6 The sTory of LighTbuLbs 12 WhaT does LoyaLTy mean To you? 16 smaLL is beauTifuL

your 30 minutes team building guide

No. 10 · summer 2011

iPhoneWin an

Knowing yourself

gives you

You can’t compromise

Power

dog!Buy awant loyalty?

14

20

424

Takeme home

safety

4InsideWant loyalty? Buy a dog!

LoYaLTY is one of those words that des-perately needs a con-text before it starts making sense. Address-ing loyalty from a univer-sal point of view - has little value. Loyalty in a family context, is prob-ably the strongest form of loyalty most people will ever experience. Yet with family relations be-coming increasingly flu-id, friendship is a wor-thy competitor when it comes to loyalty. It’s about being there for the other person, re-gardless what. Support-ing this person when this person needs it, al-so when this person at times might not deserve your support. Loyalty to-wards yourself and your own values, again puts loyalty in a different per-spective as this easily can clash with the loyal-

ty for your family or your friends. Or at least, it can bring you into situa-tions where you have to make a choice. Last but not least there’s loyalty in a business context. How loyal are our cus-tomers? And how do we define that loyalty? Will a loyal customer never buy from the competi-tor? Are we ourselves loyal to our customers? Are we loyal employees? In the business units comprising DT Group the average employee re-tention is high compared to the industries’ aver-age. Does that mean we are loyal? What is loyalty to you?

Happy reading

What is loyalty to you?

HardTalk

What does Loyalty mean to you?Construction is sometimes all about ‘get-ting things to stick together’

You can’t compromise safety

small is beautifulConstruction is sometimes all about ‘get-ting things to stick together’

ideas@work: Knowing yourself gives you power

Do it yourself: Learn how to with silvan

DT Quiz

810

1416

20

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Does loyalty at all exist? Or is it merely a buzzword that when it comes to execution, proofs to be a lot of hot air?

The story of light bulbs

Charlotte Gullach BüttrichChief responsible editor for DT Magazine

DT Group +45 39559700Wolseley +44 118 929 8700Starkki +358 3 850 900STARK +45 89343434

editorial responsibility: DT Group/Charlotte Gullach Büttrich Journalistic production and project management: Radical Communications/Patrick May design and layout: Appetizer/Simon Johnsen Photography: Das Buro/Emil Lyders Print: Trykcentret

Beijer +46 752411000 Neumann +47 55549800Silvan +45 87308730Cheapy +46 431443540

CoLoPhon

6usefuL numbers

You can write to Charlotte at editor@fittings.nu

Feel free to share your ideas, comments - both positive and critics.

Today the light bulb is considered a common item – but its invention back in 1809 revolutio-

nized both the way we live, work, and play.

DT mAGAZINe2

Good citizenship is good business

DT mAGAZINe 3

DT Magazine // Code of conduct

THe aim of the pro-gram is to ensure that we are aware of how we conduct our business and understand our role in executing all ac-tivities in the most ethical way. This will help us to increase our customers’ con-fidence that they will encounter the same standards of excel-lence in execution in every Wolseley busi-ness and this will help us deliver our shared objective of growing profitably

and faster than our competition.

There are three main parts of the Ethics and Fraud Program:

1a new Group Code

of ConductThis is a framework that explains how we should always do the right thing during our working lives. It will drive how we behave and how we conduct our business. It pro-vides us with guid-ance on the expect-ed standards.

Wolseley recently rolled out an Ethics and Fraud program across the business to reinforce the Group’s commitment to conduct all our activities ethically with honesty and integrity.

2The Fraud Policy

In support of the Code is the Fraud Policy, which intro-duces a set of over-arching principles in relation to fraud and corruption that all our businesses must adhere to. Fur-ther guidance on the principles is con-tained in the Anti-Fraud Manual and the Anti-Corruption Manual and other supporting materi-als, which have been developed with rep-resentatives from

each of the Group’s businesses.

3The speak Up! reporting

serviceThe Group’s whistle-blowing service is being relaunched and renamed Speak Up! A web reporting facility has also been introduced.

More information about the initiative you can find on your local intranet.

The aim of the program is to ensure that we are aware of how we conduct our business

dog!

DT Magazine // Loyalty

a systematic approach to loyalty

There is a lot of em-phasis these days on creating satis-fied customers. But is having satisfied customers enough? A satisfied custom-er isn’t necessar-ily a loyal customer. Any given custom-

er, can be satisfied with multiple suppli-ers at the same time. Satisfied customers will tend to buy from suppliers offering the best price. But what happens when a supplier is able to differentiate him-self in terms of build-ing some degree of customer loyalty? Chances are good that price becomes

Does loyalty at all exist? Or is it merely a buzzword that when it

comes to execution, proofs to be a lot of hot air?

should you consider buying a dog if you want to experience

loyalty? or is there actually something to it? and if so, can

you develop loyalty?

Buy a

wantloyalty?

DT mAGAZINe4

dog!

less of an issue as loyalty increases. But moving a customer from satisfied to loy-al requires something out of the ordinary.

At STARK they ac-knowledge that sat-isfied customers not necessarily are loy-al customers. “For us, loyal customers”, STARK’s managing director Lars Hansen says, “are custom-ers that buy 75% or more of their entire supplies at STARK. It doesn’t matter really whether it is a large or a small company. More important is how large a share of their total budget for supplies they spend in our branches. 75% and preferably more is what we aim for. When you reach that kind of commitment with a customer, the probability that you will get their next or-der is vast. We’re talking serious mon-ey here. The flip side

is that if we loose a loyal customer, this is reflected in our books.”

