/