After the happy 80’s the following decade started with a depression. House prices plummeted, interest rates shot through the roof and many companies went bankrupt. There was a crisis throughout Sweden and Konga was no exception.

The first three years after Stig and Paul Haglund received their first order, there were happy days at the mechanical workshop in Konga. Konga Mekaniska had positioned itself in the market as a skilled subcontractor and business was booming.

When the crisis came, ninety percent of the orders disappeared. The largest customer at this time used to place orders for three million SEK per year. All of a sudden that number was three hundred thousand. Times were tough.

-We actually had mobile phones already then. We went out on the parkinglot and tried to call the office to see if the phones worked, it was so quiet! Says at that time co-owner Paul Haglund.

But it would probably be stupid to lie down and die before trying everything. What we tested at Konga Mekaniska was to load a selection of trollies on a trailer, drive to a photo studio in Tingsryd, and with the pictures in hand, we then started knocking on doors.

A concept that would prove to be more successful than anyone could have hoped for.

“Maybe there is a future after all”

From being almost exclusively a contract manufacturer, the work of developing trollies intensified during the crisis. We designed and produced trollies, took photos and showed them to potential customers who discovered that yes, we probably need just a trolley like that.

The switch to our own assortment would soon to become standard for Konga Mekaniska. Today, many years and a name change later, the company has one sub contracting customer while the remaining products are sold under the Kongamek brand.

With a lot of effort, a little luck and a new focus on the business, Konga Mekaniska managed to maintain a positive result and keep all its employees. When the crisis was finally over we could state: We made it.