FL jubilæumsbog EN 101123 web - Flipbook - Side 62
FRODE LAURSEN CROSSES THE
BORDER AND HEADS SOUTH
NIELSEN & SÖRENSEN
NEGOTIATIONS OVER THE WHITSUN WEEKEND
Shortly before Whitsun 2010 and with Denmark still in the throes of an economic crisis,
CFO Anders Balle’s phone rang. The call came
from a finance company representative who
had money trapped in a logistics company in
Flensburg. The company, which had a turnover
of several hundred million Danish kroner, had a
large number of trucks and a big warehouse just
south of the Danish-German border.
Would Frode Laursen be interested in taking
over a distressed business in Germany? Anders
Balle immediately presented the case to Thorkil
Andersen. It seemed like a good offer, perhaps
even a ‘roasted partridge,’ so why not?
While many other companies suffered or
perhaps went under during the economic crisis,
Frode Laursen benefited from the company’s
solid finances, which gave it the muscle to react
when a good offer came up.
The German company, Nielsen & Sörensen,
had gone bankrupt. An insolvency administrator had to straighten out the financial mess.
Nielsen & Sörensen’s almost 400 trucks
were not only used to carry general cargo, but
also for waste and silo transport. This was
particularly interesting to Frode Laursen as it
would give them an extra leg in the business.
Moreover, the company also had a warehouse in
Flensburg of approx. 25,000 m².
On the Thursday before Whitsun, the previous
owners visited Skanderborg, Denmark for a
meeting. Negotiations continued over the weekend in Flensburg, with lawyers and others also
in aendance.
“We didn’t have any plans to enter Germany,
but during the first days of the negotiations, we
saw some clear opportunities. Firstly, we saw
opportunities in waste transport. We already
drove consumer goods to the cities, but for a
transport company, the problem with cities is
that they rarely produce anything – apart from
waste, that is. If we could transport consumer
goods into the city and then take waste back
with us, it would be a good business,” says
Thorkil, adding that Frode Laursen is currently
using this transportation method in both Copenhagen and Oslo.
What’s more, it represented a good opportunity to service the border region and create
a bridge between Scandinavia and the rest of
Europe. Finally, there was the potential to snap
up some good customers, such as Carlsberg and
Unibrew, who fied perfectly into the existing
business.
All in all, Thorkil and the rest of the executive board assessed that the German company
would add value to Frode Laursen, and already
by Monday evening, the negotiations had
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FRoDe LAURsen cRosses tHe BoRDeR AnD HeADs soUtH
