It’s fifty years since a metalworking company in the Danish west coast port of Thyborøn started making trawl doors, and for half of those years Ole Kjærgaard has been selling Thyborøn Skibssmedie’s distinctive blue trawl doors as its markets around the world have continued to expand.
Over the years Ole has become one of the fishing gear business’s best-known faces and later this month he celebrates 25 years in the job. In fact, it’s a little more than that, he said. He joined Thyborøn Skibssmedie back in 1986, during which time bought the company its first computer, before moving on to a job in Austria and then returning to Denmark to take on a sales job for factory in Herning. But the fishing bug had bitten and before long he was back in Thyborøn and the trawl door business.
As he explained, he has actually been there for twenty-eight and half years – but has been selling blue doors without a break since 4th of January 1993, making an unbroken 25 years. During that time there have been numerous technical advances as trawl doors have become increasing sophisticated, and new export markets have opened up for the company, not least the Russian market were Thyborøn doors have had a firm presence for the last twenty years.
He commented that the key factors to success are teamwork and a capacity to be ready to handle business round the clock, every day of the year, as well as reliability and solid workmanship.
