14 February 2025
- International Niche Market Leaders, also known as Hidden Champions, play a fundamental role in shaping industrial success and regional economic resilience
- In the Basque Country, Hidden Champions provide quality employment and contribute to the distribution of economic activities throughout the territory
- To support and promote these key players, Orkestra and the BBK Banking Foundation have launched a Hidden Champions Observatory
In highly competitive and innovation-driven economies, International Niche Market Leaders (INML), also known as Hidden Champions, play a fundamental role in shaping industrial success and regional economic resilience. These companies, often manufacturers operating under the radar in business-to-business markets, dominate global niche markets through their specialised expertise.
In the Basque Country, these Hidden Champions drive territorial competitiveness by providing quality employment and contributing to the distribution of economic activities throughout the territory. They provide inroads for the Basque economy to foreign markets through their strong internationalization impetus and efforts in R&D.
To support and promote these key players, Orkestra and the BBK Banking Foundation have launched a Hidden Champions Observatory, an initiative that aims to identify and showcase these companies, while refining methods for recognising and assessing their impact.
The Observatory aims not only to map these industry leaders, but also to delve deeper into the strategies behind their success. By understanding the mechanisms that drive these companies forward, we can inspire other Basque companies to embrace internationalisation, innovation and long-term strategic vision, thereby strengthening regional competitiveness.
The methodology will be continuously improved to ensure an accurate and up-to-date assessment of the growth and transformation of Hidden Champions.
Identifying Hidden Champions
Another aim of the platform is to see whether the Basque Country hosts more Hidden Champions than the ones currently identified. Identifying those additional cases is a complex task, as many of the factors that characterise them are internal to the company and there is no homogenised data publicly available on several of the criteria that INMLs have to comply with.
The 2024 Basque Country Competitiveness Report includes a specific analysis of their impact and presents a typology that allows classifying International Niche Market Leaders (INMLs) into 4 categories:
- Star INMLs: companies with a leadership position in an established international niche market, which are witnessing a favorable evolution of their business, foreign trade, and profitability.
- Threatened INMLs: companies that, despite their international niche market leadership, are undergoing a less favorable evolution of other performance parameters.
- Rising INMLs: companies that are experiencing an improvement of their position on international niche markets, but without sufficient market share to join the ranks of the “Star” (or perhaps “Threatened”) INMLs.
- Potential INMLs: start-ups or companies that operate in emerging niche markets with a high-growth profile and strong international vocation.
