We are pleased to continue our Global Voices series, designed to highlight the experience, work and perspectives of our colleagues across MEHITS international organizations. Our next guest is Yannick Fumeron, General Manager of MAF.

Please introduce MAF to someone who is not familiar with it.
MAF is a key player in the applied HVAC market in France, specializing mainly in Fan Coil Units (FCU) and Air Handling Units (AHU).
In the FCU segment, MAF offers a wide range of solutions, including ducted units, 4 way and 1 way cassette units, and fan coil units designed to meet both commercial and technical requirements.
For Air Handling Units, MAF develops and manufactures a comprehensive portfolio of solutions such as double flow superposed units with plate or rotary heat recovery systems, modular AHUs and false ceiling units. These products are designed to deliver high performance, energy efficiency and flexibility, allowing MAF to address a broad variety of applications and customer needs.

As General Manager of MAF, could you describe your role and main responsibilities?
As General Manager, my role covers both strategic and operational responsibilities. I am involved in defining the company’s vision and development roadmap, while also ensuring day to day performance across sales, marketing, engineering and operations. I am equally committed to taking all necessary actions to support, engage and develop the company’s ~120 employees, ensuring a strong, motivated and aligned organization.
A key part of my role is to foster collaboration, innovation and strong alignment with Group values and objectives. I also place great emphasis on building robust and open communication between the sales teams and the factory, ensuring that we operate as one unified team, even though we are separate legal entities.

What is MAF’s core expertise in the applied HVAC business?

MAF’s core expertise is built on high product quality and a strong position in the applied HVAC market. On the French market, MAF has been growing steadily year after year, which clearly shows the trust and satisfaction of its customers.
In the Fan Coil Unit (FCU) segment, MAF is positioned among the five leading players. This success is supported by a well established business model, where controls and accessories are installed directly in the factory for the final customer. This approach helps reduce installation time and costs through a process that has been developed and continuously improved over the past 20 years.
For Air Handling Units (AHU), MAF focuses on delivering highly efficient solutions closely aligned with customer needs, particularly with competitive T2–TB2 units. The objective is to provide optimized products with high performance onboard controls, ensuring easy installation, good energy efficiency and high customer satisfaction.
Another key reason for MAF’s success is the strong technical expertise of its commercial network and service teams. Sales engineers and service technicians are fully dedicated to the applied HVAC market and benefit from continuous and advanced technical training. This high level of specialization allows them to propose efficient and reliable solutions, while reassuring customers through the quality of technical support and the expertise of MAF’s dedicated applied HVAC teams.

What are the main technological or market trends currently shaping the development of MAF products?

One of the main market trends shaping MAF product development is the continuous demand for higher unit performance while preserving competitiveness. Achieving this balance represents a key challenge shared between the marketing and engineering teams at MAF.
From a technological standpoint, strong focus is placed on improving energy efficiency across both FCU and AHU ranges. This includes developing more efficient heat recovery systems by increasing their performance while simultaneously reducing pressure drops. Another major trend is the integration of very high efficiency EC fan walls, enabling a significant reduction of the unit’s SFPv.
More generally, each function of the unit is carefully analysed to identify potential optimization opportunities, ensuring that performance improvements are achieved without compromising cost, reliability or ease of installation.

How are customer needs and expectations evolving for these solutions?

Customers are increasingly expecting more than just products; they are looking for complete solutions and long term partnerships. This evolution reflects a growing need for support throughout the entire project lifecycle.
In addition to high performance equipment, customers value strong technical support, clear and reliable technical documentation generated through dedicated selection software, and efficient onboard controls. These elements help simplify design, installation and operation, while ensuring optimal performance and long term reliability of the solutions.

Looking ahead, what do you see as the main opportunities and growth drivers for MAF within the Group?

For Fan Coil Units, as mentioned earlier, MAF benefits from a strong market position in France. Being part of the Mitsubishi Electric Group represents a significant opportunity to expand beyond the French market, especially key products like the 4 way cassette i-CMW, thanks to the Group’s international presence
In addition, close cooperation with MEHITS colleagues will support MAF in further improving product quality, performance, control and competitiveness through shared expertise and synergies within the Group.
Across both FCU and AHU businesses, one of the main growth drivers lies in the close and strong relationship between the factory and sales teams. Sales entities must be confident in the products and trust the factory, while the factory must actively listen to market feedback, be attentive to customer requirements and react quickly to specific requests. Customer visits to the factory are also a key driver, as they allow us to demonstrate our high level of quality, industrial know how and strong market listening.