Igor Le Pivert

A French consulting firm that evaluates products and processes to help companies optimize costs and increase revenues has opened its North American office in Atlanta. 

Cost House LLC, an affiliate of Paris-based Cost House SAS, will have five employees by the end of this year and will ramp up to 15 as soon as possible, said company President Igor Le Pivert.

Mr. Le Pivert moved to Atlanta two months ago.  While the company also has offices in Paris and Dusseldorf, Germany, it needed better access to the U.S., a market ripe for its services, he told GlobalAtlanta.

“The U.S. is a big and very challenging market, and if you want to be a competitive player in the consulting industry, you have to be in the U.S.,” he said.

Atlanta caught the company’s eye because of its convenient access to air travel and low cost of living compared to other large cities on the East Coast.

The Georgia capital also promised a favorable business climate for Cost House, a relatively young company founded in 2004.

“We chose Atlanta for its transportation, for the fact that it seems to be a developing economy.  A lot of companies are moving here and we thought it was a good ground for us, being new as well,” Mr. Le Pivert said.

Even at four years old, Cost House has provided its services to more than 60 companies from a wide spectrum of industries.

Cost House is currently working with GE Energy and French nuclear energy facility builder Areva. It is also in discussions with companies in the automotive, cement and consumer good industries.

At its core, Cost House’s business is about helping companies “make more money at the end of the year,” through quality improvements, cost reduction or productivity increases, Mr. Le Pivert said.  Its expertise particularly applies to the manufacturing and the IT sectors.

Consultants often work at research and development or manufacturing centers, supporting their clients’ internal teams by providing fresh ideas in designing new products, reshaping existing products and streamlining IT organizations.

“We will bring new techniques to challenge the options and decisions that were made so far,” Mr. Le Pivert said.

So far, the company has helped clients shave 10 percent to 30 percent off of costs for existing products or operations, he added.

The company doesn’t specialize in certain industries.  In fact, no two clients of Cost House come from the same one.   

Mr. Le PIvert says the company’s expertise is in its ability to unify the engineering and accounting sides of a project.  Funding and design are often related, but the two sides rarely talk when designing a product, which creates internal friction and puts a drag on productivity, he said.

“We try to make sure everyone understands everybody else’s restraints and put them together before coming up with ideas,” he added.

Cost House’s offices are located at 191 Peachtree St.