For more than 35 years Börje Österberg has led Nordic Sport, but now he is phasing himself out. The first step was the sale of Nordic Sport to his son Dennis Österberg.
“I am both happy and proud,” says Börje Österberg. “Dennis is a very sensible man and he has learned a great deal during his three years with us. Sure, he’s young, but this means he brings a different way of thinking, and that is good. He has an education in marketing, which is an advantage for the company,” adds Börje.
2008 was a record year for Nordic Sport, despite today’s weakening market. They had the highest sales ever, and it hardly seems like there will be any downturn. On the contrary, Nordic Sport intends to expand, according to Börje Österberg.
Salesman on skis
It is hard to avoid Börje Österberg’s contagious enthusiasm when he talks about Nordic Sport, which has now been sold to his son Dennis, and the fact that he is a real entrepreneur shines through everything he tells us. He started early. By the age of eleven he was already strapping on his skis to make his way around the little village of Stensjön and the surrounding countryside selling copies of the weekly Hemmets Journal.
“I skied 2 kilometres in one direction and then 2 kilometres in the other, just to earn a few coppers. I had the papers in my rucksack, and I skied around knocking on doors. I worked up a regular customer base and went on from there. Last year I went to Baghdad to meet their minister for sport and came home with an order worth 10 million kronor; the numbers might be higher but the method is the same. Personal relationships are the most important thing for a company’s well being and survival,” declares Börje Österberg.
Free TV ads
“I started Nordic Sport in 1972. The first thing I did was build the factory in Arvidsjaur and pretty soon I also started a sales office at the Expolaris Congress Center in Skellefteå. The most difficult thing, and what took time, was creating a market for our products. Manufacturing things is not a problem in itself, but you have to sell the stuff too,” Börje Österberg tells us. “When I started the company nobody knew what Nordic Sport was, so I had to devote all of my time to marketing. My strategy was supplying sporting competitions, the bigger the better. As a supplier you have the right to have your name on your products, and during the 70s and 80s in particular, nobody questioned sponsors’ names on equipment. The TV advertising we get during all the world championships, the Olympics and other sporting events is invaluable. Our products are marketed directly to the viewers, and the people doing the marketing are the world’s best athletes, a fantastic advantage.”
By kicksled across the river
Börje Österberg continues his story by explaining that he devoted his energies to sports associations. He began with the Swedish Athletic Association and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
“We had such great success with the IAAF that they actually held one of their meetings here in Skellefteå, the only time they ever left Monaco! Whenever I meet delegates from that meeting they still talk about their memories from the occasion. What they remember best is crossing the river on kicksleds.”
Anyone who thinks that Börje is about to wind down now that he has sold the company has another think coming. Despite the fact that he long since left 70 behind him, he is still on the go. And it is not just Nordic Sport in Sweden that has kept Börje interested these past few years. The group also owns a real estate company and Nordic Sport Eesti, which keeps busy with the Russian-speaking part of the world.
Having his cake and eating it
“I am going to keep the other two companies and stay on as chairman of the board for Nordic Sport, so I won’t disappear entirely,” Börje Österberg tells us. “I really am in a most fortunate position; I can actually have my cake and eat it.”
“We are really happy that he is staying,” his son Dennis Österberg points out. “There will naturally be changes even in the board as time goes on, but not for a while yet. The company organization was changed before the sale; now we need to get on with work until things have settled down properly,” says Dennis. Which is both wise and realistic, and according to Börje Österberg these are just two of the qualities his son possesses that will be of great use in developing the company.
“I have never been the finger-wagging teacher type, and he is a very sensible man who has taught himself a great deal. After all, he grew up under my wing and has been close to the company all the time,” declares Börje Österberg.
Plenty of experience
Even though Dennis Österberg is not yet 30 he has already gained plenty of experience. He has been at Nordic Sport just over three years. After high school he started work at a combined advertising agency and print shop as art director. When the dot.com bubble burst he was employed among other things as a courier; it was not a job he exactly relished, but at least he had work. After a while he was taken on by the telecoms company “3” where he began in mobile telephone sales; he finished his employment there in the marketing department, where he worked with mobile telephone services marketing. In the meantime he was taking evening classes at the IHM Business School. During his two years of study he got to try out his newly-acquired theories in real life every day, and each evening he would learn new theories to put to the test the day after. This was at the time when 3G services were just being launched, and it was a matter of understanding how to persuade people to try something new. With both newly-acquired theories and the opportunity to test them, Dennis gained an insight into what works in reality, at the same time as he learned how to analyze results when something failed ... skills that are now to his great advantage.
It was not always a dead certainty that Dennis would take over the company.
“Two years ago my taking over was no foregone conclusion at all,” explains Dennis Österberg. “It was not until about six months ago that we began discussing the takeover seriously. We weighed up a number of alternatives but decided in the end that I would become sole owner of the company. The takeover went extraordinarily smoothly and entirely without problem. We discussed the course of action with Öhrlings and it was done before we knew it. Handelsbanken and Inlandskraft were a great help with financing,” he adds.
But still, it must be pretty tough to take over a company in the middle of a downturn; were you never worried?
“No, I must say I never gave it a thought. We haven’t been affected by the downturn in the same way that perhaps many others have, either. Our work is in sports, and sporting events carry on as planned even when the market weakens. People seldom cut down on sports and health in times like these, so we’ve not been hit particularly hard by current events. But of course, things can change, even for us,” concludes Dennis Österberg.