Brødrene A & O Johansen A/S was established in 1914 and listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in 1963.
The Group is a knowledge-based IT and logistics enterprise with a wide technical range of heating, plumbing and sanitary ware products, electrical equipment and components, water supply and drainage products, and tools. It also sells brackets, other fastening materials, workwear, safety equipment, locking systems, etc.
AO aims to offer its customers the most user-friendly and reliable IT systems on the market for handling planning, purchasing and deliveries in accordance with customer needs.
The Group has more than 28,000 business customers (B2B) and roughly 430,000 private customers (B2C) who are offered a range of almost 600,000 different items. As the Group wants to stock products required by its customers, the product range is improved continuously in accordance with customers’ needs.
The Group is active in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In 2022, international revenue constituted less than 10% of the Group’s total revenue.
The Group supplies goods to the following markets:
- The professional market (the B2B market) served by AO is characterised by fragmentation, with many small customers.
- The private market (the B2C market) is characterised by many customers making purchases online. This market is currently served by ten different webshops: BilligVVS.dk, LavprisVVS.dk, LavprisEL.dk, VVSochBAD.se, BilligVVS.no, Greenline.dk, LampeGuru.dk, LampeGuru.no, CompletVVS.dk, LavprisVærktøj.dk.
THE PROFESSIONAL MARKET (THE B2B MARKET)
AO’s primary business is directed towards the B2B market in Denmark which is supplied with a wide range of products within the fields of heating, plumbing and sanitary ware, electrical equipment, water supply and drainage, and tools. The above-mentioned market can be divided into the following sectors: New building work and repair, renovation and maintenance work.
The market for repair, renovation and maintenance work is relatively stable, as it is characterised by many small assignments. These assignments are difficult to plan, and the need for materials in connection with each individual assignment is therefore difficult to predict. This market fits into AO’s decentralised strategy, where 58 stores all over Denmark offer their customers a ‘one-stop shopping’ solution. All stores stock a wide technical range of heating, plumbing and sanitary ware products, electrical equipment and components, water supply and drainage products, and tools.
The market for new building work is highly sensitive to fluctuations in the economy and may therefore vary significantly from year to year.
An efficient storage and distribution system means that AO is able to effect prompt deliveries to its customers who are professional tradesmen, municipalities, utilities and public institutions.
AO’s revenue from the professional market is, in principle, generated via three sales channels:
1. AO Stores
AO focuses on the need for local presence with its 58 stores in Denmark. The local stores provide the customers with goods and advice on various products and sales channels. All stores offer self-service solutions to ensure fast and efficient customer service. Customers are also offered the opportunity to use AO’s facilities in connection with the day-to-day running of their activities.
2. Online trading (PC, tablet, smartphone, and AO365)
Customers can order goods 24 hours a day, view pictures of products and track invoices at AO.dk and via the AO app for smartphones. AO.dk and AO app are constantly evolving. AO’s online sales account for just over half of its total revenue. Additional digital solutions are being implemented. Most recently, AO365 has allowed customers to shop at AO365 stores 24 hours a day.
3. Competency centres
Customers can use AO’s competency centres to place orders and get advice and quotations over the phone, by email or via chat. Competency centre staff attend skills upgrading programmes on a regular basis so as to be able to offer customers the best possible professional service. A number of competency centre employees have been based at the individual stores so as to get even closer to customers.
The projects department is one of AO’s competency centres focusing on major construction and renovation projects, as well as ‘major customers’. Expertise in all product areas is gathered here so that quotations involving all disciplines can be optimised.
In Sweden, AO’s revenue from the professional market is generated through the five stores in Gothenburg, Borås, Malmö, Helsingborg, and Kristianstad, as well as AOnet.se, and its primary focus is on water supply and drainage products and tools.
THE PRIVATE MARKET
The private market is served via ten different webshops targeting three different business areas:
- Plumbing, heating and sanitary ware products are sold in Denmark through BilligVVS.dk, LavprisVVS.dk and CompletVVS.dk. These products are sold through VVSochBAD.se in Sweden, and through BilligVVS.no in Norway.
- Electrical equipment and components are sold in Denmark through Greenline.dk and LavprisEL.dk.
- Lighting is sold through LampeGuru.dk in Denmark, and through LampeGuru.no in Norway.
- In Denmark, tools are sold through LavprisVærktøj.dk.
Customers are primarily private consumers and small businesses that either need to make minor repairs due to failure of existing equipment or perform major renovation of an entire room. Whatever customers need, AO’s webshops aimed at the private market offer both inspiration and guidance, a wide product range, easy shopping and fast delivery. Customer service is provided on customers’ terms, and professionally trained staff handle orders and queries on Facebook, via chat, over the phone and by email. AO also makes it easy to do DIY properly by providing video guides, instructional videos and installation instructions. By being part of the entire customer journey, the company’s ambition is to be more than just a webshop.