A Waterbedtime Story™ sponsored by InnoMax Corp.
Foreword & captions in italics by Irvin Saathoff
Foreword: I am very pleased to introduce Lars Brunso of Akva in Denmark as contributing author of the first World of Waterbeds installment. Having first met Lars in 1986 at an international waterbed symposium in Dusseldorf Germany, I have been an ardent fan ever since because he has remained true to his commitment to excellence in advancing product technology and design.
Lars Brunso
Says Lars: So I’m still standing with Akva Waterbeds in Denmark after 42 years (1981). We have 3 focus issues that are; Quality, Service and Design. Today I’ll talk about Quality. We produce everything under one roof here in Ry, Denmark. Our building size is 5,000 sq. meters (53,820 sq. ft.) and houses our mattress, carpentry, bolstering, foam, lacquering and sewing departments.
The vinyl we use is phthalate free and double laminated since April 2000 and produced in Germany and Sweden. Wood and textile is all from Europe too. No import of raw material outside Europe. The result is consequently high quality in our product. The machines in our production comes all from Germany, Sweden and Italy. It stands for high quality and reliability resulting in minimal service and maintenance of our production.
To learn more about Akva go to www.akva.com and don’t worry if you don’t happen to read Danish, simply click on the flag to connect with the English translation site.
All our employees are skilled and educated personnel with self-planning in production and flow all is digital and automated. Salary is high in Denmark so efficiency is extremely high too. Our/my company Akva Waterbeds is Trippel AAA rated and I decide myself together with my sons how we want the company to develop. The next generation of Akva owners are my sons. They believe in Akva Waterbeds too. We only supply dealers capable of communicating the importance of Akva-Quality. We have dealers in approximately 30 countries in Europe. We export 91% of our production/sales. In Denmark (5 million people) we speak Danish that is almost the same language in Norway and Sweden. German language is mostly used here in office since Germany, Austria and Switzerland (110 million people) is approximately half of our clientele. But also France, UK and Italy are important for us and English is the language. Sales in Europe works like this, if you want to sell something with long lasting success you must speak the local language, many forget this. Remember Quality for Akva means “less is more”, and that is good for fighting climate change.
Next time I’ll continue with focus on Service.
Lars Brunso, pictured in this 1987 US waterbed trade publication article, was recognized early on in his career as an innovative designer with the talent to blend waterbeds with Scandinavian design as well as a savvy businessman. The images below are abridged versions of a Flotation Sleep Industry magazine article published in August 1987, if you are interested in a fascinating read click either image below to see the whole story.
The contributing author for this episode has been Lars Brunso, President of Akva, who is a Waterbed veteran of the industry since the 1981. Check back in with the next issue when Waterbedtime Story™, sponsored by InnoMax, shares yet another perspective. Meanwhile you may connect with InnoMax Corporation anytime at Sleep@InnoMax.com.