Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Active Denmark
Our gardens in safe hands With innovative technology, high-quality tools and excellent customer service, STIHL and VIKING make the perfect team for garden maintenance – so that you can free up your time to focus on the more fun and creative side of gardening, or whatever else takes your fancy. By Malin Norman | Photos: STIHL and VIKING
STIHL Group was founded in Germany by Andreas Stihl in 1926, when he had the idea for his first chainsaw. Growing from a one-man business into a global company, it has been the world’s biggest-selling chainsaw brand since 1971. Celebrating 90 years in the industry this year, STIHL is still a family-owned business with around 14,000 employees worldwide and nearly 3.3 billion euros in revenue.
for garden and landscape maintenance, the construction sector and private users. Though best known for its premium power tools for professionals, the consumer side is growing fast in Scandinavia. The company markets its products under two brands: STIHL for all portable power tools, and the Austrian subsidiary VIKING, specialised in lawn mowers and grass care.
Today, STIHL develops, manufactures and distributes power tools for professional forestry and agriculture as well as
With passion for green
58 | Issue 88 | May 2016
The big new trend on the consumer side is robotic lawn mowers, the ideal help-
ers for the garden. VIKING has been a lawn care specialist a long time and has seen rapid growth particularly in the past five years. “Scandinavia is the leading market for robotic lawn mowers, probably because of the relatively big gardens we have over here, and people are keen on keeping up with ecological trends as well as new innovative products,” explains marketing manager Jari Heiskanen. “The lawn really is the base of the garden. If it can take care of itself with the help of our lawn mower, people can focus on the more fun side of gardening, such as designing the garden space and choosing the combination of trees and plants.” The robotic lawn mowers are available in different models and sizes, suitable for private gardens but also for hotels and