HSP Gripen is growing rapidly and in addition to hiring, investing and increasing production, the company is also now expanding the area of its premises. By expanding our existing premises by an additional 1,350 m², we will now have space to streamline manufacturing operations so that, among other things, we can series produce the largest products with an unladen weight of more than 4 tonnes. Everything under one roof.
We now have 5 new welding booths and 2 new employees but also the construction of a completely new final testing facility that will serve both as a laboratory in the production phase and a place where customers’ products can undergo an end-of-line inspection on the premises.
“This is huge and we are eager to get started so we will begin testing soon and are planning to have the facility in full operation after the holidays,” says Janolof Joelsson, Marketing Manager.
But that’s not all.
”At the same time, we will be investing in a new multi-function Okuma lathe from Stenbergs in order to further speed up production and discussions on a third welding robot cell are well underway. All in all, our investments mean that we can further reinforce our position as a market leader,” says Managing Director, Tomas Jonsson.
“In recent years, there is new competition on the market due to the arrival of new players, but we will continue with our winning strategy of being the best in our niche with the highest possible quality. Why change a winning concept when we know that the set-up works and this is confirmed by our customers on a daily basis,” says Janolof adding “competition only makes us run faster.”
“Our order books are also full,” Tomas states. The way demand looks at the moment, we could still occupy the same sized facility as we do today. However, it is not realistic to put such activities into operation overnight. It will take a few years to reach that capacity; furthermore, we do not want to get into a situation where we we will not be able to obtain skilled employees.
Skilled workers are available in the area, but they are working in other manufacturing companies. We will not help Hudiksvall if we take personnel from other companies. Instead we are cooperating with different educational programmes where we are offering trainee positions and looking for personnel coming from other professions. By supplementing this with on-going in-service training, we have found a successful way of recruiting new personnel.
“In addition, we are annually investing more than SEK 1 million in personnel in addition to profit-sharing, preventive health care measures and skills development; we would not be where we are today without our personnel. By investing in personnel, we also hope that more people will become interested in the industry and will want to stay in the area. Or even move back home again,” Tomas concludes with a slight laugh.
