In 2004, three Danish entrepreneurs founded North Invent A/S, which makes state-of-the-art navigation monitors for the maritime industry. Built to withstand rugged conditions, the devices are found on some of the world’s largest vessels from cruise ships to military carriers.

Pursuing opportunities abroad has always been a priority for the company, which exports 80% of its products to European distributors or agents, who then resell many of the products to South Korea or China.

When North Invent began its search for partners in Greece, it enlisted the help of the Enterprise Europe Network, whose 3 000 experts in 50 countries help entrepreneurs find new business partners worldwide.

“As one of the world’s largest shipping nations, Greece is naturally a very interesting market for us,” explains North Invent’s managing director, Lars Nordberg-Hansen. Unfortunately, the firm never had the time nor the resources to make Greece a priority.

“Thanks to the Enterprise Europe Network,” he says, “we have now found an excellent and very concrete incentive to do so.”

Through the Danish Export Association, North Invent got in touch with Anders Skeem, international project consultant with the Network branch at Denmark’s Agro Business Park A/S. After getting a better idea of what North Invent was seeking, Skeem searched Greek companies in the Network’s database, one of the world’s most powerful business matchmaking resources. Skeem returned to North Invent with profiles of three potential partners, all prepared by Constantine Karaminis of the Network in Greece, based at the National Documentation Centre in Athens. “We have close contacts with SMEs in all sectors,” says Karamanis.

North Invent pursued talks with Marel Electronics SA, a Greek company that also makes onboard maritime navigation systems. Most importantly for the Danish firm, Marel does maintenance and repair and has strong ties to Greek shipping companies.

After a couple of test runs, the companies found that their systems were compatible, and decided to work together to help promote each other’s products.

“With the Network’s help, we hope to expand our international horizons even further,” says Kyriakos Alexopoulos, Marel’s chief executive.