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In my opinion, there are three main reasons why Boston has become a

well-established and respec-ted supplier of home electro-nics and IT products in Scan-dinavia. These are customer relations, customer relations and customer relations.

To us, customers are not just a source of income; rather they are what motivates our exis-tence. In a fast-changing and competitive industry, good customer relations are essen-tial. There will always be so-meone willing to make a loss to win your customers. But good customer relations will eliminate this threat.

The relationship we have with our suppliers is just as im-portant. We are here to do a job together. Good relations between Boston and our ma-nufacturers guarantees de-livery, market information, product knowledge, in short, the entire flow that we depend upon in order to look after our customers.

It also means that our manu-facturers, our retailers and

BOSTON GLOBE TRIBUNED E N M A R K N O R W A Y S W E D E N

Christian Banzhaf

w w w . b o s t o n . d k

Christian Banzhaf, once a successful, passionate Laser dinghy sailor, now a successful, passionate CEO.

The Boston Philosophy

Boston are all on the same page, with a stimulating and productive working relation-ship for all involved.

Nor should we forget our re-lations with the rest of the world. The list is long: ship-ping agents, insurance compa-nies and banks to name just a few. Good relations make eve-rything easier, more efficient and more profitable!

Employee relations within Boston and across national borders are also of the utmost importance. Things move fast in this industry and every em-ployee should feel that they can, and should, make fast, independent decisions within their area of responsibility. You must be allowed to err in order to develop. We strive to retain good relations with our employees even after they have left Boston. Many have moved on, to our manufactu-rers and customers, and we

are proud that Boston is seen as one of the industry’s nurse-ries.

We try to maintain a flat and dynamic organisation. It is in-credible really how our staff in Denmark, Sweden and Nor-way all manage to drive Bos-ton forward in an industry

where pretty much the entire range is switched out every second or third year.

Boston Nordic Group

Christian BanzhafCEO

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In a fast-changingindustry, goodcustomer relationsare essential......................................................

CEO:

BOSTON GLOBE TRIBUNE

Nordic supplier with local roots

2 D E N M A R K N O R W A Y S W E D E N

Milestones

Boston the supplier

1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

At just 15 years of age, Christian Banzhaf puts his first Boston embryo in motion in the basement of his parents’ house.

Two years later, Christian, who has now reached the ripe old age of 17, opens his first proper store in Lyngby. Within a few years, several other stores under the name of Banzhaf Data follow within the Copenhagen area.

Purchasers at Banzhaf Data are or-ganised into a group that would soon become Boston Distribution A/S.

Boston Distribution A/S becomes a com-pany in its own right.

Boston acquires game distributor Polymedia. That same year, the first contract with Logitech is signed.

Time to open up in Sweden. On 1 Sept, the Swedish doors are opened under the guid-ance of Göran Jostrand. That same year, Boston receives a direct con-tract with Microsoft.

To understand how Bos-ton works in perhaps its most important role,

i.e. its place in the market and the relationship it has with its customers, we visited Oslo and met two very experienced gentlemen. Audun Bergh Bentsen, Category Manager of Electronics for Coop, has been in the industry since the mid 80s and Roy Skjæveland, Chairman of Cameraringen, is not far behind him. We had a really interesting chat over a cup of coffee about the role of distributor, their challenges in general and Boston in par-ticular.

Both Audun Bergh Bentsen and Roy Skjæveland are picky in their choice of distributor. For Audun, it’s about wide selection and the number of interesting brands in the dis-tributor’s range, whereas Roy, who procures a more specific range, relies heavily on refer-ences.

“We started using Boston at Cameraringen because they did a good job with one of our 17 member stores. A refer-ence like that carried a lot of weight when signing a chain-wide contract with a suppli-

er or distributor,” says Roy Skaelvland.

One thing they both agree on. National roots are essential. There must be a proper, local organisation for support, cus-tomer service, RMA and not least actual business. The fact that the logistics, in Boston’s case, are run via their own logistics centre in Denmark is not particularly important.

