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[Company visit] A story behind the Hästens brand
We visited a Swedish bed manufacturer called Hästens today, known for their blue-white pattered beds. First off, I couldn’t help noticing that the parking lot has some typical performance indicators. There is a helicopter parked right in front of the company to pick and return customers to the airport, the CEO parks his red sports-car right in front of the factory, while offering all sales employees a Mercedes to represent the company image. I am not materialistically challenged, but couldn’t help to wonder if these employees where overpaid. Does it makes sense to ask premium pricing for a bed produced in such an expensive country? How did this company grew so quick in five years? ( 8 million turnover to 42 million)
Jan Ryde (The CEO of Hästens) and Johanna Furulind, invited the four of us over to see the factory, when we initially met at the Jönköping Business school last month. (He gave a lecture within the scope of family business examples)
Welcomed inside, we where surprised by a two hour grand tour through the factory, accompanied with a lunch. I couldn’t help noticing that all employees (handful out of 200) greeted us with a smile, while manufacturing all beds by hand! Unfortunately, we where not allowed to take pictures inside the factory… But most exciting part to see was to see the manufacture process of ‘the best bed in the world’ - the Vividus, a bed made of “virgin steel” coils and filled with hand-teased horsehair, cotton, and wool, for an astounding 50.000!
you cannot test a bed in a store, Preferably sleep on it, or at least lie on it for 10 to 15 minutes, But if you have limited time, we encourage you to stress test it! Run towards and let yourself fall on the bed, ensuring that it would hold the weight, and jump on it if you prefer!
It was impressive to see the dedication and overall passion within the company. Today, Hästens is present in 22 countries worldwide, with the Netherlands, the United States and Finland the most important markets.
I hope you like that post!
I am a Korean based blogger and Swedish Student with articles published on websites as altsearchengines and thenextweb.org. I write about Entrepreneurship, traveling and I review Internet Applications. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed.Thanks for visiting and hope you come back again!
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Smart move by Ryde to invite you. Was he an inspiring person? What can we learn from their strategy you think? I guess that you just have to create an experience around your product…
Hi Joop,
Nice story to read, did you also got some remarkable answers from the person behind Hastens, mister Ryde? Beside the fact that he has a nice ride
Ernst-Jan - I walked out of the factory with the exact same idea, I guess its about creating a experience around the product, to get away with premium pricing. I started to wonder who would buy these beds! Actually, I tried a pillow from Hästens last night, The pillow was packed in a luxury case (allowing for travel) and congratulations with your investment label. I felt like I would have the best pillow ever, and indeed I slept really well! This morning I woke up wondering if my good night sleep was related to the product or the experience that they managed to create! I wonder how that works on the web, I am not sure if a experience is transferred in such a degree over the web, the stimulations are rather are limited to visual and audio.
I really like the visual experience of Twitter (simple and clean), but what how does a premium experience feel on the web? eg. websites that you pay for
Bart - Ryde was actually not interested in becoming a CEO for Hästens, it was until he fell in love with a classmate during his studies in NyJöping that he felt the urge to be somebody.
He got engaged to impress the world (the girl), and invited her to write the Thesis about beds together with him. This was the initial incentive to his vision on beds, creating the multinational that it is today. So, I guess its not that hard to move mountains, only you have to find a intrinsic goal in your life.
Interesting view about experience created about a product.I think, if you want to create a similar experience on the web, the personalization thing is there. I think it almost creates the same feeling, by letting you know that you are the only customer in the (virtual) shop.
Isn’t that what’s convenience good is about, buying stuff when you know on forehand that you bought quality.
How to become your website to be a convenience website, that a customer knows he did the right thing.
This is really well made performance, story around high end product. I would like to see more of them also in Slovenia.