Aboutcamp had the chance to talk to Henrik Fagrenius, President of Segment EMEA, about the current situation at Dometic and the company’s strategy for the future

Words Peter Hirtschulz

Dometic is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of equipment for recreational vehicles and campers. The Swedish company currently operates 25 production and assembly sites across the globe with sales in around 100 countries and employs more than 9,000 people worldwide. The current product portfolio includes the entire range of equipment for modern motorhomes and caravans. This includes, for example, refrigerators, sanitary equipment, kitchen cookers, air conditioners, electronic parts, solar panels, camera installations and awnings. In addition to OEM products and production, Dometic has a global distribution and dealer network to serve the Aftermarket.

How the worldwide crisis with numerous supply problems affect Dometic?
Henrik Fagrenius: Like any other company in any industry, we also have to deal with supply problems. We try to be early in response to the potential issue and try minimise these problems as far as possible.

What is the strategy Dometic has for the RV business?
Henrik Fagrenius: The current boom in the caravanning industry supports organic growth in our RV business. Car camping is a growing trend. It is visible in vehicle sales and growing demand for camping products, equipment and outdoor products.
Our strategy for profitable expansion in mobile living is built on a combination of organic and acquisitive growth. We make strategic acquisitions to expand product portfolio and to obtain new sales channels. For example, we see a great opportunity for us to grow in outdoor mobile power solutions. In order to secure a stronger presence in this electronics sector, we have acquired some companies in the areas of energy solutions like solar power and batteries. As a matter of fact, six out of the ten acquisitions we have done in 2021 and 2022 are for outdoor mobile power solutions. Examples of the companies we acquired are Zamp Solar in North America, Büttner Elektronik in Germany and NDS Energy in Italy.

What are Dometic’s strategic priorities for a successful future?
Henrik Fagrenius: Dometic’s strategy is built on three pillars; Profitable Expansion in Mobile Living, Product Leadership through Innovation and Continuous Cost Reduction. And there is one over-arching sustainability strategy – “We Drive Sustainability in Our Industry”. This means we have a clear sustainability targets integrated in our business strategy. As a pioneer in the Mobile Living arena, Dometic is committed to driving sustainability in our industry. We know that our industry enables staycations and the exploration of local nature and empower local and more sustainable leisure activities.
To support this, we are implementing several activities. For example, all manufacturing facilities in Europe have transferred to renewable electricity and new products made from recycled material have been launched.

What is the future strategy in the areas of service and aftermarket at Dometic?
Henrik Fagrenius: We have developed our own program called “SAM” (Service-Aftermarket), which strengthens our service partners and focuses on satisfying the needs of our end customers. It deals with OEM and aftermarket installation range and addresses the Dometic competence of the trade partners to improve end customer satisfaction. We believe that service will be a key component of our business success in the future – as well as that of our OEM partners, trade partners and service partners. Customers who feel well advised, who are offered reliable service or competent repair service for installed Dometic products- on the hotline, in the service center or in the field – will continue to choose Dometic and its products in the future.
In parallel, we are announcing our new Premium dealer concept, which contains a shop-in shop concept, sales and service trainings, and improved marketing support.

What will change compared to the previous Dometic service offer?
Henrik Fagrenius: We will greatly intensify and expand our existing service to a more “pro-active” service offering. We will expand and improve our service partner model. This partnership will not only benefit the partners, but also the end customers. We will offer a training program for these service partners, enable more “self-service” on the web site, provide marketing and technical support and list them in the newly developed Service Locator.

How does the end customer benefit?
Henrik Fagrenius: First of all, the customer benefits from competent advice, appropriate installation and improved service via his trade partner. In addition, we have set up Dometic service centers at selected locations, which provide local support and assistance to our dealers. They also act directly with end customers as competent advice centers. Today, our service partners are already well utilised, not to say partially overloaded due to the boom and demand in the maintenance and repair sector. We support them in all these respects.
In addition, we are working on a system that offers the end customer a special service. Via the Internet and the Dometic website, the customer, who is “remote” and without access to a service point in the countryside, can inquire Dometic directly or get information when he has a problem with a Dometic product. Using video tutorials and self-service, we will help the customer to solve minor damage or problems on their own. This service also supports our OEM and Aftermarket partners: if the customer knows that he will be helped at any time, he will prefer Dometic products installed in the vehicle as well as all aftermarket products.
With this strategy, we believe we can improve the network between manufacturer, dealers and end customer and achieve optimal interaction between all parties involved and secure the highest Dometic quality. We also plan to introduce a Dometic “Team-Viewer” through which experts can contact each customer electronically, read out the corresponding device and initiate helpful measures. At the Caravan Salon 2022, we will present some of these plans and the current programme to our partners and the public.

Speaking of the Caravan Salon. Will there be new Dometic products there?
Henrik Fagrenius: Two product groups are our focus this year; 1; Mobile Power and 2: Climate Comfort. As mentioned earlier, we have expanded our mobile power solution range with two acquisitions in EMEA. For the first time we are presenting the Büttner and NDS range on our Dometic booth. With those new products, we will showcase a complete range for the optimal energy supply.
We will also launch Climate Comfort concept in which we combine the new generation air conditioning, the new heater and the innovative air distribution system into a single unit. The new concept can be controlled via a premium thermostat in the vehicle or even more conveniently via an app. The Dometic Climate Comfort will bring a perfect climate in the vehicle with easy operation. We have also supplemented the air conditioning systems with inverter technology for large vehicles. The new system offers a high performing air-conditioning that will create a comfortably controllable individual cooling and heating atmosphere in the vehicle.