Portuguese company Aralab starts production of climate chambers in China and plans to open a commercial area in Europe

Aralab, a Portuguese manufacturer of climate chambers, is starting to produce components in China to reduce logistics costs, shorten delivery times for orders to Asia and lower its carbon footprint. The industrial company, which specialises in chambers for simulating weather conditions and testing product shelf life, has started manufacturing locally and wants to do so in other countries.

Speaking to ECO, Aralab CEO Luís Branco revealed that he is starting to manufacture climate chambers at his Asian customers’ facilities. The main objective is to serve the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, the two sectors that account for the largest share of its turnover.

“More than just a production unit, it is the production process that makes us more competitive. We assemble locally. If we can save money by taking advantage of some local supply chains, with cheaper prices and technological quality, this is a natural path for Aralab to be closer to its customers, with this proximity being measured not only in commercial terms, but also in operational and production terms”, explains Luís Branco.

Aralab’s operation in the Chinese market is carried out through its partnership with Memmert since 2024 and involves contracts with giants such as AstraZeneca. Two years on, the plan is to shorten the supply chain, because it (still) needs to cross the Old Continent to bring its climate chambers to the world’s second largest economy. “The world is becoming increasingly global and we need to skip a few steps”, he summarises.

Founded in 1985 by brothers João and Eduardo Araújo, Aralab is headquartered in Rio de Mouro, in the municipality of Sintra, Lisbon, and has around 110 employees. Last year, turnover was €19 million, mainly due to sales to pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology laboratories (chambers for plants). The forecast for 2026 is that turnover will grow by around 10% to reach €22-23 million.

“We are in a growth phase. Just this week, two or three people joined us, because 2025 was a very positive year in terms of order pipeline and we secured a lot of work. In addition to continuing to recruit, Aralab is considering other business models and other ways of working to continue on this path of development and focus on internationalisation”, the manager points out.

Europe will have commercial representation

Over the past 41 years, Aralab’s international activity has been carried out through exports via a network of distributors in around 80 countries. By the second half of this year, the company will open a commercial representation office in Europe, which is usually the first step before opening a subsidiary, the CEO told ECO.

“Our sales are carried out through a channel of distributors, our partners, who are responsible for pre-sales, promotion, communication and business development. The next step in internationalisation and growth in foreign markets is for us to be present ourselves, with representations in those markets. This will certainly happen in 2026. I think it will be in the first half of the year”, he added.

Asked whether the choice for this first commercial representation abroad would fall on Europe’s largest economy, Luís Branco denied that it would be Germany and left the announcement for when it becomes official, “in a few weeks’ time”. “I hope it will happen very soon and it will be within Europe, because our main foreign markets are European”, he said.

In the medium term, the goal is to use this model in the US, where there are the same obstacles of distance and longer delivery times as in China, but this will be an investment for two years from now: “In the United States, we recently started a partnership. We are taking the first steps, and some business opportunities will begin to appear… It is still a little premature for us to be moving towards this scenario.”