Sonae is a leader in the Portuguese retail market (food and non-food). Established in 1959, grew and strengthened its core business during 1980’s and 1990’s and achieved a turnover of €4.9Bn in 2014. Innovation in products and services has been the main tool to increase the company's competitiveness. Sonae holds other businesses and interests such as retail properties, and core partnerships, such as shopping centres and telecommunications (one of Portugal’s biggest Telco companies). The retail business came a long way since the opening of the first hypermarket in 1985, changing along the way the consumer habits and starting a revolution in the commercial landscape in Portugal. Today it owns hypermarkets & convenience supermarkets, electronics stores, fashion stores, cafeteria and restaurants, book shops & stationery, health & wellbeing stores. Sonae’s vision is “to create economic and social value in the long run, taking the benefits of progress and innovation to an ever increasing number of people”, that’s why the company sees innovation in the service of sustainability as a priority.
Role in ARIES
Sonae role will be mainly focused on bringing the industry vision to the project scope, making sure there’s an alignment between market expectations and the service package, so that there’s effective ground not only for an excellent technical solution but also a sustainable and scalable business case that supported with an effective commercial strategy can lead to important sectorial and societal impacts. Sonae will contribute to work packages that address the development of the solution, specifically in the requirements definition, prototyping and testing of the solution. Additionally Sonae will also bring strong expertise in innovation management. Finally the company is also committed to participate in the communication and dissemination of the project results.