STARK rewards loyal customers with free relevant servic-es. “Loyal customers can for example or-der their supplies un-til nine in the evening and still get them de-livered the next day”, says Lars. “This is not only a service cus-tomers appreciate , it also shows them what STARK is ca-pable of doing. None of our competitors would be able to con-sistently deliver on that kind of promise. The service enhanc-es our brand, which in turn enforces loyalty.”

Customers buy-ing 75% or more, get marked ‘extra loyal’. This is the first cat-egory of four used by STARK when look-ing at their custom-er base with loyalty glasses on. “Once a customer reach-

extra loyal customers get the same benefi-ciary conditions regardless what branch they visit. That is one of the capital benefits sTArK customers enjoy. Whether they shop in Odder or Copenhagen, they will get a similar experi-ence.

salespeople are able to check what level of loyalty the customer they are dealing with has in their system. This enables them to make sure the customer gets an adequate treat-ment so extra loyal customers feel special no matter where they shop.

To be able to make this program work, staff had to label all customers into one of the four categories described in the main story.

same treatment

es 75% or more, the growth poten-tial is limited. From a growth point of view, category 2 cus-tomers, those buy-ing between 50 and 75%, is therefore an interesting category for us”, the CEO of STARK says. “With a dedicated sales ef-fort, we can grow this segment and in time turn them into extra loyal custom-ers. As mentioned above, the size of the company doesn’t matter. In fact, we

know that our ser-vice is extremely val-ued by smaller and medium sized entre-preneurs and they reward us with their loyalty.”

Extra loyal cus-tomers, STARK has documented, buy a significant larger part of STARK’s as-sortment, also pri-vate label products, whereas less loyal customers have a

The service enhances our brand, which in turn enforces loyalty

Lars hansenManaging Director, STARK

More on page 13

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DT Magazine // The story of ...

patent he purchased from inventors Hen-ry Woodward & Mat-thew Evans who pat-ented their bulb in 1875. It is also Edi-son who therefore is credited with the in-vention of the light bulb.

Edison and his as-sociates tried more than 3,000 different theories for creat-ing a high-resistance element that would significantly lower the amount of elec-trical power required. In January 1879, he finally succeeded in creating a high-re-sistance filament,

using platinum, but it only burned for a few hours.

In his attempts to improve the use-ful life of the bulb, Edison tested more than 6,000 types of plant materials along with every other fila-ment he could think of, including tung-sten, the most com-mon component of modern filaments. Eventually, he tried a carbonized cotton thread, which burned for 15 hours. He con-tinued to improve on that filament until, by late 1880, he had a marketable 16-watt

Today the light bulb is considered a common item – but its invention

back in 1809 revolutionized both the way we live, work, and play.

With clear light at a low cost, the world lit up in ways we could not

have imagined.

Light bulbs

THe FirsT light bulb was built by Humphry Davy (an Englishman) in 1809. Thomas Edison im-proved the inven-tion and based his improvements on a

The story of

DT mAGAZINe6

bulb that would burn for 1,500 hours.

Why invented?Many Inventions were invented by ac-cident, or while try-ing to invent some-thing else. The light bulb was not one of these. Many sci-entists of the day were trying to invent a way to use elec-tricity to light your house. The reason is that the old style of lighting, candles, lamps, lanterns, were all very dangerous.

People were starting at that time to run natural gas through cities then, as a new safer way to light homes, and the gas companies were raking in the profit. As soon as scientists started working with elec-

tricity, they thought about using it for lighting. It is logical, because they saw electricity create sparks.

How works?A light bulb produced light by heating a metal filament wire to a high tempera-ture until it glows. The hot filament is protected from air by a glass bulb that is filled with inert gas or evacuated. The light bulb is supplied with electrical cur-rent by feed-through terminals or wires embedded in the glass. Most bulbs are used in a socket (a housing giving me-chanical support to the bulb, keeping its terminals in contact with the supply cur-rent terminals).

energy saving light bulbsEnergy saving light bulbs are fundamen-tally different to tra-ditional light bulbs. The latter can be purchased with dif-ferent wattage out-puts – the typical light bulb used in the home is either 60 watts or 100 watts, which means that is how much pow-er they use up in an hour. The low energy equivalents use only 9 or 11 watts each hour, so represent a substantial power saving, even though they give the same amount of light out.

The downside to energy saving light bulbs has been that they are much more expensive than tra-ditional bulbs – but this is offset by their much longer life. It has been estimated that, over the course of its life, an energy saving light bulb can

save about DKK 240 in the cost of the electricity used to run it.

It is now possi-ble to buy different forms of lower en-ergy light bulbs – in-cluding ones that fit into spotlight fit-tings and down light-ers. The light bulbs formerly used in this type of light-ing, which tends to have multiple spots in the ceiling, meant that the lighting sys-tem was very power hungry. By replacing 10 spotlight bulbs of 60 watts with 10 of 9 watts, lighting the whole room takes 90 watts instead of 600 watts.