Or as Roy puts it, “The prod-ucts arrive in the stores just as fast, regardless of whether they are sent from Oslo or Co-penhagen.”

After a while we discuss the fact that Boston is a Scandi-navian distributor. Is it of any significance that both Cam-eraringen and Coop operate solely within Norway? It turns out that the Scandinavian op-eration is more important that we thought.

“It is a strength,” says Audun

Bergh Bentsen, and continues, “Boston can allocate products between countries, if they had not been Scandinavian I’m not sure I would have chosen Bos-ton to be our distributor.”

“Yes, the fact that they are Scandinavian is definitely ben-eficial,” adds Roy Skjæveland. “They never have any trouble moving products around when things are a little slow in one of the countries.”

We continue to discuss the im-portant attributes of a good distributor and phrases that come up often are proactive, solution-oriented, ability to see opportunities and good re-lations. Both Roy Skjæveland and Audun Bergh Bentsen feel that Boston is at the forefront in these areas, even it there is of course room for improve-ments.

“Occasionally, Boston has tak-en on board an unsuccessful brand but that can happen to any distributor,” says Audun. “We currently purchase Log-itech, Canon, Creative and Mi-crosoft from Boston and the cooperation is faultless.” Roy Skjæveland and Camerarin-gen for their part currently only purchase Canon from Boston. They might at some point feel that some specific

item is missing from Boston’s warehouse, but we main-tain an ongoing dialogue and alignment and the problem is quickly resolved.

Neither of them sees Bos-ton being a fairly narrow or niched distributor as a prob-lem. On the contrary, it pro-vides room for both product and market knowledge. Too narrow a product portfolio is a challenge that is not always easy to cope with. Both Audun and Roy are suggesting that it is better to be really good at what you know.

In addition to the concrete facts, such as products, stor-age capacity, and terms & con-ditions, there is also what can be summarised as relations.

“Good relations are like a machine’s lubrication,” says Audun. Roy takes it a step fur-ther.

“Relations between distribu-tor and retailer are very, very

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Creating a niche provides room for both product and market knowledge......................................................

Starts doing business with Creative Labs and immediately establishes a great relationship with Creative’s two very first European employees, European General Manager, Michael Sullivan and European Sales Director, Mike Weatherly, who a few years later ensures that Boston receives a distribution contract.

Roy Skjæ-veland, Chairman of Camera-ringen.

BOSTON GLOBE TRIBUNE 3w w w . b o s t o n . d k

Mobilememory cards

Photography/Videomemory cards

Gamingmemory cards

USBflash drives

MP3/mediaplayers

SanDisk, the SanDisk logo, SanDisk Extreme, SanDisk Ultra and Sansa are trademarks of SanDisk Coroporation, registered in the United States and other countries. The SDHC mark and logo are trademarks of 3D-3C LLC. The microSDHC mark and logo are trademarks of SD-3C LLC. ©2009 SanDisk Corporation. 8/09

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Samla företagets affärer i NordeaKontakta oss så berättar vi mer! Tel 0771-33 55 99

Gör det möjligt

Kungsbackanordea.se

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Long-standing Danish em-ployee, Dennis Dress, leaves

Boston to continue his career with supplier, Creative Labs.

To refine the operation and increase credibility, Christian

sells his stores. There will now be more focus on distribution.

And the focus pays off. 2001 sees the launch of the Xbox and Boston has ex-clusive distribution in Denmark.

A young man from Siba is employed as a salesperson for Boston Sweden. Six years later, Daniel Fredriksson becomes the CEO of the Swed-ish company.

John Roger Sørbøe is headhunted from a Norwegian com-petitor and opens the Norwegian sales office that autumn.

A long history of cooperation with Logitech leads to the distribution contract being extending to in-clude Norway.

After a couple of successful years of cooperation, Boston becomes the exclusive distributor for Steel Series and IceMat. Shortly thereafter, Prod-uct Manager Michael Krog leaves Boston and becomes European Sales Manager for Steel Series.

Boston signs a very important contract with Canon.

