Building for the future in Scandinavia

Moelven is a Scandinavian industrial group that has been producing building products and systems for the construction industry for more than a century. It is focused on supplying socially beneficial products and services using sustainable spruce and pine as its raw materials.

Having evolved from a single factory producing wagon wheels to an international timber processing group, the company also sells raw materials for processing in other industries.

Project manager, Geir Rønning, has been with Moelven Byggmodul for seven years. “My role is team leader in the logistics department, which has 12 employees,” he explains. “My other responsibilities include the forklift truck fleet as well as the finished products we stock in the warehouse.”

Moelven Byggmodul’s mission statement can be translated as ‘The natural choice for people who are going to build and live Scandinavian’. It has grown on the back of increasing interest in Scandinavian construction, not just within the region but across the world.

“We have many customers outside Scandinavia,” says Rønning. “Our customer base is not quite worldwide, but we are certainly an international business.”

Kalmar forklift trucks since 1988

As with many other companies in this industry and beyond, the circumstances presented by the coronavirus pandemic have created specific challenges around obtaining components for the production process.

“There has been a definite strain on logistics,” says Rønning. “Managing the supply chain is always a challenge, but it has become even more difficult since the outbreak of the pandemic.” In this context, Moelven Byggmodul’s relationship with Kalmar has proved particularly valuable over the last 12 months.

“The machines are of really high quality and are very reliable, as you can see from the fact that the machine we bought 33 years ago that is still in use.”

“We bought our first Kalmar forklift truck in 1988 and we are still using it 33 years later.  In addition to this 12 ton truck, we have two 25 ton Kalmar forklifts, one of which was purchased in 2005 and the other earlier this year. We also use forklift trucks from other manufacturers, but they don’t have the lifting capacity of the Kalmar machines.”

This is an important consideration for the company and one of the reasons why it has used Kalmar machines over the last five decades.

“The machines are of really high quality and are very reliable, as you can see from the fact that the machine we bought 33 years ago that is still in use,” says Rønning. “They are built to handle the toughest weather conditions and are used for very heavy operations.”

Service throughout the pandemic

To put this in perspective, the modules produced by Moelven Byggmodul weigh between three and 12 tons each. They are large (ranging from 2.5 metres up to 4.2 metres wide) and vary in length from 5.5 metres to 11 metres, so the company needs big machinery to handle them - machinery that has proven its reliability in the demanding Scandinavian conditions.

“Kalmar has managed to maintain service and maintenance schedules throughout the pandemic while keeping our people and their own staff safe.”

The after sales service provided by Kalmar is also very important. “We need quick and easy access to service and maintenance resources to minimise downtime that can negatively affect operations,” says Rønning.  “Kalmar has managed to maintain service and maintenance schedules throughout the pandemic while keeping our people and their own staff safe.”

Indeed, Moelven Byggmodul is so pleased with the service it receives from Kalmar that it has started the process of buying another machine to replace its now venerable 12 ton forklift truck.