However, operating a physical store is not entirely new territory for the company. When they acquired Åke Nordahl AB five years ago, they received a store in Gothenburg "as part of the deal." Customers have flocked to that store, which has inspired the company to now open a new location in Norrköping.
But it’s not just the success in Gothenburg that’s behind the decision. An increased demand has also been noticed on their home turf in Norrköping, as more and more local customers have wanted to pick up their goods directly from the company’s central warehouse.
Over the past few years, we have had good customer traffic to Nordahl, and that is one of the reasons why we are now opening the store in Norrköping. But we have around 15 customers per day who want to pick up goods at our warehouse and many questions about whether they can see our products somewhere, so those are further reasons why we are opening a store in Norrköping," says Mikael Holmberg.
Running both e-commerce and a physical store aimed at B2B customers requires a clear distinction. The idea is not for the two channels to compete with each other, but rather to fulfill different needs in the customer’s daily routine depending on how quickly the goods need to be delivered.
They will connect and complement each other. The store is there when you want to "touch and feel" a product or when you need something urgently within an hour. E-commerce is good for larger deliveries, of products you usually order, and where you can wait for delivery the next day.
In addition to the store expansion, the company recently completed an IT project to launch a new website.
For now, however, the physical store and e-commerce are separated in the systems. Instead, the company is focusing on offering the most requested products on the shelves in the store, while the entire range is available online.
Right now, we don’t have any specific integration. The stores have the 2,000 most frequent articles, our website has all 13,000 articles, and we coordinate marketing activities and focus areas.
Possible Expansion to More Cities
As this is the first time Packoplock has built a store from scratch, expectations for the first year’s sales are somewhat cautious. Management wants to first see how long it takes for the target group to find their way there.
Since this is the first store we are starting ourselves, it has been a little difficult to set a budget for this store. We are a little unsure how long it will take for our customers to discover the store," says Mikael Holmberg.
If the establishment in Norrköping goes well, however, there are already thoughts of taking the concept further. The sights are set on other major cities in the Nordics in the future.
If the store does well, we will most likely open stores in other cities, with Stockholm and Helsinki being the closest options.
Strong Growth in a Tough Market
While the physical retail side is taking shape, the company continues to grow rapidly, not least through previous acquisitions.
According to the financial statements for the broken fiscal year 2024/2025, Packoplock Scandinavia AB generated a turnover of 554.2 million Swedish kronor and reported an operating profit of 3.8 million Swedish kronor. The company recently exceeded 600 million Swedish kronor in turnover and is now taking the next step to cover the entire Nordic market.
We continue to grow, we are introducing a new website in Norway next week and will then sell our entire range of 13,000 articles in all Nordic countries. We are constantly growing our sales force, which primarily focuses on large e-commerce companies and large warehouses. We now have eight key account managers covering all of Sweden. In Finland, Denmark and Norway we have three people working with our largest customers.
So far in 2026, the company sees a bright outlook. Despite large parts of the industry facing tough times, Packoplock is going against the grain and increasing its sales.
We have 10 percent growth, in an industry that we believe is stagnant or declining. We have brought in many new customers, both large and small, this year," concludes Mikael Holmberg.