Disposing of Low energy Light BulbsLike traditional light bulbs, energy saving

The dark truthmYTH: You save on energy bills by leaving lights on. Some people believe that the energy to turn on lights exceeds savings of turning lights off. Ex-tensive tests show the opposite is true: it’s best to turn off the bulb even if you are leaving the room for only a second. The exact time will vary depend-ing on the kind of bulb but as a rule of thumb: turn of the light and save on your electricity bill.

Centennial bulbHow long does a bulb last? The average bulb lasts for 600 hours. Give and take. At Livermore/Pleasanton (USA) Fire Department, the have a light bulb that has been burning for 105 years! It has a carbon filament that is much thicker than modern bulbs and also burns much cooler/darker. You can check on the light using the bulb’s web-cam. www.centennialbulb.org

It has been estimated that, over the course of its life, an energy saving light bulb can save about DKK 240 in the cost of the electricity used to run it

More on page 19

DT mAGAZINe 7

In an enterprise with more than 9000 em-

ployees and 485 branches, the dis-

tance to the top man-agement may seem long. With HardTalk,

it becomes shorter, because here we put

you in contact with DT Group’s most sen-

ior manager.

Steen Weirsøe answers you and

your colleagues questions, however searching they are.

What is the im-age we want the outside world to have of us? Conserv-ative or mod-ern?I guess it depends what you compare us to. If you com-pare us to our com-petitors, I think I can safely say that we are perceived to be the pioneers of the industry. What sets us aside is our abil-ity to simplify com-plicated process-es. Dealing with a huge amount of cus-tomer interactions every day, suppli-ers, product assort-ment, logistics all the way down to how we transform and change stores - we got a real tight grip around our opera-tions. On top of that, colleagues working with customers have front line competen-cy and that enables them to make deci-sions in favor of our

customers. In gener-al, I think we have a rather flat organiza-tion - which I’d say is definitely modern.

Working in Bei-jer Byggmateri-al, should i con-sider myself to be employed by Beijer Byggma-terial, DT Group or Wolseley?When you are work-ing at Beijer Byg-gmaterial, you are foremost employed by Beijer Byggmate-rial and you should also feel and act ac-cordingly. Beijer Byg-gmaterial, just like Stark, Starkki, Neu-man, Silvan and Cheapy, has their own identity. This identity is the very reason for custom-ers to choose where to bring their busi-ness. Therefore it is important to act in the Beijer Byggma-terial spirit if you’re employed here and work for Beijer Byg-

gmaterial. The ex-ception obviously is in purchasing. Here Wolseley should be on top of mind as the size of the com-pany and the exper-tise is something we can use to our ad-vantage.

Would you rec-ommend staff to participate in the Wolse-ley share saver program? I am really not al-lowed to give staff advice in this matter. It’s not that I don’t want to but since Wolseley is an Eng-lish company, we have to comply to English legislation and the law is very strict about this. Therefore, as much as I want to help, I am afraid this is something each em-ployee has to decide for him/her self.

is there a link between loyal

DT Magazine // HardTalk

HardTalkwith steen Weirsøe

DT mAGAZINe8

customers and happy employ-ees?Yes there is. But it is not like you might expect. Unlike typi-cal product brands, our customers’ loy-alty is depending on the service percep-tion our customers have when they deal with us. Competent and service minded staff plays a deci-sive role in this per-ception, but so does efficiency and here is where it all starts. Top tuned stores, ef-fective processes, a well managed prod-uct assortment - are at the very funda-ment of the custom-ers’ service percep-tion. It makes our customers happy and in the end loyal. Satisfied custom-ers have an effect on the happiness of staff because deal-ing with satisfied people is so much more rewarding. From here on, it’s a self enforcing pro-cess.

starkki and Beijer Byggma-terial scored not very well

in the lat-est Wolse-ley health and safety report. What is wrong?Nothing is wrong with health and safe-ty in either Starkki, Beijer Byggmaterial or any other division in DT Group. We are in the fortunate situ-ation that we actu-ally experience very few work related ac-cidents. What hap-pened is that Wolse-ley during their latest assessment identi-fied that not all divi-sions lived entirely up to the standard way of reporting

Wolseley applies. Ex-cept for the fact that we of course need to comply to all health and safety regula-tions, we also need to report about it in a specific way. That of course is impor-tant and it has been solved adequately. Health and safety is absolutely a prior-ity.

What would you like to ask Steen? Send your question to steen@dtmagazine.dk – Don’t mince your words as you may remain totally anonymous.

DT mAGAZINe 9

DT Magazine // Nine to five

what does

Loyaltymean to you?

“mUTUaL respect is what loyalty is all about” says Janne Fjellhaug, office manager at Neu-mann Bygg in Ber-gen. During her 32 years in the com-pany she has nev-er experienced any form of illoyalty, nothing that she can think of anyway.

Even though she has been fortunate to have trustworthy

colleagues, Janne has been less fortu-nate in her private life. “There have been issues with honesty in her fam-ily - where a fam-ily member was revealed to be dis-honest. No one in her family has con-tact with this per-son any longer. A high price to pay but this the conse-quence when loyalty goes bad.”

To be loyal to-wards others gives Janne a good feel-ing and since “what you give is what you get” it is good for everybody in-volved. My work-ing colleagues are the best loyal peo-ple you can imag-ine. The reason why I have been loyal to Neumann Bygg for 32 years is be-cause the company offers me interest-

ing tasks and chal-lenges. What would really put my loy-alty to the test was if work and fam-ily life would clash. Choosing between work and my chil-dren would be the hardest thing to do since I love my job very much. But in the end, I’d have to say I’d choose what is best for my chil-dren.”

