Zumtobel Group Opens New Software Competence Centre for Lighting Technologies in Portugal

With the new technology and innovation centre, the Zumtobel Group reacts to current market trends in the areas of smart lighting, connected solutions and IoT. While the lighting industry is facing a competitive market environment, software-oriented services and solutions are gaining more importance. The Zumtobel Group invests in this fast-growing market segment in order to further refine the company’s positioning in the lighting market with innovative and smart products and solutions. The new software competence centre for lighting technologies in Porto is therefore an integral part of the strategic direction of the Zumtobel Group.

“Software know-how is one of our strategic cornerstones in establishing the foundation for the future profitable growth of the company. With the new software competence centre for lighting technologies in Porto we are bundling our group-wide software know-how in order to participate in fast-growing and future-oriented market segments and fulfil our customers’ expectations and requirements of smart and connected lighting solutions”,says Alfred Felder, CEO Zumtobel Group.

The new technology and innovation centre in Porto develops software for smart light management and control systems. It will also focus on research in areas such as smart buildings and smart cities, aiming to develop integrated lighting solutions for smart energy, mobility and IoT technologies. The group-wide software centre represents an addition to the existing research and development network of the Zumtobel Group. The headquarters in Dornbirn is the global centre for all group-wide R&D activities and, with the biggest workforce (roughly 2,000 employees), the heart of the company.

The group-wide software competence centre in Porto is operated by Tridonic Portugal lda and employs 30 software engineers. Porto is an emerging business location and is increasingly turning into Europe’s new technology hub. With this investment, the Zumtobel Group follows the example of renowned companies such as Google, Xing, IBM or Bosch that are already present with their innovation centres in Portugal. The main advantages that Portugal offers companies for investments of this kind include excellent educational standards and, consequently, a high level of talent availability in the area of software development, economic factors and high political stability.