After major efforts by Jan Brus and his colleagues, Boston opens its own 3,000-pal-let logistics centre, Boston Logistics, in Farum, just outside Copenhagen. Ad-vanced control systems and automated weighing and photographing of each ship-ment ensures extremely high quality.

Boston achieves AAA rating from Soliditet.

important. There are so many good products and companies out there, so relations are one of the most important com-petitive devices for a distributor. As a retail-er, you must be able to trust your distributor and Boston is very good at that. In some situa-tions, and I’m not talk-ing about Boston in par-ticular, the relationship can be more important that the actual price.

Our coffee cups are empty, it’s time to say goodbye. Audun and Roy are rushing off in their own directions and we have to get in the car and drive south. We thank them for the chat, but before we part I ask them both to summarise the best of Boston in one word.

“Solution-oriented,” says Roy Skjæveland.

“Proactive,” says Audun Bergh Bentsen.

And that’s pretty much what it’s all about for a good distributor.

Boston signs a Scandinavian contract with Medion, one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of home electronics and IT products, and with legendary speaker manu-facturer JBL.

A brand new multi-functional website is launched.

BOSTON GLOBE TRIBUNE4 D E N M A R K N O R W A Y S W E D E N

From a manufacturer’s perspective

Ultra-modern, high-precision logistics centre Extremely low

fault rate.

What is it like then, working with Boston as a manufacturer?

We called ”Mr Creative Labs” in Sweden, Marcus Johansson, to get a good picture.

“Hi Marcus. You’ve been using Boston as a distributor for Creative Labs for almost ten years. What are your initial comments about that coopera-tion?” “Purely spontaneously, it’s that Boston is a distribu-tor with enormous focus, both towards us manufacturers, but also towards their custo-mers. It must be due to Boston being a niche distributor - all respect to broadliners. For ex-ample, Creative is a key client for Boston, whereas we would end up further down the list with a larger distributor and we wouldn’t have the same close-knit cooperation we do with Boston. The enormous fo-cus doesn’t just apply to Bos-ton in Sweden, it of course also applies to Boston in Denmark and Norway.”

“Boston’s Product Manager is located in Denmark, but the marketing work is carried out at a local level in the three countries. Comments on this?” “Firstly, I must congratulate

Boston Denmark on their ex-ceptional product manage-ment. Talk about being on top of your game! Secondly, I have also reflected on the fact that one of the keys to Boston’s success with Creative lies in the fact that they have worked with Creative in Denmark and Sweden for a long time. They are two opposites in their way of thinking and the combina-tion of these two extremes has led to success. Boston Denmark pushes and wants filled warehouses, whereas Sweden is more realistic. Boston Sweden has taught the Danes to start think in long terms, whereas the Danes have whipped the Swedes into start-ing to do business today, not in six months time. Ha ha ha! Jok-ing aside though, I believe that a lot lies in this argument.”

“There was a bit of panic at Creative in the spring of 2009?” “You’re thinking about when Creative re-designed its

entire strategy with regard to local representation? Yes, well not quite panic perhaps, but in hindsight I can say that we were having butterflies. But the fact is that we managed to keep the organisation going and keep sales up thanks to Boston being our distributor in Scandinavia. Boston has re-ally been there, talk about be-ing partners rather than two individual units. Personally, it gave us an enormous sense of security to have the guys and girls at Boston supporting and helping us.”

“Finally, let’s gaze into the crystal ball and take a guess at what this year’s products will be.” “Everyone is saying that the audio card is out, but the fact is that Creative have used their extensive knowled-ge of the audio card and built THX certified audio cards into the headset. This is a pro-duct group I firmly believe in. Furthermore, we feel that ac-tion cameras will appear, both from us and other manufactu-rers and that is another pro-duct group I’d put my money on.”

“Thanks for the chat Marcus!” “Thank you and say hi to the guys and girls at Boston!”

A good logistics function is essential for a dist-ributor, but Boston

didn’t stop at functioning lo-gistics alone; they invested both time and resources in se-curing perhaps the best logis-tical function in the industry.

