Helping Norwegian companies in France
Innovation Norway has 27 international offices in 22 countries. These provide assistance with export initiatives in the main markets for Norwegian industry and commerce.
In Paris, the City Of Light and love, Innovation Norway have six permanent French employees with long and wide-ranging experience, as well as one or two student interns at any given time.
Norwegian Sigrun Daireaux has lived in France for six months and heads Innovation Norway’s Paris office, which is located right next to Champs-Elysées and is a stone’s throw away from the Arc de Triomphe.
“The biggest single sector we work with at the Paris office is energy: offshore wind, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage. Offshore wind is a strongly growing sector in France with heavy public funding,” says Daireaux.
Innovation Norway’s focus on floating offshore wind in France resulted in several commercial contracts for Norwegian companies, both large and small, in 2022. It is a big market with many opportunities.
“France is one of Europe’s main agricultural countries and the world’s biggest exporter of many agricultural products – in addition to wine, of course. Therefore, the bioeconomy and agricultural and food technology are top priorities, and Norwegian companies have important expertise and good solutions in relation to these. It is also clear that Norwegian companies within health and medicines offer solutions that are in demand in what is Europe’s third, and the world’s seventh, largest economy,” says Daireaux.
Norwegian companies delivering electric ferries for the Seine
Sustainability is also becoming an increasingly important topic in France, so two of the office’s focus areas are green maritime transport and sustainable buildings. The Norwegian green maritime sector has already gained a foothold in the French market: in 2022, Hyke won a contract to deliver four autonomous electric passenger ferries that will operate scheduled services on the Seine during the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
Behind this contract lies a lot of good teamwork between international and regional offices across Innovation Norway. Innovation Norway conducted market surveys for Hyke in several European countries before they chose to focus on France.
“Together with Norwegian regional offices, we arranged a study trip for French transport authorities and other stakeholders to Norway to introduce them to Norwegian solutions. It was a great success! The French fell ‘fous amoureux’, madly in love, with what they saw, and when the tender for the Olympic Games was published, they recognised Hyke from among the bidders,” says Daireaux.
“Another factor in its success was Hyke teaming up with a French scheduled services operator so that they could offer a total solution, with local scheduled services. Both Hyke’s four ferries and how Innovation Norway worked to help Hyke enter the French market are important case stories and provide a golden opportunity for Norwegian industry and commerce to build on here in France,” says Daireaux.
Visit Norway – from Paris
Two of the Paris office’s staff work with the Visit Norway brand. For example, all of the photos Visit Norway posts on Instagram are published from France.
“In the French market, we target tour operators and conference organisers to promote Norway as an attractive destination for package tours, conferences, and trade fairs. The French represent one of the largest groups of tourists in Norway, and this is also growing. Nature, the Northern Lights, and the Midnight Sun are of course important, although French visitors are also interested in culture, food, and experiences – year round,” says Daireaux.
The office’s main deliveries for Norwegian companies are market analyses, partner searches, networking, and, not least, opening doors.
“Together with Norway’s embassy and Team Norway, we put Norwegian companies in contact with national and regional authorities and potential public and private customers. We arrange market visits and trade fair delegations, disseminate tenders, assist with contract negotiations and establishing subsidiaries in France – and we often act as ‘cultural translators’,” says Daireaux.
More formal in France than in Norway
The cultural differences between France and Norway are small, although according to Daireaux it is a good idea to be aware of some of them:
“It’s almost impossible to have coffee served at the same time as dessert in a restaurant, although it is more important to know that French working life remains relatively hierarchical and formal. It may feel alien in egalitarian and informal Norway, but in France decisions are made by the management only. Therefore, in order to be taken seriously, Norwegian companies must send representatives of sufficient and appropriate seniority, with a clear mandate, and suits and ties, if negotiations are to result in contracts. It can be a good idea to save jokes until after the contract has been signed – but that is when people relax, and it is clear that Norwegian and French companies work very well together.”