16
Portuguese Lighting: How important is it for your company to participate in international fairs? How do you assess the impact of participating in a fair for an exporting company?
Manuel Vidigal: Exports already represent 30% more of the company's revenue. Presence at fairs is essential for anyone who wants to export. There is a tendency for multinational companies not to be present at fairs, which we completely disagree with. International fairs are the places where in the shortest possible time and investment we can talk to and meet potential customers from all over the world and so we will continue to be present whenever we can.
PL: And in terms of exports, which are the most significant markets for your company?
MV: Aronlight is present with its own teams in Spain, Italy and France. Italy has been a huge surprise. We started in this market accidentally, as we were looking for a general manager for France and we met someone who wanted to do this job in Italy and without much certainty we decided to take the risk. In the first full year, this market will already represent more than 5% of the company's revenue and, more importantly, we are heading into 2025 with a distribution network in place that will allow us to grow significantly.
In France we started this year and it is a very interesting challenge, we had to develop products with specific technical and regulatory specifications for this market. It has been a year of learning and creating a local team, but we are well prepared to have a good 2025.
Spain is the largest volume market, but the most difficult and competitive of all. We have an excellent team that took several years to align and a strong distribution network that helps us have a presence across the country.
Outside of these markets, we have distributors in Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hungary, Croatia, Greece, Palop and we recently closed a distribution in Oman where we will deliver the first University project this year.
PL: In your opinion, what weight can internationalization have on a company compared to the national market? Is it worth investing in this regard?
MV: Export must be carried out when there is a desire to do so. It is a difficult process that takes up human and financial resources of companies. The first steps in each market are very difficult and can be discouraging. However, we believe that in the long term, with the right strategy and teams, it can become very important.
" International fairs are the places where in the shortest possible time and investment we can talk to and meet potential customers from all over the world and so we will continue to be present whenever we can. "