Angola is already the main market for Carldora, which designs and manufactures advanced formwork, scaffolding and shoring systems, and expects to export more than 80 per cent of its production in 2009. Taking advantage of the path opened up by customers – construction companies such as Mota Engil, Soares da Costa, Luís da Maia, Tecnonvia, Edifer, Grupo Lena, Teixeira Duarte and Brazil's Queiroz Galvão – the Colmeias, Leiria-based company has been supplying successive projects in the country of the black leopard. These are mainly roads, bridges, hotels, residential buildings and offices, such as the headquarters of the oil company Total, the largest project currently underway.

The next step is the incorporation of Carlangola, an Angolan company created without foreign direct investment partnerships. The process will be completed this month. Carlangola is seen, for now, as a ‘launch pad’ that will enable the company to operate more freely in the territory. ‘The market will decide how it will be,’ say directors Emídio Gaspar and Carla Gaspar.

A family-run business founded in 1976, Carldora is a pioneer in Portugal and has since become a public limited company. It supplies advanced metal formwork systems, scaffolding and shoring, trench shoring, rolling structures, etc. It develops standard products and tailor-made solutions, providing on-site assistance and assembly plans.

In addition to a technical engineering department that constantly seeks versatile, functional and multi-purpose solutions, it has autonomy in manufacturing from raw materials, with a high degree of automation and robotisation.

Quality, precision, durability, and speed of assembly and disassembly are, according to Emídio Gaspar, added values that distinguish the company in its sector. "The product is highly developed and each part is designed for multiple solutions.

We are constantly studying our work, which forces us to develop better prices. Durability is also important, and we favour metal," says the founder. The company first found success in Setúbal in the 1970s. In the 1980s, it invested in machinery and began manufacturing.

In the same decade, it began supplying public works. Exports to Germany began in the 1990s. In addition to Angola, Ca~ldora has been investing in Mozambique and North Africa. The advance of construction companies in the Maghreb, in particular, has created opportunities for the Colmeias-based company, which employs 50 people and expects to achieve a turnover of four million euros in 2009.