Engineers and architects focus on the Northern industry
Dinheiro Vivo
· 27 Feb 2021
The reduction of polluting emissions to which Portugal and the European Union are committed will force many traditional industries to change their production processes and this is for Tecnoplano an encouragement and an opportunity to expand its activity.
"We realized that it was the right time to move forward with the autonomy of a new business area: consulting in the industrial development segment", sustains Pedro Matos de Pinho, engineer and executive director of Tecnoplano, a company with a 55-year history, integrated into a family group whose range of shareholders is complemented by his twin brother Bernardo, an architect, and a sister, a non-executive director. The three share the conglomerate in equal parts, with 100% Portuguese capital, already with extensions in Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea and Belgium.
In Portugal, the headquarters is in Lisbon, but has an office in Porto. And it was precisely in Porto where the company just installed the new independent department, led by Manuel Santos Ferreira, to support industrial projects, "due to the proximity to potential customers, taking into account the industrial implantation in the North region", but also because it is there the main "source" of talent recruitment that the company has used.
So far, Tecnoplano, which claims the title of pioneer in Portugal in project management in building trade, has been designing and developing projects, as well as supervising works in various fields, such as airports, hotels, energy production units and, more recently, the supervision of works on the Lisbon Metro red line (Cais do Sodré-Santos).
But nowadays, "looking at the needs of the market, we saw that we lacked the industrial component", explains Pedro Matos de Pinho, having already projects in his portfolio, including a biomass plant, the redefinition of the ducts of a refinery the restatement of the entire production line of a metallurgical company.
To respond to orders, seven people specialized in industrial processes were recruited. They join the team of more than 80 professionals that the company has in Portugal, including engineers and architects, and more than 100 employees outside the country.
The ongoing business in the new department, which started in early January, should allow the new structure to earn 500,000 euros this year, hoping to reach 1.5 million euros next year. In 2020, the group earned 4.1 million euros (32% outside Portugal), slightly below the 4.9 million in 2019.
"It is the ideal time to enter the market, because, with the requirements of carbon neutrality, the industrial sector is one of those that will have a long way to go", says Pedro Matos de Pinho, convinced that the new department has the experience and the team "to help the industry adjust processes and products". He even believes that "the industrial component of the economy will be one of the main drivers of the recovery", after the pandemic crisis.
