Project no. POCI-02-0752-FEDER-041787
Project designation: Nautilus 2020 – Internationalize by diversifying strategies and markets
Support under the SME Internationalization Incentive System
Main Objective: Reinforce the competitiveness of SMEs
Region of Intervention: North (Gondomar)
Beneficiary Entity: Nautilus, S.A.
Date of approval: 2019-12-26
Starting Date: 2018-11-01
Completion Date: 2021-10-31
Total Eligible Cost: 517.152,50€
European Union financial support: FEDER – 232.718,63€
Project Synthesis
This application is promoted in complement to the project approved in the incentives system for Productive Innovation and represents an important competitive strengthening, intending to reduce the risk of the current dependence/concentration of sales coming from public contests and reinforcing the affirmation of the company in the school furniture market, as an important player in the area where it engages, fundamentally through the introduction of new products and processes and the diversification of the markets where it operates.
The investment plan is a consequence of the materialization of the strategic objectives of the firm’s positioning in the international market, realizing the existing potential in market diversification, consolidating the current foreign markets, and seeking to enter new markets with products of higher added value.
To this end, the promoter proposes to invest in several innovative activities to ensure that the defined objectives are achieved and the strategies are properly implemented, such as:
– Participation in international fairs and realization of prospection actions, where the company will establish contact with potential customers and reposition its products in the markets;
– Design and development of product catalogs;
– Certification of products and registration of designs and models, ensuring their insertion in certain markets that demand specific requirements;
– Hiring of two new technical staff, one of them specialized in digital marketing;
– Reinforcement of web presence.
Project no. POCI-03-3560-FSE-045184
Project designation: Reinforcing competences for organizational and technological change
Main Objective: Promote employment and support labor mobility
Region of Intervention: North
Beneficiary Entity: Nautilus, S.A.
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Total Eligible Cost: 96.712,25 Euros
Financial support from the European Union (FSE): 49,319.44 Euros
Approval date: 2019-07-03
Start date: 2019-10-14
Completion date: 2021-10-13
Objectives, activities, and expected results
This project aims to increase the qualification and competitiveness of the company, in order to enhance the development of solutions supported by knowledge and creativity and with strong incorporation of national added value.
This project comprises a set of training actions that will act in the following domains:
– Project Lean Manufacturing;
– Implementation of (internal) logistics processes based on information technology.
With the implementation of this training plan, we intend to reinforce the technical, relational and organizational skills of the active employees in face of the present organizational change, promote the personal and professional valorization of the employees, as well as their functional polyvalence in a context of permanent organizational change, and develop knowledge and behaviors that contribute to the permanent employability of the assets to be trained.
Project No. POCI-01-0247-FEDER-010831
Incentive Scheme for Research and Technological Development – Individual R&D Projects
Project Designation: Escola 2020 – Colearning Teams
Thematic Objective: Reinforcing research, technological development and innovation
Location: Foz do Sousa
Total Eligible Cost: 381.691,08€
Financial support from the European Union (FEDER): 218.448,80€
Project Synthesis
The project ESCOLA 2020 – Colearning Teams aims to investigate and develop solutions for more collaborative teaching in the classroom and training to better prepare students and trainees for the labor market where these skills are essential for increased productivity and professional success both personally and in companies.
The project is promoted by Nautilus, with the Institute of Education of the University of Lisbon as a partner for pedagogical and teaching method research and evaluation of results.
It is intended to develop a new classroom organization, equipment and software that promotes active content production by students, collaboration, complementarity and competition, essential features of the work environment that are not regularly present in the current education system.
Thus, it intends to develop equipment solutions such as: “Team Table” (wireless connections, wireless charging and UNI-NET Classroom software), “Team Teacher Table” (wireless charging) and other equipment adapted to the proposed solution including collaborative software.
Project No. POCI-02-0752-FEDER-001169
Support under the SME Internationalization Incentive System
Project Designation: Nautilus in the Digital and International World
Thematic Objective: Reinforce the competitiveness of SMEs
Location: Foz do Sousa
Total Eligible Cost: 449.241,25 €
Financial support from the European Union (FEDER): 202.158,56 €
Project Synthesis
NAUTILUS, S.A. was founded in 1996 in Gondomar. Despite initial difficulties, due to insufficient management, with the arrival of a new management in 1998 the company managed to implement a continuous improvement of resources and achieve positive results right from 1999. The growth continued and the company has today a very considerable size, with a significant export component. The company holds several registered trademarks, with different types of patents depending on the type of product, some for the international market, others for the national market. The name NAUTILUS itself is a registered trademark.
The company aims to meet the equipment needs of educational institutions in general and all similar institutions that have similar furniture needs, such as libraries, educational resource centers, training centers, museums, among others, both within public and private institutions. With this, it aims to be seen as a reference in the sector at a European level, positioning itself as a leader when it comes to offering innovative products and seeking to respect the environment. Some objectives were then defined in the internationalization project, which aims not only to consolidate its presence in the countries already addressed, but also to enter new markets with high potential and added value, such as Germany, Panama, and Macau, among others. The company’s strategy also involves increasing its range of products, adapted to the specificities of each market, in order to exceed customer expectations.
To this end, the promoter proposes to invest in several innovative activities to ensure that the defined objectives are achieved and the strategies are properly implemented, such as:
– Participation in international fairs and realizations of prospection actions, where the company will establish contact with potential customers and reposition its products in the markets;
– Develop its activity on the web, through an active presence in social networks and an institutional website adapted to mobile devices;
– Certification of products and registration of designs and models, ensuring their insertion in certain markets that demand specific requirements;
– Hiring of two human resources specialized in marketing who will be responsible for all the international commercial activity in these markets.
Project Designation: New Nautilus Era – New products and processes, entering new markets
Project Code: NORTE-02-0853-FEDER-039147
Main Objective: Reinforce the competitiveness of SMEs
Region of Intervention: North
Beneficiary Entity: Nautilus, S.A.
Approval date:13-09-2018
Start date: 02-07-2018
Completion date: 01-07-2020
Total eligible cost: 1.629.161,74 €
Financial support from the European Union: FEDER – 977.497,04€
Project Synthesis
With the implementation of this project Nautilus intends to adopt new processes, more sophisticated and adapted to customer needs, improve operational efficiency and develop and produce new and innovative products.
The company intends to expand its product offer with an increase in production, supported by an increase in installed capacity for plastic injection and by an increase in the range of school furniture products, with the development of a new tabletop, adaptation of the ERGOS line to new ergonomic requirements, introduction of a new chair model developed with a focus on the North American market, and expansion of the facilities to house an autonomous melamine line.
Thus, it will be possible to materialize the positive results of R&D activities in product innovation to be placed on the market with clear differentiating advantages.
Depending on the equipment to be acquired, it will also be possible to reinforce the company’s portfolio in terms of a complementary line to school furniture.