STIMULATING AND SUPPORTING NEW BUSINESS IN IRELAND

Supporting Internationalisation - McHale Caravans Ltd. links with Spanish company through INNOVINT Programme

By James Donlon, April 24, 2007

A successful international collaboration involving an Irish enterprise within the Interreg 3C Project INNOVINT project is underway. INNOVINT, which is an EU funded pilot project that aims to fast track the internationalisation of SME’s, provided the forum for this collaboration through the facilitation of business meetings between selected companies, which are held in partner regions. These business meetings, which are held approximately every three months, allow for complementary enterprises and organisations from partner countries to meet one another and to establish contacts with the prospect that a fruitful partnership/collaboration maybe initiated.

In this case, the Irish enterprise called McHale Caravans Ltd. is located in Belcarra Co. Mayo and supplies a range of equipment, including steel containers, to the Irish market. Through contacts established, at the Gijon business meeting in March 2006, an opportunity arose for prospecting to take place between McHale Caravans Ltd. and a Spanish company, Cynsa, that manufacture a range of containers for the construction industry and other sectors.

In November 2006, Gerry McHale of McHale Caravans Ltd. travelled to Gijon, Spain to meet with Cynsa in order to identify possible opportunities for collaboration between them. Both enterprises were very happy with the outcome and strong connections were formed. It was agreed that the next step would be initiated by Cynsa who were in the process of creating a link with a Chinese container manufacturer. McHale Caravans Ltd. expressed an interest in purchasing these containers from Cynsa as a significant price reduction was achievable in comparison to his previous suppliers.

In January 2007, details were sent by Cynsa to McHale regarding the exact specifications of the containers on offer as well as pricing and shipping details. Impressed with this information, Gerry McHale agreed to purchase from Cynsa resulting in the one of the first successful ‘match-making’ results taking place between an Irish enterprise and an Austurian/Spanish enterprise within the INNOVINT project. Both companies have agreed to work together in the future and as such, activities are ongoing to further cement a concrete relationship.

Further information aout the INNOVINT internationalisation programme is available at www.innovint.net or by contacting Sharon O'Sullivan, INNOVINT Project Co-ordinator, at sosullivan@westbic.ie