The company from entrepreneurs Manuel Neto and Martin Lawrenz was founded 11 years ago, and until now operated as a franchise for a global brand, but the market justified this emancipation: «it is an own brand project which we have been maturing. We directed our activity towards the medium-high, high-end segment, and we thought we could focus more on that niche, which we dominate and in which our team feels at ease», explained Manuel Neto to VI, during SIL 2019. «To professionalize a stable prepared team, with know-how and market experience», he mentioned.
Lane currently has two agencies, in Cascais and in Estoril, which it had already been operating when it was franchised. «For now, we will stabilize that operation, but we want to expand to the Lisbon market and are already establishing many contacts beyond the Setubal municipality in order to do that», explained Manuel Neto, who guaranteed that «we will be more conservative in terms of the number of shops».
Without mentioning numbers, Manuel Neto advanced that «we will work on an action plan for next year». And, for now, part of the brand’s strategy is to promote itself in the main foreign target markets (which represent between 60% to 70% of the operation), such as Europe, Singapore and South-Africa, besides the better-known Brazilian or French markets. «We are currently programming our promotion in those markets in a more active way», he explained.
Lane’s current portfolio, with only a few weeks of operation, is composed of around 150 buildings, 60% of which are houses with between 2 and 7 bedrooms and 30% are apartments with 2 to 5 bedrooms. 10% of the buildings are destined for the rental market. The idea is to integrate commercial assets as well.