Maribor Development Agency, the lead partner of project INTRA (programme Interreg Europe) proposed changes to the OP for implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 in East Slovenia. As the result, the Ministry for Economic Development and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia prepared the Internationalisation vouchers.
No matter how good your product is, if you cannot sell it, your company will not succeed. We needed to reach new markets and with the support of the voucher we researched the Austrian market. Reaching the customer's wants and needs is just a part of it. We decided to offer a whole range of services (from delivery, to construction at the location). And it was the market research that has provided all the relevant information for us. Therefore, we can easily say, the voucher helped to open the doors to the Austrian market for us.
Lesarstvo Ravnjak is a small company that has been active in the field of wood processing for over 10 years now. In order to achieve added value, we have started producing wooden houses. 
Due to the close proximity of the border, we have decided to oriente ourselves not only to the national market, but also to the foreign market in Austria. However, we needed to know, how to best approach the Austrian customer. That, however, is just a part of it. We also learned which certification we must have in order to be present on the Austrian market, how to conduct business and services there, and which safety standards we need to consider while present on the Austrian market. Without this knowledge, we could not offer the services of constructing our product after we sold it and would have to find an Austrian business partner for a joint venture.
Our wooden houses are friendly to the environment and very energy efficient. The novelty is, that most of the materials are fully recyclable. At the same time, they are quickly assembled, yet highly endurable, as they have a life span of over 100 years. At the same time, they are very safe. Wood has been proven to be the safest construction material when it comes to earthquake safety. And the massive logs are fire resistant.
Based upon these qualities of our product and the services we are offering (fast delivery and construction) our modern designed wooden houses are a great export product of nearby markets such as Austria. Therefore, we have applied for the voucher for market research on the foreign markets and received 4.980,00 EUR support. With the help of the voucher they researched the Austrian market in order to determine the certification and standards we must meet to offer our product and services in Austria, as well as to determine the best channels to reach the end customer.
We have successfully stepped on the Austrian market, after the voucher opened the door for us.
