Product Manager to Lahega.

Lahega are looking for a new Product Manager Car Care

The post is based in Helsingborg, Sweden and includes approximately 50 travel days per year for product development projects, trade show visits and meetings with international distributors.

Lahega Kemi AB is today one of Europe’s most modern aftermarket car care chemical-technical factories with a production capacity of around 20 million liters per year. The product range is broad and includes car care products for the automotive aftermarket.

Lahega stands for quality. High quality. And so it has been since 1958.

Product Manager Car Care tasks
• Develop existing and new product concepts within its area of responsibility
• Product liability for vehicle-related products such as Prorange, Auto Range, Truck Range and Washeye
• Be responsible for both chemical products and accessories in its product groups
• Project management in product development, international trade fairs and international conferences
• Business Intelligence via the fairs and the Internet
• Drive product development and analysis meetings

Who are you
• Responsive, administrative, independent and structured
• Driven and skilled social behaviour
• Project management experience is a merit

Requirements
• Understand and experienced by the car dealers and car care aftermarket
• Master the Swedish and English in speech and writing
• Good computer skill – office package etc.

Application
Please apply by registering your CV and your application on our website www.twb.se as soon as possible, then the selection process is ongoing.

Any questions about the service answered by:

 
Daniel Stenberg

daniel.stenberg@twb.se

Job Type
Full-time  permanent employment

Location
Helsingborg, Sweden

New warehouse

Assigned an overall harsh climate – both business and weather – we are firmly on our business pillars.

With a solid core business growth, upcoming product launches, new achievements in Europe as well as collaborative projects with major customers, we build to manage growing volumes.

The extension consists an extended storage to existing storage area could be converted to production as well as a wash- and detailing hall for education.

The new building is scheduled in July 2010 with hopefully a warmer climate than in the picture.

The new warehouse is 6300 m2 and a capacity of about 9000 pallets ad on to our all ready existing 6500 m2 and 3600 pallet places.

Among other things the warehouse has three large “compartment” for the storage of 2100 pallets of flammable products and large racks with runways for FIFO – First In First Out – of volume products.

Customer of Lahega Kemi AB winner of the Environment award.

We are delighted that Daniel Lekardal and Levin Bil AB are awarded because of their environmental work.

It is with this type of action you may contribute to a reduced environmental impact in our daily working lives. We as a supplier to Levin’s Automotive AB are of course even more excited.

Winner of the Environment Prize 2009
We congratulate Climate Network Värnamo and Daniel Lekardal who is this year’s recipient of the Värnamo Municipality environmental price.

Värnamo Municipality has awarded environmental prize every year since 1989. This year we have two winners: Climate Network Värnamo and Daniel Lekardal on Lars Levin Bil AB.

Justification

 Daniel Lekardal recognized for concrete efforts in their everyday work. He strives to decrease the amount of chemicals in the detailing of cars and have managed to convince Levin’s Bil AB also choose that path.

They are a good example among car dealers in the municipality.

Source:

 http://www.varnamo.se/nyhetsarkiv/aktuellt2009/vinnareavmiljopriset2009.5.11f8c0f212596f4da0f8000138.html

Autorange

Education is crucial to get a good end result regardless if you are a pro or Mr/Mrs Smith eager to get your car in good shape.

 

Autorange is Lahega Kemi AB car detailing retail line. We have focused the line towards Mr or Mrs Smith that want to give their precious car the treatment that it deserve, with other words the best!

And once again this need some knowledge and we try to give them this in different ways.

One is this Autorange online guide so they could sit in there sofa and decide wat to buy before they enter the shop and get overwhelmed with options that probably will confuse more than straight things out.

Reducing CO2 emissions

To give more focus to our CO2 emissions reduced detergents, TwinZip HD and Alkaline 2, we have put up a logg at our Lahega home page.

Here can you as our customer see the log tick on and  watch how you contribute to a cooler world.

Car Wash harmful to your teeth!

 In a report from the Sahlgrenska Hospital, we read that there is a risk of dental injuries if you work with car wash and car care.
 
  That acid can corrode the enamel have been known for a long time, but now a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy also determine that strongly alkaline substances can damage teeth.

 

Subjects with high pH can include destroying the plaque so enamel becomes more vulnerable.
 

The study was conducted at the Department of Work and Environmental Medicine at the Sahlgrenska Academy and published in the scientific journal Journal of Dentistry.
 

- The study also shows that alkaline substances are harmful to the teeth, but the injury process is different compared to the exposure of acidic drinks or acid vapors in the industry, “said Fabian Taube, occupational hygienic and one of the researchers behind the study.
 

