Leica Portugal began its activities in Vila Nova de Famalicão in the year 1973 only as a production facility. During these 44 years Leica has been developing competences and improving its technological resources based in a modern strategy.

The creation of an R & D department in March 2015 is another natural step forward in the evolution of this strategy. Leica once again assumes the objective of expanding the competences of the factory in Portugal. Therefore it became possible to produce Leica products developed and produced in Portugal, being a requirement, maintaining the brand identity, geared towards a market with great expectations on the quality and durability of the product.

For this department it was intended to create a team that could get the most out of being connected to a production unit. Internal collaborators with a high level of experience were recruited. These in turn have partnered with newly trained engineers in the areas of Optics, Mechanics and Electronics.

With the objective of maximising the financial resources and accelerating the process of consolidation of the department, the organization considered as an opportunity the application for the “Portugal 2020” financing program with a project titled “Development of Optical Products in Portugal”. More precisely the first products developed in Portugal.

The project consists in the development of objectives and binoculars with high optical performance and high mechanical reliability as well as a timeless design, characteristic of the brand. The objective of this project is to create products with Leica quality and managed by the same control criteria including tests defined by the Leica brand.

With this application it was possible to minimize some risk in the uncertainties in the development by financing part of the investigation. It was also important in financing the purchase of important equipment to support R & D activities.

During the course of the project, new employees were trained as well as the acquisition of the necessary technical means for the investigation. Ways of interacting with production were defined, using the inherent synergies of the proximity to the factory, which is an added value that is not found in Leica in Germany.

In addition to the importance of the first developed products, it is worth noticing that this project allowed the creation of competences in Portugal, which would be otherwise not possible. Researchers have been asked to solve problems and follow up on procurement processes or choose technical equipment for production.