Scan Magazine | Special Theme | A Taste of Sweden
Crisps with a love of adventure Svenska LantChips has since 1991 challenged the perception of what makes a really good bag of crisps. The secret behind their success story, as CEO Robert Arnegård discloses, is the company’s love of adventure.
so that consumers in the end only pay for good-quality crisps and not needless transportation costs.”
By Sara Wenkel | Photos: Svenska LantChips
The love of adventure is not only found within the organisation of Svenska LantChips, but also amongst its consumers. Many of them love to ski, ice skate, go camping and enjoy an active lifestyle more generally. “We have produced smaller bags of crisps that are perfect as lunchtime snacks. We don’t think crisps should be associated too much with consuming big volumes on a Friday evening,” says Arnegård, who always brings a bag of crisps when he is out canoeing. “Our whole family is very active, and we often do sports together. The most important thing is to have a rich family life,” he concludes.
Co-founder Michael Hansen had come across a delicate but simple snack on his travels through the US, inspiring him to launch Svenska LantChips together with his wife, Signhild. The couple chose to venture into a world they knew very little about and where only a few key brands dominated the market, on top of it all during the big recession in the early ‘90s. The company’s CEO and Signhild’s brother, Robert Arnegård, describes what they did as “a love of adventure”, something he sees as one of the company’s real strengths. “Some people might call us naïve, but I think that by not scrutinising everything that could potentially go wrong we have had an advantage compared to
50 | Issue 85 | February 2016
our competitors,” he explains. “We have a culture of being very curious, and we are constantly questioning why we are doing things in a certain way.” This way of thinking has encouraged Svenska LantChips to always develop and renew itself. Svenska LantChips is run by a small organisation that enables the company to create smart solutions for its clients more easily. As an example, a recent collaboration with SAS saw Svenska LantChips design a box for organic crisps optimised for the aircraft sales trolleys. “We want to optimise and improve our products to make sure that our production is sustainable,” says Arnegård. “We are making sure to minimise the waste from our products
For more information, please visit: lantchips.com