DAMPA_75_years_of_quiet_design_ENG - Flipbook - Page 216
By April 2012, only two senior managers remained – the
product manager, Mogens Kjærgaard, and the supply chain
manager, Michael Nykjær.
Kjærgaard had been with the company since 1991, having
previously worked for Bang & Olufsen, and so he had a
strong affection for both the business and for his colleagues.
Nykjær had joined only in 2009 from a career in the packaging industry, where LEGO had earlier been among a previous employer’s major customers. Having instituted dynamic
work-flow procedures to fulfil the exacting demands of it and
other prominent clients, he had been unpleasantly surprised
to find that DAMPA felt – from his perspective – frustratingly
inefficient and complacent.
He observed that it had a good staff and that its problems
were mostly a consequence of being a remote, relatively
small and neglected subsidiary of a big conglomerate,
headquartered half-a-world away in Chicago. Nykjær and
Kjærgaard agreed that if a new, local owner could be found
and organisational reform instituted, DAMPA still had the
potential to flourish.
They had both been surprised that when the potential closure was announced, many customers had protested that,
in future, they would be unable to obtain their favourite types
of metal ceiling and so, for them, the loss of the company
would be a tragedy. The amount of support encouraged
them to make strong efforts to find a buyer so that ceiling-making in Tommerup could continue.
Nykjær and Kjærgaard identified one possible buyer –
Metalcolour A/S, which for the past three years had painted
the metal used for DAMPA ceilings. As DAMPA was among
Metalcolour’s most significant clients, its owners, Henrik
Kaa Andersen and Ole Theilvig, might be persuadable to
make the necessary acquisition. Recently, they had turned
around the loss-making Dalum Paper Mill near Odense,
which they had then sold, so presumably they would have
capital for investment elsewhere.
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As Nykjær and Kjærgaard only knew of Andersen and
Theilvig as names, they contacted a consultancy firm to
make contact with them and to introduce to them the possibility that the purchase of DAMPA could be worth urgent
investigation. As Nykjær reflects, ‘it was a wild shot, but our
only shot.’
Nykjær and Kjærgaard persuaded Chicago Metallic to grant
DAMPA an extra month’s stay of execution to give the consultancy time to contact Andersen and Theilvig and for them
to consider the company’s potential. DAMPA’s potential closure date was therefore shifted from the end of April until the
end of May – and the clock was ticking. Meanwhile, all of the
remaining employees in the Construction Division were
made redundant and those in the Marine Division knew that
they too would lose their jobs unless a sale could be concluded within the remaining available timeframe.
Almost at the last moment, on 29 May 2012, the sale of
DAMPA to Metalcolour A/S was concluded with just 48
hours remaining until final closure would have occurred. The
company was rescued – but it had hardly any staff left and
no sales staff to win the new orders that were needed to
enable production to recommence.
Henrik Kaa Andersen acted as temporary CEO for the
restart before offering the position to Michael Nykjær. The
latter was initially worried about his relative lack of experience, but, having considered the offer with his family, decided to accept.
