"Stable food production is becoming increasingly important"

Anders Ludvigson has been President of Svensson for just over eight months. He took over from his sister Anne. Both of them belong to the fourth generation of Ludvigson’s. They head up the Swedish textile manufacturer of climate screens and interior textiles. We talk to him about the family business and the future of Svensson.

In 1999, the then Director of the Dutch subsidiary Cees den Boer invited him to come to Hellevoetsluis and take charge. Since 1985 this had been the site of the central warehouse for the Netherlands and later on for the rest of Europe. “Up till that point in time I was working for the Swedish company Intentia. I was supplying ERP systems [Enterprise Resource Planning - ed.]. My father Ivan didn’t put any pressure on me to start working for the family business. It was something I did entirely of my own free will. It was my time. That's the strength of a family business like ours. The family members who choose to work there do so off their own back and not because that's what mum or dad want. An external supervisory board subjects us to scrutiny to see whether we are the right people for positions within the company. Otherwise it’s game over. It’s about getting the business to progress, to enable the next generation to enjoy the prospect of working here if they wish.”

Read more at the Svensson website.