Science4you in UK

: a toy story

Abstract

Founded in 2008, Science4you is a Portuguese company that develops, produces and commercializes educational toys. Since day one, the founder aimed to go abroad and conquer new markets outside Portugal. Hence, the company started its internationalization program one year later through exports. Five years after its foundation, Science4you had already opened its first subsidiary in Spain and made the decision to enter the UK market. The UK market offers great opportunities but at the same time great challenges. The company had the possibility to enter the largest toy market in Europe, with a significant upper middle class and where toys represented a relevant weight on the country’s GDP. But, it also had to face a massive direct and indirect competition, huge number of players in the niche of educational toys and different consumer’s characteristics. The following thesis is presented in the form of a Case Study and aims to function as an important tool for class discussion where the strategies and progress of Science4you in the Portuguese and Spanish market can be analyzed, as well as the decision and strategy used to enter the U.K market and the challenges the company had to address.

Date of Award	21 Jul 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Nuno Magalhães Guedes (Supervisor)