FACE2FACE
“ We never play poker with the customer.Why should we, there is nothing to hide.”
Finnveden Bulten. “Since that time we have doubled
the turnover and during the period 2006 to 2008 particularly, achieved very, very good financial results.” Bufab’s presence outside of Sweden started with purchasing
offices established in the early 1990s in Germany and the UK. Subsequently another has been set up in Italy, the highest volume EU source for Bufab imports. “We began, though, to see Scandinavian customers moving production to other countries. Electrolux was an example, moving its vacuum cleaner manufacturing to Hungary. It was clear, if we were to continue to be supply partners to these companies, we would have to follow them. In the beginning it was more of virtual presence than a reality but today we can say it is very real and we do a good job in these countries.” In all, Bufab has acquired some twenty- five companies worldwide, including five years ago, a major investment to gain a strong presence in France. Sweden, though, remains at the heart of the supply chain.
Since 1986, the Varnamo warehouse has seen continual investment to achieve high levels of automation and efficiency. “We learned from Germany the crucial importance of having a highly technical and efficient logistics platform. Here in Varnamo we now transact around 75 million euros a year on one hundred people. To do that you must have a highly developed system.” That development reflects a deep-rooted belief for Björstrand,
which takes us away from Bufab towards the wider challenges facing the European fastener industry. “Today, people expect to have the best price and the best service. Just as we behave as consumers, industrial customers no longer say ‘we must pay a little more to get the service or quality’.” The argument goes a stage further. “It is no good the fastener
supply chain thinking it can recover margins in the long term. The reality is that businesses must find ways to make profit on leaner margins. In some ways it is like the airlines: everything must be more and more efficient. Every business has to look constantly at how to squeeze out costs while maintaining the intensive level of service that is now an absolute expectation.” One consequence of that trend, Björstrand is sure, is
consolidation. “The smaller companies simply will not have the resource or access to capital to be able to invest in achieving the necessary technical platform to be efficient.” Björstrand is more radical, or perhaps just characteristically
Swedish, in believing that the relationship with the customer must be truly an open one. “The Swedish way is always very open,” he says. “We never play poker with the customer. Why should we, there is nothing to hide.” It is a philosophy reflected in practice by the level of responsibility devolved to Bufab’s sales people. “We ask them to do much more than sell. They take
58 Fastener + Fixing Magazine • Issue 75 May 2012
responsibility also for the delivery and quality performance. In other companies you often have the sense of different and not always coordinated departments. In Bufab the salesperson is at the centre, ensuring everything for their customer is well organised. They are the customer’s advocate in our business. Of course, such responsibility is hard work but the customer likes it. They trust the people they are working with and do not need contact with too many people.” As always with this man, there is a pragmatic element. “There are always changes in the market. You never know when one of your people with be working for a customer. Then it is crucial you have done everything correctly.” It is mentality Björstrand recognises has to be consciously
transferred into some of the markets in which Bufab now operates. “We work a lot now in Eastern Europe and the way we think and work can contrast very strongly with how business has been done before – but it has to be 100 percent.” Inherent in that approach is a genuine respect for the
individual. “Since we started in Varnamo, we have never fired anyone.” A remarkable assertion, which one knows, with this man has to be true. “People are the front line of our business and we have always kept our promises to them, just as we expect them to do to our customers. The return is simple. Respect the people and they will learn to respect not just the company, but crucially its suppliers and customers also.” As the discussion moves to the wider challenges for, perhaps
not just the fastener industry, but Europe as a whole openness is again a feature. “The biggest challenge is for Europe to open up to competition. We are in the waiting time for people in Europe to accept the world. We try to protect our living, we build walls around ourselves, and when we do this we are just going down.” “It is a question of time, of course. We are not ready to open
up completely yet, because we could lose everything. One day, though, we have to open up. If you live in a fortress for too long there is a real risk the world will march past you.” Throughout his career to date
Hans Björstrand has been at the vanguard of change. One way or another it seems certain he will continue to advocate simple, but utterly fundamental, truths that cut through the Gordian complexities in which businesses sometimes find themselves knotted.
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