Ian Saville is Store Manager of the first Clas Ohlson shop
Erica Ahvenkosk and Sandra Salama love their job at Clas
outside Scandinavia, soon another will open in Manchester.
Ohlson.
they received extensive technical training which has proved invaluable to the success of the store, but Saville was even more impressed by the unique Clas Ohlson culture. “It was all about mutual respect and when I visited Insjön, I realised that everybody at the head office breathed that culture, whether it was the CEO or the guy cleaning the floor,” he said.
ter in April, and during the next year the plan is to open between four to eight new stores. Another big step in their development was the recent launch of the first UK catalogue, which the retailer hopes will be just as popular as in Sweden, where it has become almost a collector’s item.
The experience and environment impressed Saville, who brought home an ice-hockey shirt from the local team sponsored by Clas Ohlson and, of course, a wooden moose to decorate his office. “It was an amazing place. Insjön is a really small village with a population of around 2,200, but they have a very state-of-the-art head office there,” he says. The significance of Clas Ohlson in Insjön and the rest of Sweden is maybe best demonstrated by the fact that the village has its own Clas Ohlson museum and a nearby retail park for tourists. New opportunities for everybody It might be a long journey for Clas Ohlson to achieve the same kind of status in the UK, but the ambition is clearly apparent. A new store is scheduled to open in Manches-
38 | Issue 7 | April 2009
One of the team who is going to help the Manchester store get up and running is 26-year-old Erica Ahvenkoski from Finland. She has just been promoted to store supervisor and is very excited about the many possibilities her job has brought forward. “There are a lot of opportunities here and if it means relocating, I am happy to do that. I just want to be a part of it all and help out,” she says. She is just one of many happy employees. The company has the lowest staff turnover among retailers in Sweden. One of the reasons is that they provide a good basic salary, but they also take very good care of their employees in general, says Saville: “From the volume of applications we received, the word is spreading that Clas Ohlson really care about their staff and treat people as equals and with mutual respect. We also provide free fresh fruit for them everyday, and a communal staff room and kitchen for