SEPEM Rouen · 2027

Agoris analysis · updated October 2026

Key takeaways

• SEPEM Rouen (formerly SEPEM Industries Nord-Ouest) is the Normandy leg of the SEPEM network (Services, Équipements, Process Et Maintenance), a local industrial trade show bringing together factory-floor products and services: maintenance, process equipment, automation and robotics, subcontracting, safety, handling and sustainable production.
• Next edition: Tuesday 26, Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 January 2027 at Rouen Expo Congrès, avenue des Canadiens, in Le Grand-Quevilly, in the Rouen conurbation (9am-6pm Tuesday and Wednesday, 9am-5pm Thursday).
• This is the 6th Normandy edition. Organiser: GL events Exhibitions Industrie, based in Casseneuil (Lot-et-Garonne), which runs the whole SEPEM network.
• Results of the last edition (5th, 23-25 January 2024): 423 exhibitors, 4,692 visitors, 22% more than the previous edition, 107 exclusive technical innovations and 24 conferences and round tables.
• The edition due to take place on 27-29 January 2026 was pushed back a year, to avoid direct competition with Global Industrie in its Paris version (Mesures, January 2025).
• Entry, parking and catalogue are free, subject to prior registration reserved for professionals, jobseekers and school groups.
• Positioning announced for 2027: more than 40% of exhibitors from Seine-Maritime and neighbouring departments.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

The trade show's scope follows the SEPEM network's classification, organised into thirteen families: automation and mechatronics, control and measurement, machine tools, digital, electronics, energy and sustainable production, industrial supplies, maintenance and CMMS, handling and logistics, robotics, safety and protection, workplace fit-out, subcontracting and 3D printing.

The format's distinctive feature is the space given to live working machinery: assembly, lifting, conveying, robots and cobots, measurement and control, cutting. The organiser structures the visit around four routes: the factory of the future, new products, Normandy exhibitors and machines in demonstration. This is a trade show where visitors come to see equipment running, not to leaf through a brochure.

On the visitor side, the 2024 edition showed a highly operational profile: 29% of visitors came from companies with 10 to 49 employees, 23% from companies with 50 to 249 employees. Five sectors, industrial mechanics, metallurgy and steel, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, food and drink, and automotive, accounted for 80% of visitors, and seven job functions accounted for 70%, from general management to purchasing, including maintenance and production.

Notable exhibitors

The full list is published on the exhibitors page of the official website, which lists the companies present in 2024 and will be updated for 2027.

Among the 107 exclusive technical innovations presented in 2024, the organiser cites the ATEQ CDF7000 leak calibrator, the E+E ELEKTRONIK HTS801 humidity and temperature transmitter, the ERGOSANTE HAPO UP exoskeleton designed for overhead arm work, GROUPE SICAL's kraft paper strapping as an alternative to plastic strapping, and the INOVANCE AM522 compact axis controller.

The regional anchoring also comes through collective groups: in 2024, SOTRABAN, the association of Normandy industrial subcontractors, brought together 23 members on a dedicated village, and the organiser counted 150 regional equipment suppliers among the exhibitors.

Visitor quality

The 2024 indicators describe an audience drawn from a short radius: 81% of visitors worked within 200 km of the trade show, 85% came from Normandy, Hauts-de-France or Île-de-France, 97% said they had found all or part of what they were looking for, with a 90% satisfaction rate.

Among the companies seen in the aisles in 2024, the organiser cites Sanofi, Renault Cléon, ExxonMobil Chemical France, Lubrizol Holding France, EDF, Ferrero France, Ariane Group, Naval Group, Safran Nacelles, Saint Louis Sucre, Grand Port Maritime de Rouen, Hermès Parfums and Pochet du Courval: the signature of a catchment area where chemicals, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, food and drink, automotive and aerospace coexist. The top five stated visit priorities were, in order, performance and modernisation, environment and decarbonisation, maintenance 5.0, cybersecurity and project financing.

No OJS certification or third-party attendance audit is published: the figures available are those from the organiser's edition report.

