Swedish company plans move to Fayetteville
Posted on Saturday, June 7, 2008
A Swedish asbestos management, demolition and recycling firm plans to make a new home in Fayetteville and hire about 25 area residents as employees during the next three years.
Adam Lindal and David Hard, co-owners of Demolition & Asbestos Removal and Recycling say they plan to apply the more stringent environmental rules of their homeland to work in the United States.
"We are going to start an asbestos firm here and take care of your asbestos in a safe way like we do in Sweden," said Hard at a press conference Friday announcing the company's decision.
Their firm is also known for recycling the materials in the buildings they demolish.
"We do it for 15 years. I do big jobs and small jobs, and we do it safe all the time," Lindal, the president of the company, said. "We will lean against the Sweden rules, and they are much tougher."
For example, U. S. regulations only require asbestos removal workers to wear a mask, but Sweden requires a mask with a fan and has other requirements to keep particles out of the eyes of the workers, Lindal said.
"We do it the Swedish way," he said.
In addition to visiting the area this week, Lindal and Hard met with repre- sentatives of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to learn asbestos management regulations here and met with potential clients.
"The asbestos company is the beginning only, the tip of the iceberg," Per-Erik Persson of the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce South Central said in a press release announcing the company's decision.
The Fayetteville Economic Development Council and the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce contracted with Persson through the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce to help facilitate Swedish companies entering the U. S. market through a Fayetteville gateway.
Lindal and Hard's decision is the first result of that effort.
Persson anticipates much more success in attracting Swedish companies because the companies he is bringing to Fayetteville are already established businesses in Sweden and are already interested in establishing a foothold in the United States.
"They have a serious interest already," he said.
The much larger U. S. market - Sweden has a population of about nine million - the monetary exchange rate and Arkansas' central location all enhance the Fayetteville-Sweden connection, Persson said.
Representatives of two companies, Stridsberg Powertrain and MRD Salj & Bygg, visited Fayetteville before Lindal and Hard. Representatives of a company that markets equipment that automatically cleans animal bedding will visit next week. Three or four more are scheduled to tour the area and meet local business people later this summer, Persson said.
Asked about his interest in Fayetteville, Lindal said," Per-Erik made the difference."
The trees and mountains helped, too.
"This is the most like Sweden," he said.
The men do not know exactly when they will start the business because their timeline depends first on getting visas and registration cards, sometimes known as "green cards."
Steve Rust, president and CEO of Fayetteville Economic Development Council, described what he called "the perfect storm of opportunity"for attracting Swedish companies to the area.
He cited Mayor Dan Coody for setting the foundation for having an environmentally friendly community and talked about Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott changing the world with his speech about the company's shift to sustainability.
Added to his perfect storm of factors is the area's national and international recognition and labeling as the nation's "Green Valley. "The term was coined by Dan Sanker, cofounder of CaseStack, a logistics company specializing in packaged goods that located to Fayetteville. Green refers to the self-described movement to reduce waste and help clean up the earth.
Coody and Sanker also talked about ongoing efforts to bring environmentally friendly companies to the area and build the Green Valley.
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