Varberg Fastighets AB's growth and global changes since the company was founded have meant a recurring need for development work and knowledge transfer. Since 2013, CANEA has been a solid partner in the work to ensure that VFAB clearly contributes to Varberg municipality's goal of being the creative center of the Swedish west coast.
A growing real estate company
Varbergs Fastighets AB, VFAB, was formed in 1970 and is a fully-owned subsidiary of Varbergs Stadshus AB. The company's mission is to contribute to the development of the Municipality of Varberg, partly by building for the municipality, but also by developing and managing its properties. VFAB has increased its rental income by 30% over the past six years, and since its founding in 1970, the company has led construction projects worth SEK 2 billion. VFAB's growth and the changes that have occurred in the outside world since the company was founded have meant that the company has had a continuous need to work with the development of strategic business plans and supporting processes.
Processes and motivation
In 2012, Martin Rylander was hired as CEO. Quite quickly, he realized that the company's business plan needed to be updated and that external help was needed to get started with the improvement work. In 2016, VFAB hired CANEA, on the recommendation of the sister company Varberg Energi, to help them with the business plan. Much progress has been made on the business plan since the project began, but it is a continuous process that evolves as the organization grows and the world changes. Since the work on the business plan began, CANEA has been a solid partner with efforts in skills development, consulting and strategy development. According to CEO Martin Rylander, the need for external help remains, but he also says that the collaboration with CANEA has yielded many valuable results. The three efforts that Martin believes have been most valuable are:
Workshops for working with processes – CANEA has conducted several different workshops at VFAB in 2021 and 2022. The workshops have resulted in a better understanding of the value of strategy development and processes.
The work with employee satisfaction – The employees at VFAB, after large growth in a short time, had a perception of ambiguity about culture, goals and collaboration. During a project that lasted 6 months, CANEA's consultants, together with management and managers, managed to create a positive trend and achieve good results by focusing on goal work and corporate culture based on VFAB's keywords.
Work on leadership and HR – As part of an interim assignment with responsibility for HR, development of the management team was carried out to improve management structures. In addition, change management support was provided to establish new team-based ways of working.
Continued development
Varbergs Fastigheter wants to continue to grow and develop to achieve the municipality's vision of becoming "the creative center of the West Coast". Sustainability and digital transformation are two areas that are high on the priority list. Regarding the company's continued development, Martin sees good conditions for a continued collaboration with CANEA.
”It's all about trust, we are very satisfied with the collaboration with CANEA over the years. The fact that different consultants have been involved along the way has been a plus. Everyone has contributed to the development."
– Martin Rylander, CEO at VFAB
