A perspective from Laurent Rossi, Group CEO of Primacy Systems, on bringing Xtrac, Helix, New Eagle and Zoerkler together as one group. 

Today at the New Eagle Summit, we introduced Primacy Systems for the first time publicly. It marks an important step in bringing together four highly respected engineering companies – Xtrac, Helix, New Eagle and Zoerkler – and creating a stronger platform for the customers and markets we serve. 

Each company brings deep expertise of its own. Xtrac has built a global reputation in transmissions and driveline systems. Helix develops high-performance electric motors, generators and inverters. New Eagle brings embedded controls, software and systems integration. Zoerkler adds precision gearing, engineering and advanced manufacturing expertise. Together, we now have more than 700 people across seven facilities in four countries.  

What excites me most, however, is not simply the scale of the group. It is what becomes possible when these capabilities are brought together.

The industries we serve are changing quickly. Across automotive, motorsport, aerospace, defence, marine and industrial markets, electrification, software and increasingly complex systems are changing what customers need from their engineering partners. They are asking for more than individual components. They increasingly need complete systems that have been conceived, engineered and validated together. 

That distinction matters. You can take an outstanding motor, inverter, transmission and controller and combine them, but that does not automatically create an outstanding system. The interfaces between those technologies matter just as much as the individual technologies themselves. Performance comes from understanding how the complete system needs to operate and designing each element around that goal. That is the idea at the heart of Primacy Systems. 

By bringing mechanical, electrical and software engineering together, we can approach customer programmes at the system level from the beginning. We can draw on expertise from across the group, bring the right engineering and manufacturing capability to each programme, and take greater responsibility for how the complete solution performs. 

For customers, we want that to translate into something very practical: a simpler way of working with us.

A customer may still come to Xtrac for a transmission, Helix for a motor, New Eagle for controls or Zoerkler for precision gearing, and those companies will continue to serve the markets and relationships they have built over many years. We are not replacing those brands. We are building on their strengths.

What Primacy Systems adds is the ability to look beyond an individual product. Where a programme requires capabilities from several of our businesses, we can bring those capabilities together through one coordinated team. The objective is fewer handovers, faster access to expertise and greater accountability from the first engineering conversation through development, testing, production and support.

Our ambition is simple: one point of contact, one partner and one point of accountability.

We are building from strong foundations. The companies within Primacy Systems already operate in some of the world’s most demanding engineering environments. Bringing those strengths together gives us a broader platform to support customers with increasingly complex system-level challenges.  

This week is an introduction. Primacy Systems is live today, and over the coming months we will continue bringing the group together ahead of operating fully as one from December 1. 

We have four companies with complementary technologies, talented people and deep customer relationships. By bringing those strengths together, we believe we can help customers solve increasingly complex engineering challenges in a more integrated way. 

This is the beginning of Primacy Systems. 

Laurent Rossi
Group CEO, Primacy Systems