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KSL TRADING AB

KSL Trading AB was founded in 1997 and acquired by Peter Jonsson and another nonfamily owner in 2012, when they wanted to change their careers after working in the same sector of wood material since 1994. In 2014, Peter’s son, Linus Jonsson, joined the firm in the sales function. Later in 2018, he bought out 50% of the shares from the nonfamily owner. After years of working together, Peter has now transferred the CEO role to Linus, who now has majority of ownership (51% of total shares), while continuing to work in the function of business development.

Peter and Linus are the main family members involved in the firm, whereas the other family members, including Peter’s wife and two other sons, work in the education sector unrelated to the business. Under the leadership of Peter and Linus, the business has significantly increased in revenue from approximately 19 million SEK in 2012 to 107 million SEK in 2024. As a wholesaling company for wood materials, they work closely with customers and suppliers in their supply chain. Their customers are located mainly in Sweden, such as Norrebo Träindustri AB (another family firm in the region), and suppliers are from other European countries, such as Germany.

In addition to Peter and Linus as the main owners and managers, other nonfamily members are deeply involved in the business decision-making process. Specifically, the sustainability practices of KSL rely heavily on the nonfamily manager Helena Johanzon. She and Linus tend to identify sustainability projects together with the rest of the management team and then propose the projects to the board, where Peter, Linus, and two other nonfamily directors vote on the proposal. Although Peter and the other nonfamily directors are not as directly involved in implementing sustainability projects as Linus and Helena are, they both think that sustainability is something they have to do. This is particularly important for a wholesaling company like KSL, which tends to face pressure from both customers and suppliers, who need sustainability information for their own products/services. Therefore, the family has highlighted interorganizational collaboration with its customers and suppliers to introduce sustainability practices into its business model.

Country

Sweden

Greening processes

Waste management

Greening workplace

Sustainable consumption

Company size headcount

<50

Company size turnover

< Around 10m

Interviewed

Incumbent (senior generation), Successor (next generation)

Industry

Wholesale and Retail Trade

Sustainability transition

Reporting and certification

KSL’s sustainability journey starts with introducing environmental reporting and certification, including tracking their greenhouse gas emission during their production process, obtaining the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for their products, and issuing the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). Such information and certificates are increasingly required by suppliers and customers in the industry, such as Norrebo, to prove the sustainable nature of their products, such as furniture. If the family firm did not provide such information, it would run the “risk of losing major customers and suppliers to competitors” who can provide such information, as Linus has shared. Therefore, even if the family firm does not have the resources to track the environmental footprint of all its products, it concentrates on monitoring products for major customers/suppliers.

Members of the family firm have utilized all possible resources to develop their own enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to monitor the firm’s environmental footprint. For example, Helena and her colleagues learned about all the reporting and certification procedures themselves. They have also exchanged experiences regarding best practices with their customers and suppliers. For instance, they often discuss and compare calculation methods for the scope of emissions with their customer, Norrebo. Additionally, they have started a collaboration with Jönköping International Business School through course engagement and internship programs to help collect data and integrate sustainability reporting into its ERP system.

 

Building a new warehouse

The company has started building a new warehouse with better design and infrastructure to expand its production capacity and better control its energy consumption. The current warehouse was built in the 1950s and thus has issues with limited capacity and insulation. When the new warehouse is completed in 2025, the family will install one more piece of machinery to increase its production capacity. Moreover, there will be a better collection system for wood dust after processing the wood material. By better recycling wood dust, the new warehouse helps the family reduce waste and even results in additional sales of the collected wood dust. Finally, the new warehouse will have a better insulation design to prevent energy loss. It will also switch to sensor lighting to optimize energy consumption.

As KSL has international customers and suppliers, it is critical that they pay attention to following international rules and directives at the European Union level rather than merely following Swedish regulations. As such, the family emphasizes the need to continue its current cross-organizational collaboration. They pay particular attention to collecting data from their customers and suppliers and checking whether the data is relevant for their own sustainability reporting.

After relocating to the new warehouse, they will also explore other possibilities to further mitigate their environmental footprint. When the transition is settled, the family may look beyond controlling their energy consumption by searching for renewable energy sources. For example, they may consider installing solar panels at the new warehouse and switching to transportation companies that drive electric vehicles to transport their products.

Learning points and actions to consider

During the journey, members of KSL highlighted the important role of the family, including the owners and CEO, in driving the whole initiative, as Helena shared. If the family did not agree with these sustainability initiatives, it would be difficult for the operational team to engage employees in implementing these initiatives. After seeing the proactive engagement of the family, the top management team, and major customers and suppliers in the initiative, employees gradually become more engaged in implementing the practice.

Another key reflection lies in responses to key stakeholders. Linus highlighted that these sustainability practices are key to keeping the business alive and relevant to stakeholders. For family small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) such as KSL and Norrebo, which have limited resources, it is therefore important to carefully structure and organize their sustainability activities. Rather than spending resources on all sustainability topics, family SMEs should focus on the topics that are most relevant and important for their operations and major stakeholders, such as customers and suppliers.

When planning for future sustainability projects, members of KSL wonder how they can balance their own economic goals and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Although they aim to continue developing their products and advance business revenues, they are also concerned that becoming a large business may increase the organizational bureaucracy and undermine their agility in responding to changes in customers’ needs and the market.

Reflections

  • What do family members and top management think about the green transition process to be initiated in the company?
  • What will be the reaction of the company’s stakeholders to the green transition process?

Contact us

Project Coordinator:
Thomas Blum – RegioVision GmbH
blum@regiovision-sn.de

Communication and Press:
Kristýna Strnadová
strnadova@amsp.cz

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Project Number: 2023-1-DE02-KA220-VET-000157996

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

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