Theon Group began its operations in 1997 in Greece to become today the leading company in the world in manportable electrooptics, which means anything that a soldier carries that is electrooptical. In other words, the company develops and manufactures cutting-edge night vision and thermal imaging systems for defense and security applications with a global footprint.
Today the group occupies a dominant role in the sector thanks to its international presence through subsidiaries and production facilities in Greece, Cyprus, Germany, the Baltics, the United States, the Gulf States, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Singapore and South Korea.
The Group has more than 200,000 systems in service with Armed and Special Forces in 71 countries around the world, 26 of which are NATO countries. Also, Τheon International PLC has been listed on Euronext Amsterdam (AMS: THEON) since February 2024.
Theon’s main factory is located in Athens (Koropi), Greece, which has obtained NATO security clearance, as all systems are tested according to standard military test procedures prior to launch. The original Koropi facility has an area of 3,500m2, which was further expanded with an additional building completed in 2023, to a total of 8,300m2 production facility area, which Euronews’s camera had the chance to visit.
We interviewed Philippe Mennicken, Deputy CEO and Business Development Director of Theon International to discuss the company's success.
‘’A key driver of THEON’s success is our business development approach to always listen to the users of our products. Whereas other companies would say “take it or leave”, we do listen to their specific requirements and suggestions and implement these into our products. This way both the users but also THEON wins. Secondly, we are not afraid to establish strategic collaborations with other companies in the electro-optical systems sector, even with our competitors. This way we can penetrate even further and be even closer to our customers in specific markets while we are also actively looking to co-develop next generation products joining the best technologies and engineering capabilities in the market. And last, in light of the very high demand for our products worldwide that we have seen for the past few years and which is expected to increase even further, we have taken steps early enough to secure our supply chain and in particular the supply of critical components which allows us today to deliver equipment to our customers in a much faster way than probably anyone else could do in the market. This is key in these times of high demand and limited supply capability especially of the detectors that are used and we always underline this fact to our customers’’, says Philippe Mennicken.
Robust financial perfomance in 2024
The company recently announced preliminary financial results for 2024 above guidance, highlighting robust performance throughout the year, and anticipating further strong growth in 2025. At the end of 2024, working capital was elevated, primarily due to increased receivables from ad-hoc orders that required quick deliveries, proving that the decision to build strategic inventory through long-term agreements for key components was successful.
‘’Theon delivered exceptional performance across all areas in 2024, reporting €352 million in revenue—a 61% increase compared to 23 —alongside €466 million in new orders resulting in more than €650 million order backlog, up 21% compared to 2023. Also, our net profit surged by 86% to €67 million. This strong momentum continues in 2025 and we expect to reach up to €430 million revenues maintaining our best-in-class operating profit margin to around 25%. At the same time, our soft backlog keeps increasing in the background of globally increased defense spending’’, Mennicken highlights.
Due to substantial organic growth, Theon's workforce expanded from 297 to 618 employees. This includes the addition of 19 highly skilled engineers to the R&D team. The company has continued its commitment to employees’ development, providing approximately 2,100 hours of training last year. Furthermore, 37% of Theon’s workforce is now composed of women (from 23% at the end of 2023), enhancing the diversity of its human capital.
Countries around the world have realized the importance of night time operations
The company has managed, to date, to export its products in 71 countries around the world, meaning that one in three countries worldwide uses a Theon product. Right now Europe is the company’s key market while the US but also the Middle East and Asia are very important, ‘’as we do see a continous rise of the demand for our type of products in these regions too’’.
‘’We do have a very strong and international Business Development team that is constantly travelling and close to our customers. This is absolutely key. A second pillar of our export success is working with local partners and if possible forming industrial partnerships with local electro-optics manufacturers in countries that adopt our products’’, explains Philippe Mennicken.
‘’The vast majority of our revenues today comes from night vision goggles as based on the experience in the Ukraine, countries around the world have realized the importance of night time operations. Having a night vision goggle is the first step to be able to operate during the night and we do see more and more armies equiping every single operator with a goggles same as they get their own rifle, helmet and boots’’, he adds.
As far as the future is concerned, ‘’we do see a clear trend towards enhanced night vision capabilities using fused imagery and augmented reality data display as with the changing battlefield conditions the user needs to have better situational awareness. Here we have introduced our new ARMED ecosystem of devices which includes the IRIS-C thermal clip-on and THEA heads up display that do exactly this and are already introduced with certain selected customers including the IdZ Program in Germany’’.
Investing in the future
With the demands of the defense industry, especially in Europe, being increased due to Brussels' decision for defense self-sufficiency, investments in new technologies seem like the only way forward.
‘’The use of augmented reality, which requires systems to be interconnected but also smart image processing using machine learning and AI will become a key element in future products and we are actively working with the best key technology partners in the global market to further develop our ARMED ecosystem of devices even further in that direction’’, says Mennicken, also stressing out that right now the company is also investing into the development of platform optronics, which are bigger and stabilized multi sensor systems that can be used on all types of platforms such as vehicles, naval vessels and of course unmanned ground vehicles and drones.
‘’This is a new market for us, which looks very promising and in which we have already made our first entries. While today 90% of our revenues are generated from traditional night vision products, we foresee that will be reduced to 80% next year and then gradually to 60% in 2028 onwards due to the expected increased revenues coming from these new products. Of course we expect the night vision market and our share of to continue to rise as we are still far away in many countries from the ultimate goal to equipe every soldier with a night vision goggle. So, in essence, we are moving from just being the leading night vision company to offering a more diversified products portfolio’’, he also says.
Embracing ESG framework
ESG ( Environmental, Social, and Governance) is a very important pillar of the company that has incorporated the protection of the environment in all operational aspects, as Theon recognizes the importance of preserving planet ecosystems for future generations and contributes to European goals for environmental protection by implementing initiatives to reduce the company’s environmental footprint and enhance its overall environmental performance.
‘’We provide a safe and attractive workplace and as a result we were awarded again with the Great Place to work award in Greece. We also try to reduce our environmental footprint having installed solar panels and recycling as much as possible of our already very low waste levels. And last but not least, we apply ESG principles also to our global supply chain where besides this, we put great attention to ensure a constant and secure supply of components. This is key in light of the geo-political changes that we currently experience’’says Philippe Mennicken.
Another key element of Theon’s strategic priorities in terms of environmental protection is its commitment to responsible waste management that focuses on recycling and reuse of materials. The amount of waste produced by our operations is submitted to electronic waste registration and hazardous waste management is performed by adequately certified subcontracting companies.