What you give is what you get

Loyalty cannot tollerate dishonesty

Janne Fjellhaug

49 yearsOffice managerNeumann Bygg in Bergen, NorwayWorking for Neumann Bygg 32 yearsmy children

Name:

Age:

Function:

Where:

Work:

Loyal to:

DT mAGAZINe10

Loyalty, according to Wikipedia, is faithfulness or a devotion to a person, a country, a group, or a cause. In a business context, you can be loyal to a brand, a product, an employer.

Loyalty is a lot of different things to a lot of different people, making loyalty an interesting phenomenon. What does loy-alty mean to you? Who or what are you loyal to and what would challenge your loyalty?

oN THe seveNTH of June this year, Juha Pyykkönen will be celebrating his 35-years anniversa-ry at Starkki in Lah-ti. A long term com-mitment - one that builds upon loyalty. “I have to admit that in the beginning of my career in Starkki I got tempted once or twice to leave the company and start elsewhere”, Juha says. “I got contact-

ed by a headhunt-er, which in itself is flattering enough. But after careful considerations I de-cided to stick, which today, I am happy for.”

“The values at Starkki, are close to my own values and that means a lot to me. During my ca-reer in Starkki, I not once experienced an act of ill loyalty or dishonesty. In-stead I experience

commitment from the people around me. The fact that the company has given me respon-sibility and a large level of independ-ence, are impor-tant ingredients for employer loyalty I would say.”

Juha has been married to his wife Terttu for 20 years. “I consider her to be very loyal, She’s al-ways be there for me when ever I need

her. And vice versa. We’re extreme loyal to each other. Mu-tual loyalty is an im-portant ingredient for a good and last-ing marriage.”

“Considering my age, I doubt wheth-er I ever will get of-fers from headhunt-ers. But you never know do you? Would my loyalty be put to the test of I did get a good offer? It just might. Who knows.”

The values at Starkki, are close to my own values and that means a lot to me

The secret ingredient for a happy marriage

Juha Pyykkönen58Product group manager for tools and fixingstarkki in Lahti, FinlandWorking for starkki 35 yearsmy wife, Terttu

Name:

Age:

Function:

Where:

Work:

Loyal to:

More on next page

DT mAGAZINe 11

DT Magazine // Nine to five

what does

Loyaltymean to you?

aNDers Håkans-son is a salesperson at Beijer Byggmate-rial in Sweden. “For me loyalty is a mat-ter of give and take - make the best out of each situa-tion without letting your colleagues, your friends and your family down. It’s actually quite simple. The loyal-ty you give to oth-ers, you get back. Both from family and colleagues, but certainly also from Anna, my partner. She’s always there

for me when I need her.”

Anders has been working for Beijer Byggmaterial for twenty years. He loves working at Beijer Byggmaterial. “There’s an amaz-ing atmosphere in the store. Without any exception, eve-rybody is getting along well. On top of that, my boss gives me a fair share of responsibility. That keeps me going as it challenges me in my job.”

Equally important when addressing

employer loyalty is the integrity of the management. “In my eyes, leaders should be communicative and you have to be able to trust that they are fair and that they are doing the right thing. The latter hasn’t always been the case. In my early years at Bei-jer Byggmaterial we at some point dis-covered that some leaders actually cheated the com-pany out of money. It came as quite a shock to us. Events like this are killing

for loyalty. Really. I mean, these are the people you trust. Fortunately that is in the long gone past and everything works out just great now.”

Most loyal An-ders is to his fam-ily. “There’s never been any problems combining work and family while working at Beijer Byggma-terial. So I haven’t been put in a loyalty conflict really. But if I had to choose between work and family, family of course comes first.”

The loyalty you give to others, you get back

Family first

Anders Håkansson 40 yearssalespersonBeijer Byggmaterial in Ängelholm, swedenBeijer Byggmaterial for 20 yearsmy family

Name:

Age:

Function:

Where:

Work:

Loyal to:

DT mAGAZINe12

YoUr WaLLeT prob-ably holds a credit card or two, a few member-ship cards including your fitness and block-buster card, as well as a vast growing number of customer benefit cards from your preferred air-line, petrol station and shopping facilities. DT Groups’ divisions al-so issues a number of cards with varying ben-efits for loyal custom-ers. But do they work?

sTarK has devel-oped the so called green concept for private cus-tomers. The sweet spot in the concept is noth-ing less than brilliant. “Private home owners typically will contract professionals when they have a building project”, says Lars Hansen, CEO of STARK. “We can help them with finding the right professional. Af-ter all, we know most of them since they are our customers. We deliver a list with loyal profes-sional builders relevant to the project, togeth-er with references from other home owners that have used these profes-sionals.” Today, 65.000 private customers have a STARK green card, receiving emails on a regular basis with rel-

evant offers and news and additional benefits. Customer surveys show that 75% of the mem-bers in the program, use STARK as their preferred partner.

