Husqvarna is hoping to transform the way dealers are supplied with inventory, making delivery more “on-time”, which will help contractors, says David Zerfoss, Husqvarna North America company president.
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Zerfoss tells Lawn & Landscape that’s just one initiative the company will be engaged in since Husqvarna was spun off from parent company Electrolux. The new Husqvarna stock began listing on the Stockholm, Sweden, stock exchange on June 13.
The North American market is one of the most important to Husqvarna worldwide, making up 57 percent of Husqvarna’s global sales. Husqvarna also is broadening product lines and adding new ones, like utility vehicles. The company’s second-generation of utility vehicles is expected to be launched in July.
Zerfoss says a new ordering system that allows dealers to order what they need when they need it will help streamline the process of getting products to buyers.
“This eliminates the big pre-season booking programs which causes dealers to be stuck with inventory,” Zerfoss says. In those booking programs, dealers order up front what they need throughout the year. But if trends throughout the year meant that certain products wouldn’t sell well, dealers were nevertheless saddled with additional inventory.
Making delivery of inventory more “on-time” required a significant investment by the company, Zerfoss says. “The whole concept is to be able to feed them the products when they need them,” he says.
The company also beefed up the infrastructure for its online ordering system. There's been further investment in the Husqvarna University dealer education program, technical service training events, and in a newer distribution center in Troy, N.Y.
More spending also went into the company’s largest nationwide advertising campaign that featured commercials on the Weather Channel, in which the names of local dealers were displayed. “We really splashed the names of Husqvarna and our dealers out there in a big way,” Zerfoss says.