Our business

Christian Berner Tech Trade is a sustainable technology group consisting of several companies in different technological areas. The cornerstone are four companies called Christian Berner, one in each Nordic country, that since 1897 have been strategic partners to leading technology suppliers from around the world. This means acting as an advisor to customers and suppliers when selling components, systems, and services with a high technological content. Over the years, the group has also grown with the addition of further companies with elements of own products under well-known brands. Development of the existing companies within the group as well as continued acquisitions of technology companies are part of the group's business model.

Market

The main part of sales take place in the four Nordic countries, with Sweden being the largest market, followed by Norway, Finland, and Denmark. Overall, the group's operations can be divided into four focus areas of societal importance – clean water, sustainable energy, sustainable industry, and sustainable infrastructure. This means that the business is centred at the heart of the strong, underlying societal trends. Our business offering extends across investment type products, as well as products for continuing consumption or for the aftermarket, thus providing a good mix of revenue streams. Thanks to acquisitions over the years and constant development, the business is diversified, which provides the opportunity to somewhat withstand fluctuations in the various underlying markets. Maintaining diversification in terms of both end-user markets and offerings is seen as a success factor for the group, not least when it comes to the development of technology solutions.

Strategy

Safeguarding entrepreneurship in the group is one of the cornerstones of the business: that the best business decisions are made closest to the customer and supplier. The group maintains a high degree of value creation in both distribution operations and its own products. Employee experience and technical know-how play a major role in guiding customers to the right solution, with some processing and customisation taking place in-house. High value creation requires the ability to attract, develop and retain talented employees with an interest in technology and a desire to constantly improve customers' operations, and the courage to give these employees degrees of freedom to develop the business.
The business is thus conducted in a decentralised way, where each subsidiary has clear profit responsibility and degrees of freedom to make business decisions within the framework of defined performance targets, as well as instructions and policies such as the Code of Conduct. Governance takes place through active board work in the subsidiaries, as well as regular management meetings across the subsidiaries.

Further acquisitions are an integral part of the strategy, both to develop existing businesses and to add new areas of technology. Christian Berner Tech Trade is looking for companies with strong market positions in sustainable technology areas with sales to corporates or public customers, strong management, good growth opportunities and limited risk.

Our business areas

In 2022, the group structure was clarified to better follow how the group is governed, which resulted in the old business areas Materials Technology and Process & Environment being replaced by two new business areas: Technology & Distribution and Energy & Environment