Giants underground - unknown above: ”Products that everyone really needs”
AVK Sweden AB, which sells AVK's products in Sweden, started in 2007. The firm is part of an international concern, one of the world's biggest manufacturers of valves. In spite of that, there are probably few people in Hässleholm who drive past the premises in the industrial area who know what AVK really does.
– People in general have no idea what this is, since there isn't much to see. Not many people go into a waterworks, a sewage treatment plant or a pumping station, and what we have on our own doorstep is buried underground, says Mikael Storm.
– These are products that everyone needs, to be able to flush the toilet and get water in the tap, says Annika Engel, internal sales.
If you were to explain to a ten-year-old what you do?
– I was asked to go to my son's school, Grönängsskola, and tell them what I do. The purpose of valves is to open and close for water and drainage. It is the valve that controls the flow of water in a pipe, says Mikael Storm.
About 90 per cent of their products end up in a municipality.
The concern has been at Industrigatan since 1st July this year, in premises that Hibab (Hässleholm's Industrial Buildings Ltd.) has renovated, almost twice as big as where they used to be at Växthusvägen.
– It was too small. We grew out of the place.In regard to both the number of employees and storage space. We're building with an eye to the future, to be able to grow into these premises, says Mikael Storm.