CHeaPY LåG-PrisBYGG defines a loyal customer being a returning customer, buy-ing a significant part of the entire assortment. The discount chain of-fers loyal customers a bonuscard that gives the holder certain ben-efits. To start with, all purchases are being registered and are eligi-ble for a bonus. The bo-nus is calculated on a monthly basis. On top of this, card holders benefit from exclusive monthly special offers. But does it work? “Yes, extremely well”, says Eric Cardell, responsi-ble for Cheapy’s loyal-ty program. “Card hold-ers in average spend 4 times the amount com-pared to other custom-ers. Therefore we have done an extra effort to increase the amount of cardholders. So far, we have been able to dou-ble the sales (6%) from our cardholders com-pared to last year (3%).”

siLvaN introduced a customer card in march

this year - and to date already 15.000 custom-ers are equipped with this card giving them loads of extra benefits. The card comes with a smart on line feature: my Silvan - giving cus-tomers access to a per-sonalized area of the website. Each purchase after swiping their card, is being registered and saved here, as well as the color codes used when buying paint. Oth-er benefits are that cardholders instead of the regular two weeks have two months to swap their products, are informed about the very popular do-it-your-self evenings Silvan or-ganizes before other customers and can re-serve their spot and they have the ability to ask do it yourself ques-tions in an on-line forum where a professional expert panel answers all questions. “Wheth-er it works”, Lars Halse, responsible for the de-velopment of the cus-tomer card, “is to early to say but we can see that the opening rate of the mails we send to our cardholders is extreme-ly high, and the basket size of card holders is significantly larger than the average basket size in SILVAN.”

tendency to buy dis-counted products. “Less loyal custom-ers we divide in two groups. Category 3 and 4.” Lars explains: “Category 3 custom-ers prefer to do busi-ness with one of our competitors and deal with us if we have a good offer. They put between 20 and 50% of their budget in our cash tilts. To develop this category, we have to continuously pro-vide them with good offers and good ser-vice. We want, where possible, to show them the service lev-el we can offer them if they choose to in-crease their business with STARK.”

“Category 4 cus-tomers purchase less than 20% of their budget here. They vis-it us typically because they have a project near by one of our branches, not neces-sarily because they have any sentiments towards STARK. These customers obviously, we offer the least dis-count. In our loyalty program, we focus on the first three cate-gories, offering them world class service we know our competi-tors can’t handle. Ser-vices that help them making their working day more efficient. We want them to experi-ence that it can pay of to do business with the largest player in the market.”

Bonus cards

Do they work?

Continued from page 5

DT mAGAZINe 13

DT Magazine // spot on

We can’t live with potential safety haz-ards in our branch

DT mAGAZINe14

ranking for branches rang-ing from level one to level five, level one meaning that the branch complies 100% with both internal and exter-nal health and safety regu-lations. Level five is the low-est level and this means the branch will have to develop dramatically.

“When we visit a branch”, Harry explains, “we use a far reaching checklist that we follow. An inspection typical-ly takes up between 2 and 4 hours, depending on the size of the place. Our checklist in-cludes 4 focus areas: inter-nal traffic, ergonomics, acci-dent hazards and the formal requirements by Danish law. For each of these areas, we have multiple relevant points that we need to check. Based upon our findings we develop an action plan that we present to the managing director and his health and safety representatives. Dur-ing our screening, we take a massive amount of pictures. We use these pictures in the action plan. In the action

sAFeTyyou can’t compromise

Knud Jensen and Harry Jensen are both hard core STARK veterans. They know the business inside out. Both gents are a part of a long term strategy, making STARK an even saver place to work.

THeY are so CaLLeD work-place environment consultants, visiting all 88 branches and 5 on Greenland to check and fol-low up upon health and safe-ty. A job that requires a good understanding of existing regulations, a sharp eye for potential dangerous situ-ations, business insight and good people skills.

We catch Harry Jens-en (61) while he’s get-ting ready to visit the STARK branch in Odd-er. He doesn’t show up un announced as you might expect, but has an ap-pointment with Per Nielsen, the managing di-rector of both the locations

in Odder and Skanderborg. “It is

important to under-stand that I am here to

help the business getting better on health and safety

issues, not to disturb their busi-ness.” STARK has developed a

plan we prioritize issues based upon gravity and identify who’s responsi-ble to solve the issues we came across.”

Branches scoring in the high end, level 1 and 2, the consult-ants visit once a year whereas those ranked lower can expect to be vis-ited more fre-quently. “This is en effec-tive way to keep these branches focused upon health and safety

issues”, Harry explains. “And what is more im-portant, help them to improve. For example by showing the less per-forming branches what the better performing branches do to improve. When we started this ini-tiative the average rank-ing was over 3, now we’re at 2,6. The objective for this year is to reach an average of 2,2 but on the long term, the ambition is to get all branches on level 1.”

How to get from level 3 to level 1Two years ago when workplace environment consultant Harry Jensen visited the STARK branch in Odder, he identified a number of issues that were prone for improve-ment. They ranged from lacking floor markings, marking walking and driving areas, to wear-ing gloves when produc-ing keys. As a result, the branch was ranked at level 3.

“We can’t live with potential safety haz-ards in our branch”, says Per Nielsen, managing direc-tor in Odder and Skanderborg. “So after Harry vis-ited our branch the first time, we took the action plan and started

working with it. There were quite a

lot of issues. We divid-ed them into smaller pro-

jects and delegated the responsibility to the rel-evant people.”

