Thinking “broadly” from the start
Greek SME Lenas Gourmet specializes in creating unique and unforgettable tastes. They create sweet spreads from nuts (hazelnut, almond, and pistachio) without any preservatives or flavoring. Instead with the 30% nut content they have a strong natural nut flavor creating a magical taste.
The company was launched 6 years ago and since its first steps its managers pursued an outgoing strategy aiming to foreign markets, primarily EU market.
Combining forces
The company turned to its local Enterprise Europe Network branch in the Chamber of Arcadia for help. Together with EEN staff, they planned an internationalization strategy targeting EU market through EEN channels. The company participated in company missions organized by the Prefecture of Peloponnese and the EEN-Chamber of Arcadia in SIAL 2014 and 2016 and an incoming company mission and B2B event organized by EEN-Chamber of Arcadia in 2016 in Peloponnese.
The Network experts provided full support to the company, which was fully briefed on the sector, the potential partners and the market and also attended a training workshop organized for all the participants of the company mission.
Triple success
The company had several meetings during the event, one of which resulted to an “on the spot” agreement with the Romanian company Pravalia Noastra SRL, importing and distributing Mediterranean products to the Romanian market, while two more meetings with the Austrian company “Bakaliko” and the Polish company “Donkie Delicatessen”, importers and distributors to the Austrian and the Polish market respectively, were very fruitful. In fact, with the support and intermediation of EEN colleagues from Greece (EEN Chamber of Arcadia), Romania (Regional Development Agency
West Region Romania), Austria (Internationalisierungscenter Steiermark) and Poland (Lubelska Fundacja Rozwoju), almost one month later, they also resulted to agreements between Lenas Gourmet and the two companies.
“The result of the EEN’s support was three commercial agreements for my company and its first steps in three different EU countries’ markets! And all that without having to spend a fortune! I couldn’t have expected better results even if I had paid a great amount of money to a private exports advisor and the EEN provided its services for free! Let me know how I can help spread the word about the work you’re doing!” says Ilias Skazas, Lenas Gourmet sales manager.
