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SÖDERBERG & HAAK

Easing off the brakes
and gearing up

Söderberg & Haak has been working for three years to turn things round and
put the company back from red to black. Higher sales and profitability have now
been placed on the agenda. This will be achieved by capturing market share with

strong brands in a carefully considered network of dealers.

In specific terms, this means the company has cut its costs by SALES GROWTH TO BE REFLECTED IN EARNINGS
phasing out much of its own network of dealers and instead Sales for 2021 totalled SEK 770 million, which represented an increase
building up a network of external dealers all over Sweden. on the previous year. Throughout the year, what pleased Jonas
Söderberg & Haak now has a well-balanced mix of its own sales staff Jaenecke the most was the fact he was able to increase sales while
and external dealers, and so to some extent the company has returned restructuring was in progress. The COVID-19 pandemic has had less
to its original business concept: importing agricultural and construction of an impact in 2021 compared with 2020. The weather in spring and
machinery. summer has had an adverse impact on harvests for the agricultural
sector, making farmers less willing to invest in the latter part of the
“Our job is to provide a link between manufacturers and local dealers. year. Moreover, fuel prices have gone up, fertiliser has become more
We can contribute our expertise, service and accessibility that form expensive and there’s a general shortage of components, too. It’s
the cornerstone of our raison d’être. We’ve now altered the number of fantastic to see that Söderberg & Haak managed to increase sales
sites we run ourselves while plugging geographical gaps in our network despite all this. The company is now prepared to see continued sales
of dealers by engaging some new independent dealers. growth reflected in its earnings.

“We’ll be continuing to develop our distribution with both our own Sustainability initiatives at Söderberg & Haak involve in-house
sales teams where so demanded by customers and geography, and work, as well as external efforts in respect of the product range. As
also with talented external dealers if that’s the right way to proceed.” an importer, the company has difficulty influencing the production
processes: instead, it has to focus on transport, management of inputs
Söderberg & Haak has two business areas. One is construction and energy consumption for activities.
machinery under the Komatsu and Bomag brands; while the other is
agricultural machinery under the Deutz-Fahr, Krone, Amazone and “The machinery hasn’t advanced as much as in the automotive sector,
Dal-Bo brands. but changes are being made. For instance, Komatsu manufactures
hybrid excavators with fuel consumption around 25 per cent lower than
GREAT EXPECTATIONS FOR THE KOMATSU BRAND a conventional excavator, and the noise level is significantly lower as
Contracting currently accounts for some 60 per cent of sales, while well. Demand for this type of machinery is growing apace, with major
agriculture accounts for around 40 per cent. Further growth is expected customers such as construction companies Peab, NCC and Skanska
in both business areas, but potential growth is deemed to be greater in driving more sustainable purchasing.
respect of construction machinery; particularly with Komatsu, which
has a relatively low market share in Sweden compared with other “I’m looking forward to the future with a great deal of confidence, and
European markets. The brand had been trailing in terms of distribution I’d like to thank all our staff for their hard work during the tough years
and servicing for a while when Söderberg & Haak took it over in 2016. when we were making the transition. Having Mellby Gård as our owner
during the transition has also given us a massive sense of security.”
“We can see opportunities to grow all our brands. The greatest
potential is definitely offered by Komatsu, as we’re representing one of CEO Jonas Jaenecke
the world’s strongest brands in the industry: it offers a wide range of
excavators, wheel loaders, graders and more. We’ve been working to
improve sales and service all over Sweden since we took over Komatsu,
and we can see that what we’ve done has had a positive impact on sales.
There’s still more to do, and we should be able to double our market
share from the current level of about five per cent over the next few
years.

“There are a number of major infrastructure projects in progress
and scheduled all over Sweden, mainly in and around the three
metropolitan areas of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, and these
are forming a strong base for demand.”

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