Elon Expo 2022 – The Kick-Off for the New Elon

The merger between Elon and Electra was completed two weeks ago, so last week's Elon Expo can be seen as the starting shot for the new Elon.

Over the four days of Elon Expo 2022, the 100 exhibiting suppliers at the fair were visited by over 2,000 people from all five Nordic countries. This year, the scope of the fair was larger than ever before, with products for the entire home – MDA, SDA, CE and lighting.

APPLiA visited Elon Expo 2022 on the penultimate day of the fair (June 2) and before the fair opened its gates at 09:00, a morning meeting called ”Start the Morning With Elon” was held where Camilla Waldmark, PR and communications manager at Elon Group, acted as moderator and asked questions to Elon Group's key people on stage.

Can you summarize 2022 so far?

Stefan Lebrot, CEO and President of Elon Group AB, explained that it has been a boring and intense first half of the year, with a lot of administration, lawyers, etc. and that Sweden has the toughest and strictest stock exchange regulations in the world, but that the process that began in November was completed last week.

”Now we are a company, legally and financially, and now we have to become a company not only on paper but also in reality,” said Stefan Lebrot.

”"Our stores will have a larger range of products to choose from, and we will create greater efficiency with the merger," said Anneli Sjöstedt, Vice President Elon Group AB.

What will we struggle with the most going forward?

”A lot is happening in the world, and we who work with consumer durables may be affected by the possible upcoming recession, but we are aware of that and prepared for it,” said Anneli Sjöstedt.

”"Our biggest competitor is not the British-owned company with Nordic headquarters in Norway, but the travel companies. I have a positive view of the market, even though we deal with consumer durables," said Stefan Lebrot.

Elon Group now has warehouses in Kalmar and Örebro and 150 employees from the company formerly known as Electra plus 150 employees from the former Elon Group. Exactly how this will develop and function going forward – to save SEK 50 million in synergies over five years – remains to be seen, but it is clear that they will have monthly management team meetings, both physically and digitally.

Anneli Sjöstedt said that in Kalmar they have TPL (third-party logistics) with growth, and the three largest customers today are Allente, Halebop and Uret.

Pizza course & Airfryer

Chef N appeared via video linkiklas Ekstedt up on stage, and told me that he had just conducted a pizza course for Elon in his garden – with a pizza oven he had borrowed from Elon.

Niklas Ekstedt's tip is to consider making oval pizzas instead of round ones in a pizza oven, as they will otherwise be quite small. One thing that became clear in the conversation with Niklas is that he definitely prefers charcoal grills, and believes that gas should be used in cases where you can't grill with charcoal due to, for example, the rules of a housing association or similar. Electric grills weren't even mentioned in the discussion...

Another thing that came up in the conversation with Niklas is that he is positively surprised by the Airfryer product, which he thought was mostly a joke. Niklas said that his family often heats food with the Airfryer with better results than with a microwave.

Niklas also mentioned that he toasts his own muesli for breakfast in five minutes in his Airfryer, and then it turned out that Anneli – who makes her own muesli – doesn't have an Airfryer...

Market & e-commerce

Christian Dahlborg, CMO Elon Group AB, took the stage and announced that Elon Group will have a big summer sale and a campaign in connection with Lollapalooza July 1-3 in Stockholm. And this fall there will be a big focus on the TV program So Much Better where Elon is a sponsor for the fifth time.

The morning meeting attendees also got to see Elon’s new commercial for the first time, in a 55-second version, but the versions that will be shown online and on TV will be shorter. The theme of the new commercial is ”For small and big changes.”.

Jacob Dahlner, CECO Elon Group AB, announced that they have a new e-commerce solution for entrepreneurs in the works. This will function as a complement to elon.se and will be provided with more content in the form of guides and "best in test" in the near future.

”"Live shopping exploded during the pandemic and continues now. We have the tools and will roll this out so that customers can speak to staff from their own store," said Jakob Dahlner.

At the end of this morning meeting, PR Home for ”Best Lighting Supplier of the Year”, and the representative from the company who accepted the award on stage said that the trend with a lot of natural materials continues. During the pandemic, we have wanted to have a warm and cozy home, and we want to continue to do so.

Caption: Camilla Waldmark talks with Stefan Lebrot and Anneli Sjöstedt at "Start the Morning With Elon" at Elon Expo 2022 on June 2.

Text & image: Ola Larsson

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