“Our philosophy is and always has been that things have to be in order”, says Per. “This means that we have to live up to all health and safety requirements and regulations. I realize that I, being the leader, have to show the way. There-fore, whenever a staff member brings a safety issue under my atten-tion, I never question it but instead tell him or her to get it fixed. Doing this consistently, results in a positive approach to-wards health and safety here. If a fork truck has worn out tires, you might be able to still drive the truck for a couple of months more. But we choose to replace them right away. Safety before saving a few dimes. No-body questions this.”

“We’re a level one branch now”, says Per. “It gives staff peace of mind knowing that they op-erate in a save environ-ment. We also get ac-knowledgement from our customers who, especial-ly the smaller sized cus-tomers, ask us for advice on safety issues. It has not been an easy pro-cess and I can imagine that for certain branches it is even harder to get the job done. But I can only say it is worth do-ing it. You should never compromise on safety, it can’t pay of”.

I am here to help the business get-ting better on health and safety issues, not to dis-turb their business

DT mAGAZINe 15

smALLis beautiful

eLeCTro-oiL

Where Denmark - Nørresundby, Glostrup and

Kolding

established 1964

main products

spare parts for heating systems (oil and

gas) in private danish houses

main customers

specialized heating fitters

staff

26

special Highly specialized and professional in a

very distinct niche when it comes to the

issues of private heating in Denmark.

This is what electro-Oil is good at and will

stick with.

DT Magazine // Thermometer

DaNisH eLeCTro-oiL is a small gem that lives a relatively quiet but good life. The com-pany is the leading sup-plier of spares for gas and oil heated systems in Denmark. They have their headquarters in Glostrup and offices in Kolding and Nørresund-by. This setup enables them to service cus-tomers nationwide.

Electro-Oil Int. A/S

(Electro-Oil) was estab-lished as a subsidiary of Electro-Oil AB I Swe-den in 1963. In 1996 the company was acquired by Wolseley. Today Electro-Oil reports to STARK and DT Group.

Twenty-six highly dedicated employees ensure the company a significant profit. With a lucrative market - it is tempting to consid-er a ‘business as usu-al’ approach. Not a vi-

Size does matter. Or what? In DT Magazine you are used to

read about Stark, Beijer Bygg-material and the other large

companies in DT Group.

But what about the smaller companies? Who are they,

what do they do?

Christian Gulløv managing director, electro-oil

DT mAGAZINe16

HeLaTUKKU Finland oy

Where seinajoki, western Finland

industry Helatukku Finland Oy engages in the im-

port, wholesale, and supply of furniture

fittings

established 1982

main products Furniture fittings including hinges,

drawers, handles, mechanisms, wire

products, supports, connection fittings,

ornamental bands, feet, accessories,

other fittings, and sinks.

main customers

Furniture processing companies - mainly

the kitchen cabinet manufacturing

industry in Finland, russia, estonia and

sweden.

staff 23

special A professional and efficient team that

has been working in the industry for

many years and therefore has the know

how and experience to give customers

the very best advice.

Ceo Ari Pölkky

Website www.helatukku.com

Telephone 00358 64 20 08 14

HULTÉN aB Where sweden, Kungsbacka

established 40 years ago

main products Import and distribution of hardwoods from europe, North & south America, Asia - mDF, Veneered panels, Chipboard, Plywoods - edgeglued panels - mould-ings main customers ??

staff

10 special What makes HuLTÉN special is the fan-tastic quality of the raw material, which creates a solid business fundament, as well as the relations the company has with customers. HuLTÉN loves to create long lasting relations with its customers.

Ceo michael Kristensen Website www.hulten.nu Telephone 0046 (0)300 180 00

able strategy if you ask Christian Gulløv, the managing director of Electro-Oil. “Our strat-egy so far has been to stay away from price wars, in which we suc-ceeded due to our strong focus on our added value. In Electro-Oil serving customers is about being a reliable partner at any time, re-gardless whether the customers is a large service organization

or a small independ-ent installer. The key to our success has been being the best, not in price, but in product availability, quick cor-rect and friendly guid-ance in technical issues, first class market lead-ing catalogue material, and last but not least a flexible attitude from our dedicated employ-ees towards our cus-tomers. This strategy has secured a steady

HT BeNDiX as Where Denmark, Herning, ringkøbing

industry HT BeNDIX is a dis-tributor of fittings and accessories for the furniture-, kitchen-, and wood industry

established 1971

main products Fittings and accesso-ries for the furniture, kitchen, and wood industries, includ-ing handles, hinges, screws, castors, drawer extensions, table legs, wire articles and light-ing

main customers Kitchen supply firms

staff 53

special Thanks to our extensive network and great knowledge of the business, we are able to offer our custom-ers the latest available products and the best available advice.

Ceo Kaj Østergaard

Website www.htbendix.dk

Telephone 0045 96 26 33 11

DT mAGAZINe 17

iNTerWooD as Where Norway, Drammen

industry Wholesale timber

established 1959

main products Timber, Veneer, plates (mDF, plywood, chipboard and laminates), and Laminates

main customers Interwood is a leading supplier to the wood process-ing industry in Norway and has both private and professional customers

staff 10

special Interwood has a modern warehouse of approxi-mately 3300 m2. Interwood aims to be the market leader in terms of competences, product range and accessibility. The products we sell are of an excel-lent quality. Besides, we have very good looking and professional staff.

