New installation business in Sweden has slowed down

One year ago, Mitsubishi acquires the Swedish company Motum. It was heard that one of the reasons for the purchase is Motum's strong position in modernisation. LIFTjournal asked Daniel Nyman about this.

He is Business Development and Procurement Manager at Motum, Chairman of the Swedish Lift Association Hissförbundet, and a member of the Board of the European Lift Association (ELA).

How has Motum's new installations business developed over the past twelve months?
Nyman: The new installation business in Sweden has slowed down significantly during the last 6 months. The prognosis from Swedish Boverket, the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, is that there will be 50% fewer construction starts compared to previous years. This massive slowdown has been dramatic and fast. With that said the new installation business has never been the main market segment for Motum and its subsidiaries and therefore does not affect Motum in a material way.

What is the trend in modernisation – how is Motum positioned there?
Nyman: Motum is the market leader in Sweden when it comes to modernisation. This is based on the competence within Motum in this field. In Sweden there is a back-log of modernisation that should have been done already. Since modernisation makes sense both from an economic as well as an environmental perspective Motum expect that the modernisation part of the market will continue to grow while the market for full replacement will have greater challenges due to above reasons. Motum is still increasing its order stock of modernisation and does not see any trends in that decreasing at this moment.

Photo: © Motum

What role did modernisation play in the purchase of Motum by Mitsubishi?
Nyman: Mitsubishi has made a strategic decision to go into the multibrand market as well as growing in Europe. In a multibrand strategy modernisation of any brand and adaptation to the existing building is key. These factors did play in, as well as Motums plan to expand in Europe which fits well into the Mitsubishi strategy of profitable growth in Europe over the coming years. Mitsubishi will continue searching for more potential acquisitions to continue the expansion in Europe.

Sustainable modernisation is becoming an issue – what role does it play at Motum?
Nyman: Motum sees the sustainable modernisation as a great opportunity where Motum can play a major part to improve the environment and at the same time helping our customers reaching a better solution solving the customer needs in a better way. Therefore, Motum will continue to promote the sustainability of modernisation in front of full replacement going forward. One way of doing that is to inform our customers through our sustainability report that we share with the customers.

Do you also offer step-by-step modernisations/partial modernisations?
Nyman: The step-by-step / partial modernisation is one of Motums unique selling points. It poses more challenges compared to full replacement and is a better for the environmental issues we face as a society. Therefore, Motum will continue working and developing this offer to the market.

It is said that modernisation is the supreme discipline for fitters – how do you find suitably qualified personnel?
Nyman: Finding qualified personnel is the biggest challenge in the industry. Motum tries to avoid recruiting from our competitors as it will only fuel a salary spin. Motum recruits broadly, supports the Swedish lift association having an education of elevator technicians and also, last year, Motum started its own Motum Academy – a trainee program helping the industry bringing more people into the industry.

The interview was conducted by Ulrike Lotze.

More information: motum.se

The Motum Sustainability Report: https://motum.se/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/06/Motum-Hallbarhetsredovisning_2021_ENG_En-sida.pdf