Boston used to work with a third party solution, but in order to gain total control all goods and deliveries have been managed by subsidiary Boston Logistics since 1st July 2008. This resulted in significantly stronger connec-tions between the subsidiaries in Scandinavia and the central warehouse in Farum, just out-side Copenhagen, both with regard to technology and com-munication, but not least with regard to relations and a joint view of what Boston stands for.

Under the leadership of Paul Visbye, fifteen motivated and alert employees ensure that everything flows as it should: incoming deliveries, quality control, storage, sorting and packaging, and finally out-going deliveries to a couple of thousand retailers in Den-mark, Sweden and Norway. Last year, 305,000 orders were sorted from the 3,000 pallets, which is an average of 1,205 orders a day.

But as Paul says,“There are of course major variations over the course of a year. It varies between 300 and 5,000 orderlines a day, which means we have to be ex-tremely flexible. The record is a massive 5,474 orderlines a day.

In order to ensure quality and correct deliveries of an av-erage of 700 packages a day, Boston has developed a very qualified control system. All incoming goods are weighed and measured on arrival. 48 (!) cameras monitor the ware-

house, both inside and out, and each individual package is vi-deo filmed before it is sealed and allowed to leave the buil-ding. Six precision scales in the outgoing delivery depart-ment register the slightest deviation from the calculated correct package weight. All this is done to ensure that the recipient receives what they have ordered. Accuracy has produced the desired result. The fault frequency is as low as 0.078%.

Boston is a distributor with the ability to create unique

solutions for its partners. This means that in addition to the normal flow, Boston also carry out approx. 50,000 tailor-made bundles or combined packa-ges a year. Something that makes great demands on pre-cision and quality.

The flow of information bet-ween purchasing, logistics and sales is via an EDI solu-tion and Barcode and Consig-nor provide the marking sys-tem and communication.

A chain is no stronger than its weakest link and to secure the entire chain, from central

warehouse to retailer, Boston has chosen to cooperate with experienced and quality as-sured partners: PNL, Bring Logistics, Freja, GLS, Post Danmark and Posten Före-tagspaket.

But regardless of all the tech-nology and controls, it is still the individual employee that must ensure that everything functions as it should.

Or as Paul says, “I am very proud of my competent em-ployees and their fantastic precision!”

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The fault frequency is as low as 0.078%......................................................

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Boston is enormously focused, both towards us manufacturers and towards their customers......................................................

BOSTON GLOBE TRIBUNE 5w w w . b o s t o n . d k

Available from and all leading online and high-street retailers

Turn your laptop into a cinema.

Logitech® Speaker Lapdesk N700 – all-in-one rich stereo sound and comfort let you get immersed in everything you enjoy on your laptop.

Designed for stable, comfortable use

©2010 Logitech. All rights reserved. Logitech, the Logitech logo and other Logitech marks are owned by Logitech and may be registered. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Comfort to your lap. Music to your ears.

Integrated stereo speakers

Work and play in cool comfort

Plug-and-play USB connection

BOSTON GLOBE TRIBUNE6 D E N M A R K N O R W A Y S W E D E N

Pinnacle is Avid. M-Audio is Avid.

Pinnacle Home Video Editing ■ M-Audio Personal Music Studio

Lap Chill Mat, AWE55EU (CES award winner)Wireless Comfort Laser Mouse, AMW51EUA7 16” laptop slipcase, TSS124EUA7 12,1” laptop/netbook messenger, TSM101EU

on the attractive new laptop cases and accessories from Targus!Don’t miss out

Visit our website www.targus.com/uk to find out more | All the new ranges are available via Boston Distribution

These skus are already bestsellers:

BOSTON GLOBE TRIBUNE 7w w w . b o s t o n . d k

1. How long have you worked at Boston?

2. What do you do at Boston?

3. What is the best thing about working at Boston?

4. What is your own favourite product (new or old) in Boston’s range?

Working at Boston

Peter Hjelmbak (DK)

1. 9 years.

2. Nordic Product Manager (Creative, Linksys, Sandisk, MSC and Eye-Fi). My duties include everything relat-ing to my agencies: purchasing, product range, budgets, marketing, internal/external sales and much more. Running the business within the business.

