Two of the law firm’s innovative clients were awarded prizes at this year’s business world gala in Malmö on February 28. CeDe Group AB was nominated ”Entrepreneur of the Year in Malmö 2010” and Hövding Sverige AB was honoured ”Rookie of the Year”. The prizewinners were celebrated at the Malmö Opera, where tickets were sold out.
CeDe Group AB – Entrepreneur of the Year
CeDe Group AB is a manufacturing company, designing, developing and manufacturing customized innovative mining and construction equipment for world leading companies in the mining an construction industries. The entrepreneurs behind the firm are Göran Bredinger and Håkan Johannesson. The company was founded in 1923 and since the prizewinners took over in 2003, they have succeeded in turning the business loss into profit. They have created a successful company with 55 employees and a turnover of well over 100 million SEK. Now they intend to make CeDe Group to one of the leading manufacturers in Europe in its line of business. They aim at continued growth in China, India and South Africa.
Göran Bredinger and Håkan Johannesson believe that there are solutions to everything and some of their watch words are always to move forward, improve processes and having a sensitive ear towards their clients.
The winners have decided to donate the prize money of SEK 30 000 to Cancerfonden (The Fund of Cancer Research). More information on CeDe Group is available on the company’s website
http://www.cede-group.se/.
The award “Entrepreneur of the Year” goes to a local entrepreneur who serves as a model for other entrepreneurs by his way of being and behaving. For the first time ever, the general public voted for the winner by SMS.
From the statement of the jury:
”For several years, the Entrepreneur of the Year in Malmö 2010 has developed its business model and created a strong growth by engaged entrepreneurship. The company has considerably increased its turnover and its performance and estimates continued expansion in 2011. The vision is to be among the leading players in its line of business in Europe. Skilful leadership, high-tech knowledge and skilled employees have created a very successful business with the motto ‘From Malmö, we reach the world’. Entrepreneur of the Year 2010 is not one, but two entrepreneurs who complement each other well”
Hövding – The rookie of the Year 2010
Every year, a promising newcomer is elected among young entrepreneurs aged under 30 who have contributed to the renewal of the commercial life of Malmö. This year, we congratulate our client Hövding Sverige AB and the two new thinking entrepreneurs behind the company, Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin. They have created an entirely new product, a bicycle helmet that not only saves lives but also looks good – to the extent it is visible.
It all began as a joint master thesis in Industrial Design in the spring 2005 during an intense debate on whether the law on compulsory helmet use for children under 15 should be extended to apply also to adult cyclists. The two students at LTH (the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University in Sweden) went out and asked people on the streets what kind of bicycle helmet they would actually want to use. One of the answers was that it should be invisible, which gave Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin the idea. In 2010, the invisible bike helmet Hövding (“Headman” in translation) was finally launched on the market.
The motto is that nothing is impossible and the entrepreneurs behind the rookie of 2010 are managing a small company with big ideas and also want to encourage others to believe in their abilities. Today, twelve individuals are working at Hövding Sverige AB, mathematicians and electrical engineers at the research and development apartment, industrial designers and pattern designers at the design department and furthermore, there is a customer service, a marketing and a finance department.
The invention has received much attention and become honoured in numerous contexts. Bicycle blogs as well as magazines with different focus, such as lifestyle, design, technology and sports, have written articles on the bicycle helmet Hövding and on the company. Most certainly, this is only the beginning.
More information on Hövding Sverige AB is available on the company’s website http://www.hovding.com/.
From the statement of the jury:
“The rookie of this year has proven that persistence pays off and serve as a model as well as an inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs and managers. With great self-confidence, tough determination and customer-driven focus, the prizewinners have gone from strength to strength. The prizewinners have managed to put Malmö on the map of the world with its unique idea, a literally intricate product with an exceptional potential for development!”