Ceo Nils Wilhelm Johnsen

Website www.interwood.no

Telephone 47 32 21 83 80

oPC (oscar Peschard Co)

Where Norway, Kristiansand

established 1993

main products Wholesaler of Fjordal quality wooden

floors

main customers

retailers selling floors

staff 15

special Fast delivery, excellent service

Website www.fjordal.no

Telephone 0047 38 18 44 00

growth over the past ten years.”

“We should howev-er not make the mis-take and believe that we can continue grow-ing unless we adept to the current market sit-uation. The market is declining, the availabil-ity of fossil fuels is de-creasing and prices are under pressure due to fierce competition. If we don’t act, we sooner or later will be challenged severely in our profita-bility”, says Christian.

The objective for the next three to five years is to create a

situation where price once again becomes a secondary parameter. As a part of the strat-egy, Electro-Oil has launched into new seg-ments within sustain-able ways to heat build-ings, for example bio fuel and Heat pumps. “We will of course not neglect what made us great to start with, but we are keen to develop the company and our products so they are synchronized with the demand of our present and new customers”, says Christian.

H.r. saNDvoLD as Where Norway, Haugesund

industry Wholesale of hardware, plumbing and heating equipment

established 1968

main products Plumbing fixtures and accessories (pipes, tubes and fittings, transmissions, pumps hydraulic valves, ventilation ac-cessories)

main customers Plumbers, entrepreneurs, sheet metal workers, industrial professionals and companies within the marine and off-shore industry

staff

15

special Fast delivery and excellent service

Ceo Håkon sandvold

Website

www.sandvold.no

Telephone 0047 - 52 70 20 00

DT Magazine // Thermometer

DT mAGAZINe18

DT Magazine // News

sTarK has reached an agreement with HusCompagniet to become their ex-clusive supplier for building material. HusCompagniet is Denmarks largest construction compa-ny for new houses. Every fourth house in Denmark is build by the 850 people working for HusCom-pagniet. They build five houses a day! STARK is going to deliver materi-

al to approximate-ly 1.000 houses a year. HusCompagni-et wishes to consoli-date and as a stra-tegic consequence they were looking for one exclusive sup-plier. STARK pitched on the project to-gether with a few close competitors. HusCompagniet was already a large cus-tomer but STARK was among the four preferred suppliers. Now STARK is the only supplier. STARK

developed a spe-cial logistic system for the customer fo-cusing on effectivity and takes a stake in solving and prevent-ing customer issues HusCompagniet

might run into. The deal is estimated to be worth around 250 million DKK.

HusCompagniet chooses sTarK

Continuedfrom page 7

bulbs are also made using a very small amount of mercury. This doesn’t cause problems when the light bulb is in use but it must be dis-posed of very care-fully. It is not ideal for discarded light bulbs to end up in landfill. Recycling is available through the WEEE recycling initiative. During recycling, the mercury is removed from each lamp and is then reused.

silvansilvan sells ap-proximately 650.000 bulbs a year, among them of course the tradi-tional bulbs, energy saving bulbs, halogen bulbs and LED bulbs. Even though approxi-mately 200.000 of the bulbs sold are en-ergy saving bulbs, the majority still chooses traditional bulbs.

People in gener-al think that energy saving bulbs have a cold glow compared to their alternatives. This is a pity as en-ergy saving bulbs last longer and use con-siderably less pow-er. A good alterna-tive that increasingly finds their way into the shopping baskets is the halogen bulb, which compared

to traditional bulbs saves up to 30% en-ergy but matches the glow of traditional bulbs very well.

LED bulbs last up to ten times more than traditional bulbs but they are not available in all required shapes and forms yet. Silvan sells around 13.000 LED bulbs a year.

DT Magazine // The story of ...

DT mAGAZINe 19

Creating the right dynamicsBeijer Byggmaterialuse the DIsC assessment method in team situations

A better balanced team

Project file:

Division:Idea:

Result:

DT Magazine // ideas@work

Ideas@work is DT magazines’ non exclusive white board where

we share ideas from all the divisions. The quality of

the idea is not dependent on whether your office is

the board room or the cabin of a truck. Neither does

the idea have to have rocket science potential. On the

contrary, we love sticky, applicable ideas that easily

can be copied by others.

KnowIng yourseLF gives you power

FraNz ÖBerG (35) is the XX? for Bei-jer Byggmaterial in the middle of Nor-rlan??, Sweden. He has been working for the company for nine years and through-out his career he has tried a number of dif-ferent personality

tests. But none man-aged to impress him in the way the DISC assessment does. “It was love at first sight”, says Franz. “I was introduced to DISC for the first time last year, while participating in a Nordic leader’s pro-ject. When I came

home, I tried to test in my teams, with a stunning result.”

DISC is not a new test. It has been around for eighty or more years. It was US psycholo-gist William Moulton Marston who de-veloped the test. Moulton Marston

died in 1947, and with him his be-lief that women are more honest and trustworthy. This be-lief however, hasn’t stopped DISC from becoming one of the most popular per-sonally tests in the Western world. The original test has

It was love at first sight

DT mAGAZINe20

been altered and developed to fit a lot of different situ-ations and needs, making DISC one of the most applicable tests available on the market.

