Danish Crown has always had good sales and a reasonable level of business with the Swedes. The country is close to Denmark, and Swedish consumers are good customers who demand almost the same products as their Danish neighbours. In the latest strategy plan, it was agreed to forge even stronger links to Sweden.

Therefore, two years ago Danish Crown acquired two pork slaughterhouses – KLS in Kalmar and Ugglarps near Trelleborg – and part of the cattle slaughterhouse Team Ugglarp in Hörby, in which Danish Crown holds a 51 per cent stake.

At the beginning of last year, the first sod was cut for one of Europe’s most modern retail-packaging facilities in Jönköping – K-Pack – which was inaugurated at the end of January this year. And in connection with DC Future, a completely new structure was announced in May 2009 for sales to the Nordic market under a joint umbrella – DC Nordic.

We have created a unit with strong focus on value creation. We engage in close dialogue with customers, and our employees strive to keep in close contact with the market to feel and hear what is happening in the individual areas, says Karsten Deibjerg Kristensen, CEO of DC Nordic.

In addition to the three slaughterhouses under DC Livsmedel and K-Pack, DC Nordic consists of Friland, the Domestic market department and foodservice.

Increasing market share
Danish Crown’s pig slaughterhouses in Kalmar and Ugglarp have managed to increase their market share in the hard-pressed Swedish market. Slaughterings at the two slaughterhouses, KLS and Ugglarps, increased by 14.7 per cent and 16.1 per cent respectively in Q2 2009 relative to the same period last year. This is at a time when overall slaughterings in Sweden have fallen by 5 per cent.

The Swedish market is very competitive and dominated by several large players, and we are therefore very proud that so many Swedish pig producers have decided to work with Danish Crown, says Karsten Deibjerg Kristensen, adding that this puts Danish Crown in second place with a comfortable margin in the Swedish market for pig slaughterings. At the same time, cattle slaughterings at Team Ugglarps in Hörby have increased from 400 animals to about 1,300 a week after the plant was modernised and an agreement reached with Scan AB on slaughtering cattle.

Close collaboration
Danish Crown has decided to concentrate its activities in the densely populated southern part of the country where the logistics pose less of a challenge. The K-Pack retailpackaging facility, which is designed to deliver 400 tonnes of packed foods to Axfood’s supermarket chains Willys and Hemköp, is situatedin the middle of the region.

K-Pack is a good example of how we are able to build up a close working relationship with a leading player in an important near market. We already possess considerable experience from developing sales in markets where we are locally represented. This is true for both the UK and Poland, where sales are largerbecause of access to local raw materials. In the same way, we expect the interplay between our slaughterhousesand the retail-packaging facility to positively influence future sales in Sweden, explains Karsten Deibjerg Kristensen.