Programme & community

Conference programme

The conferences are free and open access, held at the heart of the trade show. The 2027 programme had not been published at the time of writing: the organiser announces three themes, maintenance 4.0, artificial intelligence and decarbonisation.

The 2024 edition gives a sense of what this promise covers: 24 conferences and round tables over the three days, for more than 450 participants in total. Sessions covered implementing a maintenance 4.0 approach, industrial systems cybersecurity with a testimonial from ExxonMobil Chemical France, energy efficiency and decarbonisation of factories in Normandy, reducing water consumption, and also "Les sous-traitants industriels normands : moteurs de l'industrie française !" ("Normandy industrial subcontractors: driving French industry forward!"), hosted by Pascal Esnouf, delegate general of SOTRABAN. Replays remain available on the official website.

Awards

The Trophées SEPEM reward, according to the organiser, innovative and responsible initiatives by industrial companies. The scheme is common to the whole network and is run at every leg, with three categories whose official labels, published for the Douai leg (same network-wide scheme), are Prix de l'Innovation Durable (eco-design, sustainable materials, energy savings), Prix de la Transformation Numérique (automation, AI, IoT for industrial performance) and Prix de l'Engagement Social et Sociétal (workplace wellbeing, inclusion, training, local impact). The page dedicated to the Rouen leg and the entry calendar were not yet online at the time of writing.

Community & networks

SEPEM Avenir is the trade show's second pillar. This space dedicated to industrial careers, training and employment brings together a jobs wall fed by exhibitor vacancies, a documentation kiosk, a one-stop training desk and guided "Découverte des Métiers" (career discovery) visit tours. In 2024, run with the Agence Régionale de l'Orientation et des Métiers de Normandie, NextMove, Arts et Métiers and UIMM Formation, it benefited more than 600 young people. For 2027, the organiser again announces job vacancies, a job dating event and activities.

The SEPEM network has existed since 2007 and totals more than 50 editions across eight destinations, for 3,800 exhibitors, 38,000 visitors and 25,000 sq m combined. The other legs covered by Agoris are SEPEM Toulouse, SEPEM Grenoble, SEPEM Colmar, SEPEM Angers and SEPEM Douai. Two shorter, two-day events have been added: Brest, a new destination whose first edition took place in June 2026, and Martigues, which hosts in June 2027 the 10th edition of the show in the South-East and the 3rd in Martigues.

On site: what you need to know

For access and parking, see the venue listing: Rouen Expo Congrès, avenue des Canadiens, 76120 Le Grand-Quevilly. The venue is owned by Métropole Rouen Normandie and its operation is delegated to the local public company Rouen Normandie Événements.

By car, access is via the A13 motorway, exit "Rouen-Les Essarts" from Paris, exit "Rouen-Est" from Caen and Le Havre, with 4,200 free parking spaces. By train, Rouen Rive Droite station is about twenty minutes away via the city centre. By public transport, the site is served by the Zénith Parc Expo stop, lines T4, F6 and F9 of the Astuce network.

Opening hours: Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 January 2027 from 9am to 6pm, Thursday 28 January from 9am to 5pm. Visitor badge, catalogue and parking are free, subject to prior online registration, with two separate tracks, one for professional visitors, the other for jobseekers, business founders and school groups. Organiser contact: 05 53 36 78 78 or contact.sepem@gl-events.com.

How much it costs to exhibit

GL events Exhibitions Industrie does not publish an exhibitor price list for this leg: sales are handled on a quotation basis, via the "Devenir exposant" (Become an exhibitor) form on the official website or the Casseneuil sales team. No figure applicable to 2027 can therefore be given here.

Only one public figure exists across the network, and it is old: a document from CCI Hauts-de-France offering a collective regional pavilion at SEPEM Industries Est 2018, in Colmar, showed €420.00 excl. VAT per square metre. A 2018 order of magnitude, for a different leg and within a grouped CCI offer, not to be confused with the Rouen 2027 rate, but which gives a sense of the price bracket for a regional trade show of this type.

