News: All about: HF Marin Sweden
When HF Marin Sweden’s Founder and Managing Director Krister Bewert returned from a nine-year trans-Atlantic voyage, he didn’t know what the future would hold. Then, he got a golden opportunity to distribute WEST SYSTEM® and PRO-SET® epoxy to boatbuilders and repair yards across Sweden and he’s never looked back.
When my wife, Gunilla, and I decided to take a life break, we ended up sailing across the Atlantic and spending nine years in the Caribbean, South America and on the US Eastern Seaboard. During that time, I worked fitting out boats and also captained other people’s boats, which was a great experience.
When we finally decided to come home in 2012, we set up a small Chandlery store in my home town of Kristinehamn, Sweden. I wanted to get involved in something bigger, though, and that turned out to be WEST SYSTEM epoxy.
Firm foundations for a successful business
On our voyage, I came across WEST SYSTEM epoxy time and time again. I knew it was a great product and I wanted to distribute it in Sweden: I just didn’t know how to go about it.
Then, I was lucky to meet Hans Fokdal, Managing Director of HF Industri & Marine in Denmark. We discussed the business potential for distributing WEST SYSTEM brands in Sweden and we got the license we needed from West System International.
Reaching chandlery stores across Sweden
In just four years, we’ve extended our network of customers to include virtually all the chandlery stores in Sweden. We go to visit our customers and provide training and support so they can sell the products effectively to local boat builders and repairers.
We’ve had great support from the West System International team to get where we are today. There have even been occasions where their experts have come with us to visit customers, which gives us a huge amount of credibility. Our customers think, “wow, the guys from the manufacturer are here” and that really influences how much they trust us.
Supporting commercial customers
As well as WEST SYSTEM products, we see a huge opportunity to distribute PRO-SET epoxy to commercial customers in Sweden. I’ve been building my knowledge about the PRO-SET epoxy range and I’ve attended a specialised training session in Romsey. This will allow me to grow our PRO-SET sales incrementally, and to support our commercial customers effectively.
The only way is up
We’re proud of what we’ve achieved at HF Marin and the WEST SYSTEM brand is playing a huge part in our success. I also still get to hang around boats and boat builders all the time still, which means I’m happy!
Get in touch with HF Marin Sweden via their website www.hfmarinsweden.se.
If you have a technical enquiry or want to learn more about WEST SYSTEM and PRO-SET products, find the support pages on the West System International website.
If you’d like your boatbuilding knowledge profiled on epoxycraft, contact us.
