European Enterprise Award 2020

6 EU BUSINESS NEWS / 2020 European Enterprise Awards , Best Solar Light Tubes Manufacturer Established in 1993, Chatron, Lda is a company dedicated to theManufaturer and commercialisation of Solar Light Tubes for Daylighting and others energy-efficient products. Following its well-deserved success in the European Enterprise Awards 2020, we caught up with CEO Carlos Brandão to find out more. Nov20700 Existing for over 25 years, Chatron, Lda has won several innovation awards in Portugal and throughout Europe for its designs. Providing natural lighting of spaces through the capture, transmission and diffusion of natural light within domestic and industrial spaces, the Solar Light Tube Chatron is one of the most advanced tubular natural lighting systems in the world, thanks to the permanent development in collaboration with Portuguese and European universities and technological centres. To start, Carlos provides a brief overview of the Solar Light Tube Chatron and offers more of an insight into how the firm uses the system to its full potential. “The system maximises the concept of renewable energy by channelling the natural light from roofs into houses and factories. Alongside Europe, we have references across the Middle East, Southeast Asia, North, Central and South America. The Solar Light Tube was designed to optimise efficiency and useful life while offering a high guarantee to its customers.” In its attempts to offer clients a unique selling point, the firm can provide three versions of the Solar Light Tube, as Carlos elaborates further. “Chatron, a manufacturer of solar light tubes can present several versions for efficient lighting during the day but also for 24 hours. The standard version is for daytime lighting, the Solar Light Tube Persa offers natural lighting during the day and with a small built-in accumulation system it offers LED lighting at night. Finally, the Solar Light Tube Uranus is designed for the integral lighting of industrial spaces.” When it comes to recruitment, the firm aim to attract the best emerging talent available and as Carlos goes on to explain, this often involves the firm casting its net as wide as possible. “As a young and innovative team, we love to compete globally, so we try and form close relationships with schools and universities in order to retain the talents coming through from internships.” Despite the outbreak of COVID- 19, Chatron, Lda has been able to reach more demanding markets due to new digital media tools, as Carlos points out. “Currently, with the existing pandemic situation, what has been verified is the existence of an acceleration of all the processes that we had underway, namely the accelerated digitisation of the entire marketing and sales process and the departure for investment in electronic commerce. Through new digital media, other markets which were previously difficult to reach because of the required participation in international fairs have been made that more accessible.” Bringing the interview to a close, Carlos reveals the main benefits of the firm’s location before commenting on what the team at Chatron, Lda hope to achieve in the years to come. “A European headquarters gives us a great advantage to sell in distant markets like Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. In comparison to some of our competitors in China, our quality of products also helps us further distinguish ourselves. “Moving forward, as we are only at the beginning of our global growth cycle, we have ambitious plans for the future. It has taken a long time to reach this point, but now the acceleration will be very fast. As a seller of efficient products in the solar field, our aim is to maintain both our reputation and position in the industry.” Company: Chatron, Lda Contact: Carlos Brandão Website: www.chatron.net