There were no cases of occupational injuries in the car wash and reconditioning, which attracted scientists’ interest. Common to all cases was the exposure of an alkaline degreasing agent that was sprayed on parts of cars. Product proved to have a pH of between 12 and 14, and is very alkaline.
  – Exposure to this medium led to tooth enamel surface was damaged and peeling away. The type of injury makes the risk of tooth decay and other dental injuries increases significantly, “says Jörgen Norén, the dentist and professor at the Sahlgrenska Academy.
  The alkaline degreasing agent used primarily in the food industry, including the cleaning of kitchens, but are also common in the car care industry.
  – Occupational Injuries in the teeth from exposure to alkaline medium is probably not as common as the damage caused by the acidic medium, but it becomes a problem when employers do not inform about the risks or do not provide access to the right protective equipment, “says Fabian Taube.
  The study suffered prolonged teeth for degreasing and other basic solutions. Enamel samples was subsequently examined by scanning electron microscopy and various spectroscopic methods. The researchers note that the rapid dissolution of organic material on the tooth surface, such as plaque.

 

The results suggest that although the organic components of enamel affected by exposure, as the enamel becomes more porous.
  – However, we have been able to show that the basic means changing the composition of the minerals that make up the bulk of enamel. Thus differs from the effects arising from exposure to acids, “says Fabian Taube.
  The study has been supported by, inter alia, Research Council for Working Life and Social Sciences (FAS) and Magnus Berg Walls Foundation

http://www.sund.nu/docs/artikel.asp?td=20091023&tem=0&art=1094

http://www.hallekis.com/xx091022g.htm

http://forskning.se/pressmeddelanden/pressmeddelanden/avenhogtphskadartanderna.5.1d1244e81246c6eab9080002531.html

http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/view/pressrelease/aeven-hoegt-ph-skadar-taenderna-332718

Economic crises in the eastern parts of Europe

One thing that surprised me on this last trip in Romania was that the economic crises didn’t hit eastern part of Europe until just before summer 2009.

We are looking into some  positive progress in the Nordic region with customers who is increasing their purchase of chemicals to their producing lines. We see it in the car manufacture industries and even the ordinaire industries starts to see the light in the tunnel.

The aftermarket has sold out all there used car stock and are now looking into a bit more booked new car sales.

In Romania they are in the middle of the crises and on top of that having a political break down with sitting government leaving there seats.

All though the companies with a strong portfolio could gain market shares as always in crises if the dare to confront it.

I’m glad to say that our partner is such a company therefore I’m pretty sure that we have a good future together in Romania.

Detailing concept

At my visit in Romania we meet a Skoda dealer in Bucharest who asked for a total concept for detailing

He was interesting in time schedules, chemical consumptions and education for the staff

I told him that we have a total concept of products, education and equipment to full fill his demands

He was looking for a way to move the used cars more frequently and improve the cashflow in his business.

After we had show him how our concept was we took a walk through the used car line on the front yard.

He explained the difficulties they was facing and we explained the solutions we could educate his personal at.

It was exciting to see the opportunities that we have together in Romania

Truck detailing

There is a huge amount of used truck in storage in many truck dealers where they sit some times years before they could be sold.

Todays used market is hotter than in many years because lack of economic resources to buy new truck customers instead look into the used truck market.

Could you as a dealer get extra margin on selling a used truck with the help of an detailing makeover it wouldn’t hurt would it?

Here we have a Renault that had been in a Volvo truck dealers storage for over 2 years up in the northern parts of Finland

We educated 6 Volvo truck dealers in how to cut down storage time of used truck and speed up the cashflow if you could address the market with a good looking truck  instead of a dull dirty old one.

First some theory describing what to use to what problem then a full day of hands on working and the result was stunning.

The front plastic detail was really worn down of chemical abuse and hard weather.

 We polished it with No1 Fastcut 13 and got a quick result.

We polished it with No1 Fastcut 13 and got a quick result.

With a ladder and a polisher we buffed until it shined all over.

We did also some inside cleaning

The customer decided that they should start truck detailing on 2 of the 6 dealers doing what we showed them.

A crew of Lahega technicians could return south away from the snow after a well done job.

Pre-commercial paint

To buff a car that has commercials all over the paint use to be a nightmare for a lot of detailing professionals. Specially if the paint is dark. .

I was travelling in Sweden and stop by one of our customers and came right into such a problem.

The detailer was just taking out the wet sanding paper to take away the differens between the non commercial surface and the surface were the commercial had been.

 As you can see this is hard work to take away.

He asked me what I thought he should do and I said let’s try No1 Fastcut 13 with the No1 Mediumcut pad. If it’s not working we could always take the sander.

Well we did and even I was a bit surprised. He buffed the area with our three step process and it was gone.

 

This is a one stepper!

We did not buff after with No1 Finnishcut 18 and the No1 Softcut pad.

This is amazing!

He is a oustanding detailer with a long experience handling the buffing machine but…….