Claes-Göran Pettersson retires, is replaced by Roland Boom

A long time colleague choses to retire at the age of 64. Claes-Göran Pettersson has been part of ACM since we decided to enter the Swedish market for chemicals to the paper industry in the spring of 2009. He has been an important part of the team working in the field towards the paper mills. During the 10 years ACM has been in the paper chemicals market the annual turnover has increased step by step from zero to 35 million SEK. Claes-Göran’s own comments about his years with ACM:

Claes-Göran at his retirement party on May 24.

–We started with empty hands in 2009. We were then aware that we had to establish business quickly since our team didn’t have any revenue. The first year was a little slow but in 2010 and 2011 we started to have some success. At that point our industry entered a tough recession with paper machine and mill closures. This probably affected most of our colleagues in this business.  2014 the market improved and since then we have grown step by step to where we are today, Claes-Göran says. 

His career started at the SCA Edet Paper mill in 1982, where he worked in the laboratory until January of 1992. Claes-Göran was then employed by AB CDM, at that time the market leader in retention- and water treatment chemicals. Claes-Göran started out as a service technician, but rather quickly he was given responsibility for his own customer base. Imerys, owner of CDM, sold the company to Ciba Specialty Chemicals in 2004 and all employees were transferred to the new owners. Claes-Göran stayed there until February of 2009 when he chose to join us at ACM for our project to enter the Swedish paper chemicals market.

– The ten years that have passed have been very stimulating and fun, but they have gone by very quickly. I hinted to Emil Engvall (MD) a year ago that I considered to retire, but I also promised to stay until a replacement was found. We were lucky to find a new employee quickly, which made it possible for me to leave in perfect time for the summer, Claes-Göran says with a smile.

Claes-Göran finishes our talk by saying that there will now be more focus on the tasks at the summer house and all the grand kids that he and his wife Gunilla now will be able to visit more often in Gothenburg.

We wish Claes-Göran and Gunilla a long and relaxing time off!

The void after Claes-Göran will be substantial. – We have spent some time considering how we can find a suitable replacement,but when we contacted Roland Boom and asked about his interest in taking on Claes-Göran’s role, it all came into place. Roland was interested and after that everything was arranged pretty quickly, Emil Engvall says. Roland, who is also an old CDM colleague, has been with us since May 1. – With his solid experience we only needed one month of introduction before he was ready to go in the field, Emil concludes.

Roland Boom replaces Claes-Göran.

Roland joined CDM already in October of 1987. In 2007 he chose to leave our team in Ciba Specialty Chemicals for Hans Andersson Chemicals(later Axchem Nordic AB).

–I really enjoy being able to re unite with the old CDM colleagues, but also get to know the new people at ACM. It’s a fresh start for me after twelve years elsewhere. ACM’s customer focused approach suits me well and I hope to be able to contribute with my experience, Roland concludes.

We welcome Roland greatly to our team at ACM!

Written by: Jan Larsson