Swedish parent company
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"It took Hans fifteen years of pondering and preparations, equating to three years in terms of full-time work, before everything was ready for the move. In 1982, they increased the dividends in the Swedish parent company from five million to 79 million kronor, a sum that “coincidentally” matched the very low recorded value of the foreign subsidiaries – the market value amounted to about five billion. But the ingenious part was that the dividend was not paid out in money but in shares of the subsidiaries. Through another Tetra company, the shares were then transferred to Dutch Tetra Pak. In this manner, they very elegantly avoided being stopped by the currency regulations."
"However, first, the largest country in Europe, West Germany must be conquered, otherwise, it is not possible to move further out into the world. German H&M had essentially just copied the strategy of the Swedish parent company and believed that would suffice for success. It has not turned out just so. The competition looks quite different in such a much larger country, with many other companies in the same price segment that are already known among German consumers."