3. Expanding outside Denmark
28/03/2017 · MJK MARCOMThe idea of having sales offices outside Denmark started in the mid-80s. A Swedish contact initiated talks on collaboration in 1989 and ended up founding MJK Sweden. Shortly after, MJK Netherlands was founded, also based on a personal connection of Jens Kruse.
In 1995, MJK started producing a series of products for Danish industrial giant, Danfoss. This meant a significant growth, not just in sales and production, but also in R&D. In 2003, our colleagues Siemens acquired Danfoss Flow. It was a natural consequence that the collaboration with MJK was cancelled and the new situation left MJK with important decisions to make. Should MJK reorganize to a smaller production and obviously a smaller organization? Should R&D reduce activities on new product groups and focus on core products? Should sales' focus be redirected to our home market? However, Kruse was determined to see opportunities in the the new situation on the global market. Kruse contacted Egil Olsen in Norway and together they founded MJK Norway which turned out to be a huge success.
The American market is something special. The size and complexity is quite different than Europe. Jens Kruse decided to enter USA by founding MJK USA and was lucky … and clever … when he hired Bob Langie. Bob was well-known in the industry already and during the next decade he would drive the process of establishing MJK as a brand in North America.
Besides the MJK subsidiaries, companies in Ireland and Australia were permitted to use MJK's logo and name. They became a part of the family. Especially, Australia and MJK Sweden had tremendous effect on the development of MJK and the spreading of MJK products on five continents. When MJK became a part of Xylem, MJK had moved from borrowed facilities to a domicile and sales offices in eight countries on four continents.
