13.05.2022

MAPAL representation in Sweden: Colly Verkstadsteknik

For 60 years – and therefore longer than any other company – the Swedish sales agency Colly Verkstadsteknik AB has been working with MAPAL. Today, the company is represented in many industries with the MAPAL product range. In addition to the automotive industry, these include mining, forestry and mechanical and plant engineering.

Managing Director Conny Erixon in front of the building in Kista where the offices of Colly are located.
Managing Director Conny Erixon in front of the building in Kista where the offices of Colly are located.   ©Colly

How Colly came to be

The sales agency Colly Verkstadsteknik AB is mostly just called Colly. Its headquarters are in Kist, a neighbourhood in Stockholm’s north-west, just a few minutes from the capital’s downtown. Colly comes from the names of its founders (Company Lindgren, Lindgren and Youngwall). They set up the sales agency in 1957. Only two years later, they decided to cooperate with MAPAL, which was also quite a young company at the time. “We are very proud to be MAPAL’s oldest sales agency worldwide”, says Conny Erixon, Managing Director of Colly. The company, which today belongs to the Swedish industry group Indutrade, has 23 employees and an annual turnover of EUR 12 million. Besides precision tools and clamping device, Colly also offers equipment for tool settings, setting fixtures and shrink units.
The picture shows Product Manager Björn Thorslund.
Product Manager Björn Torslund is responsible for the customer support.  ©Colly

Colly’s customers

Colly’s core market is the automotive industry, which also forms the roots of its business activities and is still its most important consumer group. A long relationship exists with the automobile and lorry manufacturers Volvo and Scania and also include many suppliers to world renowned automotive and lorry makes. “Due to our cooperation with MAPAL, we have an exceptional reputation in the industry”, Erixon explains. Concentrating on the customer and endeavouring to meet their requirements and needs optimally with innovative products and solution concepts, “that is the claim that unites Colly and MAPAL. Through this commitment, we have been able to establish ourselves as a premium supplier on the market and earn the recognition of our customers.” Erixon has worked for the Swedish sales agency for 17 years and took over the helm in 2019. Björn Torslund is responsible for MAPAL tool sales. The product manager has amassed an immense amount of process knowledge over his 35 years at Colly. “Regardless of how complicated the machining task is, Björn Torslund will find a seemingly impossible tool solution”, Erixon reports. No wonder that most customers simply refer to Torslund as „Mr. MAPAL“.

Besides the automotive industry, Colly is also active in other sectors today. This development is due to the growth of MAPAL’s tool portfolio and their concentration on other markets. MAPAL’s expansion also allowed the Swedes to become active in new fields, such as forestry, mining or machine and plant engineering. And Mr. MAPAL also contributes his expert knowledge here, as an interesting application in mining shows: A manufacturer of rock drills needed carbide drills in various designs. In order to cover all tolerance classes for every bore diameter, seven tools were required. This was too much for the customer. Their request: The number of drills required was to be reduced to three. Torslund had numerous test series run on the customer’s machines as well as at MAPAL’s R&D centre in Aalen. “In the end, we found a solution which completely satisfied the customer’s requirements”, the product manager reports. With the support of the MAPAL experts, we were not only able to reduce the number of drills, we also doubled the tool life to 5,000 bores per drill from the requested 2,500 bores. “This additional performance was a bonus that really delighted the customer”, Torslund proudly explains. This example shows what customers expect from tool suppliers and the potential of high-quality precision tools. “In today’s mass production, there is no room for simple solutions. We have to develop machining concepts that achieve a high standard. With short cycle times and trouble-free production processes, one can achieve the highest degree of productivity”, says the tool expert. With customised process solutions, we are on the right track, according to Torslund. “Custom tools now make up half of our orders”, Conny Erixon confirms.
 

Reconditioning on site

A big milestone in Colly’s history was the certification of their regrinding service by MAPAL five years ago. The reconditioning of high-quality tools is worthwhile as the tools are usually available again more quickly than if they are reordered. In the past, MAPAL experts took care of this service. Colly has its own regrinding operation in the meanwhile. “In this way, we ensure that the quality of the reconditioned tools meet MAPAL’s high standards”, Erixon emphasises. Colly is currently devoting itself to electric mobility. “We are gaining initial experience here in the field of tool technology and are glad that MAPAL has already developed pioneering process solutions for this new segment. Innovations are the foundation for a successful future. That’s why we are happy to continue our cooperation, preferably for another 60 years”, Conny Erixon says. 

Kathrin Rehor, PR Project Manager at MAPAL

Contact

Kathrin Rehor Public Relations Kathrin.Rehor@mapal.com Phone: +49 7361 585 3342


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