We are a long-term partner
Optimera is one of Sweden’s leading chains of builders’ merchants for the trade. Their partnership with NWP and Norra Timber has been running since 2007, and at times Optimera has been by far the biggest customer for building products.
Copy: Karolina Edstedt
Photo: Sandra Lee Pettersson
Published: 2021-06-08
“We’re part of a group called Saint-Gobain, which is the biggest player in the European market. Our system shows us how everyone is acting, and we get a very clear picture. We have often given signals that ‘you went a bit wrong in both directions there, you were too cautious here and here you were a little too aggressive on some consignments’. In many cases, I think we’ve spotted what’s happening in the market before Norra Timber has. I feel we have quite an open dialogue and good interaction. I also speak to Marketing Manager Erik Eliasson a lot to gain a broader view. We have good communication on many fronts, just like we did during the NWP times,” says Optimera’s Purchasing Manager Steve Olsson.
“Communication is vital,” he continues. “From our perspective, the challenge lies in the time between negotiations and discussions, getting the products coming in and then, in the next phase, delivering to our customers. There are so many different timeframes and agreement periods. Our customers remember the low price and as far as they’re concerned that price is always the right one.” Steve’s lead contact at Norra Timber is salesman Erik Högbom. He is working hard to find solutions for his customer, despite low stocks.
“My job is to constantly follow up on the volumes that we’ve told Optimera we can deliver. And here, it’s also important to make sure we don’t use up too much stock. We
want to ensure that we can deliver and that we can do so for the whole season, so we don’t give Optimera larger volumes than we can source right now and then in June we have nothing left. Nobody benefits from that. The same applies for all our other customers. As Steve says, communication is vital, even when the market isn’t so buoyant. We look at what volumes are available, what demand there is in the market and what we should focus on. It might be a case of switching from certain profiled products to regular exterior cladding, because that’s where the demand is at the time, in which case we downscale the budget accordingly,” states Erik.
“Communication is vital,” he continues. “From our perspective, the challenge lies in the time between negotiations and discussions, getting the products coming in and then, in the next phase, delivering to our customers. There are so many different timeframes and agreement periods. Our customers remember the low price and as far as they’re concerned that price is always the right one.” Steve’s lead contact at Norra Timber is salesman Erik Högbom. He is working hard to find solutions for his customer, despite low stocks.
“My job is to constantly follow up on the volumes that we’ve told Optimera we can deliver. And here, it’s also important to make sure we don’t use up too much stock. We
want to ensure that we can deliver and that we can do so for the whole season, so we don’t give Optimera larger volumes than we can source right now and then in June we have nothing left. Nobody benefits from that. The same applies for all our other customers. As Steve says, communication is vital, even when the market isn’t so buoyant. We look at what volumes are available, what demand there is in the market and what we should focus on. It might be a case of switching from certain profiled products to regular exterior cladding, because that’s where the demand is at the time, in which case we downscale the budget accordingly,” states Erik.
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