3. Flexibility and thereby the chance to act faster than larger distributors.

4. Logitech Squeeze-box Duet.

Linn Christensen (DK)

1. 6 years.

2. Key Account Manager for Danish Supermarked.

3. There are plenty of things that make Boston a good work-place. The social aspects (customers, colleagues and sup-pliers), good opportu-nities for develop-ment and greater responsibility, not a day goes by without a challenge that can only be resolved through teamwork.

4. Logitech’s X-230 speaker.

Dan Holmberg (SE)

1. Since autumn 2003.

2. Key Account Manager.

3. Almost all decisions can be made immediately. I can make most business decisions myself. It means that things move faster and the number of calls from dissatisfied custom-ers is basically zero. I have worked for almost 30 years, for various companies, but I’ve never worked for a company with so little fuss and hassle.

4. Creative’s new Sound-blaster Wireless. That, together with glam rock or Blue Öyster Cult on Spotify and my stereo rack makes me happy.

THERE IS A GOOD REASON WHY PROFESSIONALS USE STEELSERIES

Johannes Riiser Echholt (NO)

1. Since June 2010.

2. Key Account Manager with main focus on our key photo and video customers.

3. The positivity, not only to customers but also with collea-gues in the company. Boston gives me the opportunity to continue to sit on the retailers’ side of the table.

4. The Eye-Fi PRO X2 wireless SD card.

www.boston.dk

Boston Distribution has recently obtained fur-ther evidence that it is

a financially stable partner, due to having been awarded the AAA rating by credit eval-uation company, Soliditet. A particularly strong indication, especially when the world is still in the midst of an interna-tional financial crisis.

Boston has not been unaffect-ed by the recession, it has ac-tually gained market shares. We have only lost approx. 4% compared to the reduced demand for home electronics that has been estimated at ap-prox. 15%.

Meanwhile, Boston has used the crisis period to auto-mate and streamline a large number of processes and rou-tines, which has reduced op-erational costs equivalent to 4 annual salaries. This saving will however not show up un-til the next financial year.

BOSTON GLOBE TRIBUNE8 D E N M A R K N O R W A Y S W E D E N

Daniel Fredriksson, CEO Boston Sweden, is pleased

with the figures and results for both the Swedish com-pany and the entire group.

Financial News

The board expected a turno-ver roughly the same as last year, but with a slightly bet-ter margin and lower costs, which together will give a sig-nificantly better net result.

Denmark

Boston Distribution A/S

Lucernemarken 6DK-3520 Farum✆ 4810 4810

Fax 4810 4811www.boston.dk

Sweden

Boston Distribution AB

Varlabergsvägen 25SE-434 39 Kungsbacka

✆ 0300-684410Fax 0300-75701www.boston.se

Norway

Boston Distribution AS

Teknologiveien 1NO-4846 Arendal✆ 370 56 700

Fax 370 56 701www.boston.no

Logistics center

Boston Logistics

Lucernemarken 6DK-3520 Farum✆ 3810 4810

Fax 3810 4840www.boston.dk

010203040506070

Turnover Boston Nordic Group, millions €

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A new functional website

Boston Nordic Group has its head office and logistics centre in Farum just outside Copenhagen and subsidiar-ies in Kungsbacka, Sweden and Arendal, Norway. Bos-ton was established in 1996 and the Swedish company in 1999. Boston was established in 1996 and the Swedish and Norwegian offices in 1999 and 2003 respectively.

Boston is a proactive mar-keting and logistics channel between international manu-facturers and Scandinavian retailers. The product niche is and always has been compu-ter accessories and consum-er electronics with a strong

brand image. Focus, indus-try knowledge and long-term thinking makes Boston a val-ue-increasing and attractive cooperation partner.

The AAA rated group has an overall turnover of just over € 62 million. They have more than 50 employees throughout Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Company facts

budget

In the autumn of 2010, Boston is launching a complete-ly new website with loads of smart and user-friendly functions, e.g. much simpler RMA handling, access to different levels, accessory tips and much much more!