“You can use the test both in your private life as well as professionally”, Says Franz. “DISC is clarifying but at the same time easy to use. One could imag-ine that some peo-ple might find it a bit buffeting to do a personality- test but that wasn’t at all the feedback I got from my team. On the contrary, people thought is was ex-citing and interest-ing. The test brought us a greater level of understanding of

the team dynamics that we experience every day. It opened up our eyes for a lot of things like our in-dividual strong and weak points.”

“Knowing what you’re good at, or not good at, is a ma-jor help in your work”, Franz explains. “We used the test both in my leader team but also on staff working at the main office in Örnsköldsvik. The re-sults of the test lead to some rearrange-ments in the group - to both strengthen the group dynam-ics and make the team more effective. We learn a lot about our own personali-ties and also our col-leagues’ personali-ties. Meaning that

we can take those into consideration at work. This creates a better atmosphere. It also enables us to ensure that we have the right people with the right personali-ties and set of com-

petencies in the right place. That will im-prove the service we offer our custom-ers.”

You can use the test both in your private life as well as profes-sionally

Know-ing what you’re good at, or not good at, is a major help in your work

DT mAGAZINe 21

DT Magazine // Do it yourself

THe CoNCePT is simple. You find an inspiring topic. Pref-erably one that ei-ther fits the sea-son or is in fashion, like the energy sav-ing course. Once the topic is pinpointed, you invite custom-ers. Loyal custom-ers, the 15.000 hold-ing a customer card,

are the first ones the be informed by mail of courses coming up. Second in line are custom-ers who signed up for Silvans newslet-ters and last but not least, the courses are announced in Silvans’ brochures. All 40 stores partici-pate so customers can attend in their

How do you make optimal use of your grill? How do you put up tiles in your

bathroom? How do you turn your home into a green home with energy saving

initiatives?

These are just a few examples of past Do it Yourself courses organized by

silvan for their customers. With success. Customers, come, they learn

– and they return. To buy of course.

sILvAnLearn how to with

Do it yourself:

The Do It Yourself demon-strations are done by local Silvan staff

A lot of customers

leave the courses buy-ing products

right away

DT mAGAZINe22

local Silvan outlet. The courses are well visited. An average of 1.000 people per course. Particular popular courses can generate up to 1.300 visitors.

The Do It Yourself demon-strations are done by local Silvan staff. They are trained to make sure that they are able to demon-strate correctly. Sometimes rel-evant suppliers are invited as well to tell something about their products. The idea itself might be quite simple, it re-quires quite some organization and in-volvement both from HR, marketing and product managers. It’s worth the effort though as the suc-cess criteria, are met

every time.The objective is

for Silvan to teach customers the skills and competences to initiate their own Do It Yourself pro-jects. As well as give

them, and the stores, a good experience. The popularity of the initiative is immense. Some courses are overbooked and as a result repeated. Cus-tomers evaluate the courses positive in the standard forms Silvan asks custom-ers to fill out. Cus-tomers unsolicited send enthusiastic, heartwarming thank you mails to the Sil-van organization and if you google the courses, you will find quite an amount of people that have at-tended the courses giving positive feed-back for example on their blogs.

During the cours-es, customers can buy the material and

Grilling unisex?in the past, sil-van had success with women only courses. The lat-est course, the grill course, has been the first course that was exclusively for

men. This got a lot of women to re-act since they obvi-ously are interested in learning how to properly use their grill as well. This made Silvan consid-

er to organize a sim-ilar course for wom-en as well. It kind of tells you how popu-lar these initiatives really are.

tools needed for the completion of the particular task they learn about. There’s always a special of-fer for attendees as well. A lot of custom-ers leave the cours-es buying products right away. Others happily accept spe-cial discount vouch-ers they can use later on when they have made up their mind. Silvan organiz-es four Do It Yourself schools a year.

The ob-jective is for Silvan to teach customers the skills and com-petences to initi-ate their own Do It Yourself projects

During the courses, customers can buy the material and tools needed

DT mAGAZINe 23

YOU

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AY T

Ax O

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hE

PRIz

E

and the winner is ...The happy winner of the iPad from the spring quiz is: Michael Møller Pedersen, from Silvan AalborgCongratulations Michael!

Name:Address:

Zip and City:Country:

Phone:E-mail:

Employed at:

1:2:3:4:5:

A B C send this coupon to:

DT GroupAttn.: Charlotte Gullach BüttrichGladsaxe møllevej 52860 søborg (Denmark)

1 How many people are signed up to sTarK’s green concept?

A 45.000 B 55.000 C 65.000

2 How many silvan customers have a customer card?

A 5.000 B 10.000 C 15.000

3 What is the most effec-tive way to save money on your electricity bill?

A Switch of the light whenev-er you are leaving the room

B Swap all conventional light bulbs with energy saving bulbs

C Both A and B

4 What is the main business area of electro oil?

A Fuel and oil B Heating

solutions C IT Services

5 How many energy saving light bulbs does sil-van sell?

A 15.000 B 200.000 C 650.000

iPhoneWin an

How well are you informed of what happens in DT Group? answer these questions below and win an iPhone 4! It has 16 GB and comes without subscription but is of course sim unlocked so you can use your own sim card in your brand new smart phone.

iPhone 416 GB

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seND YoUr aNsWers BeFore aUGUsT 12TH, 2011use the coupon below or send your answers by e-mail to: quiz@dtmagazine.dk