Älvsbyhus AB
MD Kent Johansson
28
SWEDEN’S BIGGEST BUILDER OF SMALL HOUSES – AGAIN! “There’s a general downward trend in construction in the Nordic region as a whole and in the Swedish market in particular, but we’re nevertheless confident about the future,” says Kent Johansson, MD of Älvsbyhus AB. “The volume of construction that we’ll see in 2012 will represent something like a 50% drop, which is of course negative, but at the same time we’re slowly but surely winning back the market shares we lost two years ago. Although we were occasionally in 2nd place in 2011, we won back the lead and once more and sold the most houses in Sweden in 2011. “In 2011 we built a total of 950 houses, and the forecast for 2012 is that the figure will be around 800. We’re running our factories at more or less half pace and waiting for better times. Because we know that they’ll come, it’s difficult to say exactly when, but I expect us to see things starting to improve in the second half of next year.
“House number 35,000 was delivered during the year. That went to a family on the Åland Islands. House number 34,000 was delivered to Norway and in 2012 house number 36,000 was delivered to Gällivare. We’re a Nordic group of companies that helps people to realise their dreams of a new home. “This year we’ve seriously got to grips with social media. We’ve also invested a lot in quality in recent years, as well as continuing with our product development. We’ve definitely seen a genuine upgrading of our houses, especially the interiors, which is really appreciated by those doing the building. We’re also involved in developments in terms of using new technical solutions, and are building houses that are more energyefficient than specified by requirements. All in all, we’ve really smartened up the product without needing to increase the price significantly. “We’ve created a financing package that has meant that there was no dividend to shareholders, but we