An investment of 2,4 million euros has placed Sopromar at the forefront of the blue economy in the Algarve and in the country. All because he created the Lagos Nautical Center, combining tourism and ship repair in the same space, on the left bank of the Bensafrim stream, in front of the city of Lagos and next to the Marina.
This investment, which, according to its administrator Hugo Henriques, symbolizes "a break with traditional concepts, by simultaneously betting on two sectors" that sometimes go backwards, will be visited tomorrow, Tuesday, by the Minister of Agriculture and the Sea .
It is Minister Assunção Cristas' own office who says that the facilities at the Lagos Nautical Center are “the most modern and well-equipped in Europe, with the aim of creating a complete center of services for those who visit us by boat”.
The Lagos Nautical Center, he adds, «benefits from one of the most privileged locations at European level in the field of navigation», since «being the first safe harbor in Europe for those sailing from the South and West Atlantic», it is also «the last port for those sailing from the Mediterranean Sea to the entire Atlantic».
It is at this maritime crossroads that Sopromar, a family business created in the 80s by people coming from Angola after decolonization, has recently inaugurated its new facilities, which are «to make a dream come true for those who are no longer with us. », as the businesswoman Ercídia Pereira emphasized with emotion, recalling her husband and founder of the company, João Batista Pereira, who has since died.
But what began as a «shipyard dedicated basically to fishing», has been taking advantage of the change of times and «reconverting to a shipyard more connected to recreational nautical», having now even embarked on providing a full range of services to who visit the Algarve at the helm of a sailing boat or other pleasure craft, without even being afraid to integrate tourism among the services provided.
The Lagos Nautical Center complex includes not only the new building – designed by the architect Humberto Barroso – as well as shipyards for repair and maintenance, as well as a parking area currently with capacity for 280 boats (but which until the end of the year may rise to 350 when Sopromar expands to adjacent land).
«We have an occupancy of 98,7%. There is no hotel with this occupancy rate throughout the year», joked Hugo Henriques.
The building, in addition to offices, includes support equipment, such as a training room, warehouses for customers, workshops, a 1000 square meter nautical shop, a Portuguese food restaurant facing customers, but also open to the general public, but also accommodation for clients, true hotel rooms with all the comforts, to accommodate navigators whose vessels are, for example, undergoing repairs or maintenance on the company's premises.
Hugo Henriques: «We have an occupancy of 98,7%. There is no hotel with this occupancy rate throughout the year»
Currently, Sopromar's Lagos Nautical Center employs 65 people, of which 55 people in its facilities, plus 10 in the restaurant.
Sopromar has invested in this phase, and since 2013, a total of 2.404.823,65 euros, of which 1,8 million were subsidized by the PO Algarve21.
However, this project, which translates a «broader vision in relation to the economy of the sea», as the administrator of Sopromar Hugo Henriques pointed out, did not have an easy birth, especially because, at first, it was difficult for the management entities of the European funds to understand an investment that aimed to break the traditional boundaries between ship repair and tourism, creating a true Nautical Center that combines these and other facets in the same space.
«It was a project that gave us some struggle to get through. It was a little misunderstood for being part of two niches», recalled Hugo Henriques, at the inauguration ceremony of the facilities, which a few weeks ago was attended by the Secretary of State for the Sea.
David Santos, president of the CCDR and manager of European funds in the Algarve, acknowledged the difficulties of the initial phase of the Sopromar project, when his «application was unsuccessful». But «we have been working and trying to explain the importance of projects of this type for the region», an effort by the services of CCDR Algarve that businesswoman Ercídia Pereira acknowledged in her thanks.
David Santos: Sopromar is «a great project with regard to tourism and the sea, but also the epic of the family»
And if Ercídia Pereira stressed that the Lagos Nautical Center is «an investment aimed at the development not only of our company, but of the entire region where we decided to live after our return from Luanda», David Santos reinforced that it is «a great project with regard to tourism and the sea, but also the epic of the family».
Ercídia Pereira, one of the founders, stressed that “only this family union is able to lead us to a better future”. But the truth is that Sopromar, while being a family business, is already more than a simple family business.
The future is now in the hands of his daughter Sandra Pereira and his son-in-law Hugo Henriques, who took over the reins of the company.
And the future passes, for example, through internationalization. Hugo Henriques revealed that at Sopromar, due to the nature of the services it provides, «currently 70% of what we do is direct export, since most of our customers are foreigners», even though the services can mostly be provided at the facilities of Lagos.
"Our main markets are the United Kingdom, which has a great weight, along with Portugal, followed by Angola, Sweden and the Netherlands," added the administrator.
Sopromar also has active operations in Angola and Cape Verde and in the future intends to expand to São Tomé and Mozambique. In the latter country, by the way, it is already developing projects with the National Maritime Authority, to refit vessels.
Hugo Henriques: «Currently 70% of what we do is direct export, as most of our customers are foreigners»
Another project for the future is the expansion to the United Arab Emirates, from where they have received "several inquiries".
Among the projects for the future is also the opening of an online nautical shop, the acquisition of equipment to climb catamarans (since this is an expanding niche, for which there is still no response in the Algarve), as well as the creation of a vessel painting unit.
But it is not only in Lagos that Sopromar operates, in national territory. It is also present in the Port of Portimão, where it has a nautical shop and uses the Docapesca travelift to board larger vessels, in addition to being a concessionaire for the Centro Náutico de Algés, in partnership with MSF (owner of Marina de Lagos).
Soproyatchs was recently created, a company for the sale of boats, which already represents three brands nationwide.
One of Sopromar's hallmarks is innovation, which, guarantees the administrator Hugo Henriques, «has always been made a great investment» and which leads them «to take constant training courses, which brings us a great competitive advantage».
A demonstration of its capacity for innovation is the fact that the company has designed its own parking and shipyard management software, as they have not found anything on the market to do the necessary service.
Hugo Henriques: «taking constant training courses brings us a great competitive advantage»
The software allows “to know at all times where a certain boat is in the shipyard, what needs to be done on that boat and what day it will descend or climb”, explained Hugo Henriques.
A software so good and innovative that Sopromar is "at the moment finalizing it to be able to commercialize it". Another business opportunity that the company did not miss.
It was this forward-looking business mentality that allowed Sopromar not only to create a Nautical Center in Lagos which is «unique not only in the Algarve but in the Iberian Peninsula», but also, even in terms of crisis, to have an average turnover growth of 31,4% from 1999 to 2015.
This is a good example of a «sector that has been quietly consolidating and is now more than ever ready to grow», as Secretary of State Manuel Pinto de Abreu recalled at the inauguration, whom minister Assunção Cristas will visit tomorrow.
The president of the CCDR had already said: «we needed to have one or two more nautical centers of this type» in other areas of the Algarve, to consolidate the economy of the sea, which is one of the strategic pillars for the region within the scope of the new support framework for the 2020 horizon.
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