In May the Swedish Byggmax building supply chain is to open a store on the island of Askøy. The chain's drive-in concept has been a huge success in the Nordic countries and they are now seeking a store manager and four full-time employees for their store on Askøy.

This is Byggmax's first venture in the Bergen area and it has been delayed by the hunt for a perfect site. The store requires a total external area of approx. 8,000 m2, with the store premises and drive-in facility taking up most of this space.

"The Bergen area is a strategically important location for Byggmax in Norway. The site for our establishment on Askøy meets all our requirements. We are now starting to search for a store manager and four full-time employees," says Byggmax's Managing Director Magnus Agervald.

Simple self-service concept
Byggmax's drive-in concept is capturing market shares in the depressed Nordic market. The overall building supplies market experienced a drop by 5% in 2012, while Byggmax has seen a 3.5% increase.

"We supply good quality building materials and our customers can also purchase all of our materials from Byggmax.no. Consequently, we believe that the flexibility we are offering is an advantage in the current market. It should be easy to shop with us, and our customers think that this is a definite advantage," says Mr. Agervald.

Byggmax sells building materials such as timber, flooring, plaster, cement, windows, doors and paint for both professional and hobby builders. Byggmax's business concept involves offering customers quality at low prices, where the customers undertake some of the work themselves in order to keep the price down. In fact, Byggmax has a simple self-service concept whereby customers drive straight into the store and load their goods into their cars by themselves. This results in a reduced requirement for manning the store and the customers save money. Byggmax also buys materials in large quantities at favourable prices, which in turn benefits the chain's customers.

Byggmax is the proud winner of price surveys
Last May Byggmax was nominated as the cheapest building supplies chain by TV2 hjelper deg. The survey was based on purchasing the materials needed to build a 20 m2 patio. The cost of purchasing these materials from Byggmax was NOK 4,211, while the same materials purchased from the chain's most expensive competitor amounted to NOK 7,377, i.e. a price difference of more than NOK 3,000. Byggmax has also performed best in previous price comparisons. In a price test conducted in August 2011 by the Fedrelandsvennen newspaper, Byggmax emerged as the clear winner in a survey comparing the prices of four building supply chains.

"We are proud of the results of these surveys. We aim to always be the cheapest supplier of all the products that we sell and this is why we provide our customers with a price promise. If a customer purchases something from Byggmax and then finds the same product at a lower price at another local building supplier, we promise to pay that customer the difference plus 10% of the difference," says Mr. Agervald.