When Metrico co-founder Nico Differding announced his intention to retire in 2021, the company started to look for a strong partner on the Luxembourg market. It was co-founder Paul Colbach’s personal contact with Schroeder & Associés that finally enabled Metrico to find a promising solution for all parties involved. “I'm particularly pleased that each of our employees was offered a contract, even if some of them decided to take a personal reorientation,” Colbach says.
The two companies are a perfect fit, especially as in 2021 Schroeder & Associés was already developing a new digitalization service that would combine its BIM (Building Information Modelling) and topography departments.
“So, when Metrico appeared on the chessboard, so to speak, we quickly felt that we shared the same philosophy, values, vision, and above all that we are complementary. That is very important,” Marco Da Chao, administrator at Schroeder & Associés explains.
Merging and sharing their respective expertise and experience will allow Schroeder & Associés to offer a wide range of services throughout the cycle life of a project, starting with the topographic survey, the modelling, the actual build and facility management as well as revalue of materials.
We want to support the client, from the beginning of the idea, to define their needs and propose an effective solution that involves relevant and realistic objectives.
Technology and sustainable goals
Schroeder & Associés uses hard- and software from a few manufacturers, who provide training to the company’s key users who can then spread that knowledge in-house to ensure it can be applied in the best way. “We do not only buy technology, or knowledge, and then try to sell it to our customers. Our main focus is to use the combination of tools and expertise to really create solutions, which are based on the needs of customers or clients,” says Laurent Weydert manager of Schroeder & Associés topography service.
But actually defining those needs is a crucial part of the digitalization service, and that can also save clients on costs.
This all fits in with Schroeder & Associés’s Strategy 2030 goals, which is to create sustainable value throughout its consulting and engineering services. “We want to support the client, from the beginning of the idea, to define their needs and propose an effective solution that involves relevant and realistic objectives,” says Da Chao. “And at the end of the lifecycle, we will give the client scenarios to revalue the materials employed in the building, thus closing the cycle and matching the actual economical, ecological and social elements that provide these sustainable solutions.”
Metrico is also bringing plenty of expertise and technology solutions to the table, such as 3D-Modelling in ArchiCAD software and Point Cloud based technologies, which Colbach says are becoming more and more important. “In addition, smartphone-based solutions can ensure that construction projects are recorded in their entirety and made available as a point cloud for the creation of a final as-built plan.” This would allow, for example, augmented reality views of the underground networks at a project while in the field.
So, the partnership is a merger that will truly allow Schroeder & Associés to create a range of services available to all sorts of clients while remaining reactive, not only for big players but also for smaller and even private customers.
For more information on Schroeder & Associés and their strategy, visit