Meet Ola Jönsson
A good transaction creates strong relationships for the future and continued success for business and entrepreneurship
2019, nine years after the start, the component and industrial service company Mekano was awarded “Gazelle company” by Swedish daily newpaper Dagens Industri. A proof of a profitable, sustainable and fast-growing business idea. But the founder Ola Jönsson was ready to take the company to the next level – the Nordic level. Therefore, the search for a larger context began. On 18 February 2021, Mekano became part of the Momentum Group and the growth journey could be accelerated.
Ola Jönsson founded Mekano in 2010 after several successful years in leading positions at, among others, Elektro-Dynamo AB, AxIndustries and Momentum Industrial Supply AB. Since the start of Mekano in Helsingborg in 2010, Ola and his 85 colleagues have created a leading player in technical component sales and industrial service. The typical customer is for example a steel mill, pulp mill, sewage plant or a incineration plant. After ten successful years, Ola felt that Mekano deserved a boost, both in terms of contracts, customer contacts, networks and competence. It was time to look for a new owner with a Nordic perspective and larger network.
– Mekano are very good at what we do and we take pride in being almost geekily specialized in our technical components and services. Our offer has an important role to play, not only in Sweden but in the entire Nordic region. Therefore, it was time to switch up and look for a new, strong owner for the company, says Ola Jönsson, founder and, until the change of ownership, Managing Director of Mekano AB and the subsidiary Mekano Sävedalen AB.
– As the owner of a company, you are naturally very cautions of your company, employees and customers and you want this concern to pervade the sales process, says Ola.
Ola has been courted a number of times with requests to sell Mekano over the years without being interested. After a solid selection process and a number of suitors later, the choice finally fell on an existing relationship. With a clear focus on strong niche companies within industrial services, Momentum Group was a natural new owner to be able to develop Mekano into the future.
– We had others who wanted to buy and who would have paid more, but that was not the most important thing. The most important thing for me was to feel secure that a new owner had the right focus and platform for continued development and market growth. With our new owner, we can gain valuable synergies in our offer and become a top Nordic supplier of our unique solutions, says Ola, who after the sale remains a minor shareholder in the company.
In connection with the sale, Ola left his position as Managing Director of Mekano AB to work with business development within Momentum Group’s business area Components & Services. In addition to successfully selling Mekano, Ola has also gained many valuable experiences.
– Without a doubt, it was a very valuable experience to have been on the seller’s side, twice now, the day that you move over to the buyer’s side. In my new role at Momentum Group, I will take the step over to the acquirer and now with valuable knowledge of how the process works. Moreover, with a belief that a good transaction should be good for both parties, who should both make a good deal. This is how strong relationships are created for the future and continued success for business and entrepreneurship, concludes Ola Jönsson.
About Mekano
Mekano is one of Sweden’s leading suppliers of high-quality products and services with a focus on service and cost savings for industrial customers in e.g. the process, manufacturing and food industries, as well as shipping and the public sector. The company has its own units in Helsingborg, Malmö, Perstorp and Gothenburg, with customers mainly in western and southern Sweden.