Three factors really weigh on an exhibitor's budget here. Demonstration first: the format favours live working machinery, which shifts the cost towards transport, lifting, positioning and having a technician on site for three days. Proximity second: for a Normandy-based exhibitor, travel and accommodation are marginal, which changes the equation compared with a Paris trade show. Pooling last: collective pavilions run by sector associations and chambers of commerce, such as the SOTRABAN village in 2024, allow exhibiting on a smaller footprint.

Preparing your visit

For exhibitors

• Decide early, at the sales-proposal stage, between a classic stand and a live working machine: the second option determines the surface area, power supply, build schedule and logistics budget.
• Contact SOTRABAN, the CCI Rouen Métropole or your sector association to assess taking part via a collective pavilion before booking space under your own name.
• Apply for the Trophées SEPEM as soon as entries open: the ceremony takes place during the trade show, with the jury and press present.
• Base your schedule on a late-January opening, meaning a build between the festive season and mid-January, a period when regional service providers fill up fast.

For decision-making visitors

• Register in advance: badge, catalogue and parking are free, but prior registration avoids the queue.
• Plan for a full day rather than a quick visit: the regional format can be covered in a day, but demonstrations and conferences overlap.
• Check the programme as soon as it is published: of the three announced themes, maintenance 4.0, artificial intelligence and decarbonisation, the sessions deliver the most value to a site manager.
• Come as a team: free entry and proximity make it possible to bring a whole maintenance team, which a national trade show does not allow.
• Target the "machines in demonstration" route if the goal is an investment decision: watching the machine run and questioning the technician is worth several sales meetings.

CSR policy & initiatives

The Rouen edition's website publishes neither a "commitments" or CSR page nor a carbon footprint for the event. The environmental dimension is present there as a content topic and as an award criterion: decarbonisation and energy efficiency were among the themes of the 2024 programme, and Prix de l'Innovation Durable is one of the three Trophées SEPEM categories. This is a programme theme, to be distinguished from an organisational commitment by the event itself.

The verifiable guarantees sit at the level of the organising group. GL events structures its non-financial policy around three pillars, ACT 1 Planet, ACT 2 People and ACT 3 Communities, and publishes figures: in 2024, a carbon footprint down 4% per euro of revenue, 75% renewable electricity, a 46% waste-sorting rate. The group reports 40 entities certified ISO 20121, the responsible event-management standard, and three entities certified ISO 14001. Its non-financial performance was rated 74 out of 100 by Ethifinance in 2024, a silver medal. It also signed a green growth commitment for the events industry with UNIMEV and public authorities in 2022.

No ISO 20121 certification specific to the trade show or to GL events Exhibitions Industrie is publicly displayed, and the venue's website, Rouen Expo Congrès, publishes neither an environmental policy nor a certification. An exhibitor documenting their own carbon footprint will therefore not find a dedicated scheme here: the available levers remain a reusable stand, pooled transport and, for Normandy-based companies, a short journey.

How the trade show has evolved

Trajectory analysis

The last edition was the best in the Normandy series: 423 exhibitors and 4,692 visitors, 22% more attendance than the previous edition. In a catchment area served by only one general industrial trade show, this growth mainly says that local demand was under-served.

The defining fact of the current cycle is not a figure but a date. The edition expected in January 2026 was pushed back a year, to avoid clashing with Global Industrie in its Paris version. The decision is consistent with the network's logic: a free regional trade show is not competing for the same travel budget as a national event, but it is competing for the same technical director's diary. It comes at a cost, a three-year gap between two Normandy editions, which breaks the biennial rhythm exhibitors had grown used to. At the same time, the network has opened a new destination in Brest (first edition in June 2026, over two days), while keeping the three-day format on most of its legs.

For 2027, the organiser is betting on the same recipe, intensified: more than 40% of exhibitors from Seine-Maritime and neighbouring departments, live working machinery, fully free entry, and a programme refocused on maintenance 4.0, artificial intelligence and decarbonisation. The bet, for an exhibitor, is that three years' absence will have built up demand rather than made the event forgotten. The dates of the following edition had not been announced at the time of writing.

All data without an explicit source comes from the organiser's website.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (rouen.sepem-industries.com).