“For us as SMEs, belonging to the Maritime Cluster is a way of strengthening our competitiveness.”
Read the interview with Didier Le Tannou, company Chairman of “Science et Mer”. 

A member of the Cluster’s board of directors as one of the four SME representatives, Didier Le Tannou is Chairman of “Science et Mer”, a small business employing sixty-five people specialising in the development of algae for seawater spa therapies and major cosmetic brands.  Today he has no doubt of the advantages of membership of the Brittany Maritime Cluster. 

Why did you decide to join the Brittany Maritime Cluster?

“We didn’t come along just for altruistic reasons! We did however want to try to find opportunities for growth and for developing our ideas more quickly and cheaply.  Being a member of the Maritime Cluster is a way of establishing commercial relations and benefiting from networking.  For three years we had been working on the biomass effect of a raw material.  We then noticed that someone else was working on the same topic.  Immediately we were on to another project, with specifications and financing sorted. 

We also want to be at the heart of whatever is happening.  At the first board meeting, I saw well-conceived, well-crafted projects…put forward by the major industrial groups.  I thought to myself ‘Oh, crikey!!!!’  At the second meeting, I saw projects directed by SMEs and I said to myself, ‘Perhaps there’s a place for us too!’
 

I then saw that the difference lay in the quality of these projects – clear identification and involvement of project partners, a business plan, prospects for value and job creation plus good financial planning – and it changed my mind!”

What do you expect from links forged within the context of the subject committee?

“For small businesses like ours, it’s a way of strengthening our competitiveness: by working with the major groups and research centres, we can bring synergies into play and create economies of scale. 

Taking part in a recognised project is a way of gaining credibility and raising our profile, as well as of appearing in communication materials issued by the Cluster. Working in partnership with the major groups and research centres allows us to employ techniques and tools which we would otherwise not be able to access as a small business. 

 
As regards finding funding and support, it’s a well-known obstacle course.  All the more reason then to belong to the Cluster which facilitates contacts with the right people – a question of being in the right place at the right time. 

Furthermore, the Cluster offers a way of highlighting the attractiveness and competitiveness of the region in which we work. Strengthening our ability to attract high-performance public and private services gives small businesses like ours a competitive edge.”