Insight

On 1^st August 2024, after a period of reorganisation, Daniel Westberg became Chief Executive Officer at Nord-Lock Group. We caught up with Daniel to discuss what this means for customers and how, as the global leader in bolting and engineering solutions, Nord-Lock is committed to delivering what its customers’ need, when they need it.

You joined Nord-Lock Group three months ago, what insights and perspectives do you bring with you? Tell us a little more about your career history.

“I spent the first 20 years of my career within the SKF Group, where I held various positions in departments such as sales, manufacturing, business development and acquisitions. Looking at the customer ecosystems, there are many similarities between SKF and Nord-Lock Group and what I’ve learned during my time at SKF is valuable. This includes insights related to manufacturing, where I can leverage my experience in high volume bearing production and apply it to the high volume manufacturing of Nord-Lock washers.

For the past eight years, I served as CEO at Ewellix, a global automation company with around 1,300 employees. Ewellix supplies components and subsystems and manages high mix, low volume production, which is similar to how the Nord-Lock Group technology brands Superbolt®, Boltight® and Expander® operate. However, learning never stops, and I continue to experience new and exciting things every day here at Nord-Lock Group.”

What are your initial impressions of Nord-Lock Group and the fastener market in general? 

“There’s plenty to be excited about when it comes to the fastener market and Nord-Lock Group’s position. The fastener market is a large and offers numerous high potential opportunities to grow our business. As the leader in the fastening industry, Nord-Lock Group is well positioned to pursue opportunities, particularly through our business unit Nord-Lock, which offers an outstanding product portfolio of wedge-locking washers – creating exceptional customer value across a wide range of applications.

The tensioning side of Nord-Lock Group is quite engineering intensive and when coupled with an extensive global distribution network, it translates into impressive capabilities for supplying both standardised and customised solutions that serve the needs of our customers.

Nord-Lock’s network of partnerships and distributors is another aspect that excites me about Nord-Lock Group’s position in the fastening industry. As a crucial component of the company’s success, I am committed to continuing to cultivate and expand these mutually beneficial partnerships.

What Nord-Lock Group has managed to achieve in terms of product quality, on-time deliveries, and short lead times, is something that I’ve been really impressed with. It’s nothing less than world class and creates significant value for our customers. This value is both direct, for example, by enabling customers to carry less inventory, and indirect, by avoiding costs related to replanning and dealing with quality issues. We are also known for our exceptional experience and expertise, which our customers can rely on no matter where they are located in the world. Add to this the internal process control, and years of performance in every mechanical and industrial application imaginable, and there is certainly a great deal of substance behind the unique lifetime warranty that Nord-Lock Group offers.”

Last year Nord-Lock Group went through a period of reorganisation to become more customer driven – why was this decision made and what are the benefits to customers? 

“An organisational set-up with three business units, each having end-to-end responsibility for delivering what their customers need, makes a lot of sense. This is because getting Nord-Lock washers to our customers through a distributor is quite different from engineering a tensioning solution for large industrial applications – together with an OEM. With our decentralised, customer first set-up, we can excel in all of our business processes while ensuring that our customers’ needs permeate the entire organisation at all levels. Reassuringly, I’ve already been part of quite a few customer meetings, and based on the positive feedback we receive, our organisational customer first approach is certainly working.”

How has 2024 progressed for Nord-Lock Group and how do you see the next twelve months developing? 

“Nord-Lock Group is growing and we are actively trying to accelerate that growth. Fortunately, we have several ways to achieve this, such as leveraging internal initiatives, making investments, or acquiring businesses that fit into our business model.

However, we are not immune to the effects of the year’s long trend of weaker industrial demand. I do want to stress, though, that we are well aware of, and prepared for, potential business climates ahead and the challenges they can bring. In any case, I am fully confident that with our customer first philosophy, and competent team of co-workers, we will have what it takes to navigate uncertain times and still deliver what our customers need, when they need it.

We can do this thanks to Nord-Lock Group’s dedicated sales teams, in about 25 countries, each with an extensive partner network. By combining the benefits of being close to our customers with an extensive global reach, we can support and collaborate with customers in every region of the world.

I believe that at this moment, we are at a low point in terms of demand. After the turbulent years brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, inventories are back to normal levels. I also expect industrial demand to start growing again during 2025 as interest rates drop in Europe and North America, as well as with the increase in stimulus we see in China. So, from our side, we’re ready to meet such growing demand for our products with maintained short lead times and virtually 100% on time deliveries. All of this brings me to a positive future outlook and I believe that 2025 will be another positive year for Nord-Lock Group.”

Sustainability continues to grow in importance within markets. What steps has Nord-Lock Group taken on this topic and how do you see this area developing? Have you seen demands from customers in regards to sustainability?

“As the dangers of our changing climate become increasingly noticeable, Nord-Lock Group takes this very seriously. As one of the larger companies in the industry, we acknowledge our position to achieve real positive impact, which we strive to do in several ways. Firstly, we have a responsibility to engage our co-workers so that their knowledge, curiosity and entrepreneurship can contribute to our company’s sustainability transformation, as well as that of our entire industry. 

Secondly, we commit ourselves to a comprehensive sustainability programme that addresses not only environmental sustainability issues, but also business ethics and social sustainability. With our Code of Conduct for business partners, we ensure that these partners are aligned with our values. We have also committed to the Science Based Targets initiative to reduce emissions in-line with the Paris Agreement, which will entail investments and changes to our own operations, as well as awareness and mitigation of emissions related to our suppliers and other partners in the value chain.

In regards to customer demands changing, the short answer is yes. Compared to only two years ago, our partners and customers now want more information about exactly how we work with sustainability. Many of our bigger accounts also define specific thresholds for sustainability performance in their tendering processes, and if we don’t manage to meet their standards, we’re no longer a viable option for them. We must show that we not only take environmental issues, human rights and a sustainable supply chain seriously, but also that we have focused initiatives in place committing us to net zero carbon emissions by 2040. 

Moving forward, we will see more customers wanting to know the environmental impact of specific products. Given the challenges of raw material shortages and climate change, the use of circulated or carbon free steel will grow. So, life cycle analysis to determine our products’ environmental footprint will be a bigger focus of ours, both because our customers demand it and in order to make a positive contribution to the sustainability of our industry. We believe all of these developments are overwhelmingly positive and well needed.”