You’re king in your own country. If you want to become emperor and build a group, you can do that too.

Technology trading

Indutrade began in 1978 as a technology trading company — acting as the local Swedish distributor for international industrial suppliers. The model has been declared dead for fifty years. It keeps compounding.

Gunnar Tindberg founded it with a simple philosophy: find entrepreneurs who share your values and grant them freedom. He had a rare talent for identifying exceptional people and loved solving customers’ problems. His belief: “people and numbers are interconnected.” Great people drive great financial performance.

The frugality was extreme. For the first decade, headquarters was a basement in a residential building in Malmö. No sign on the door. Room for one colleague besides Tindberg. Today the head office sits on the outskirts of Stockholm — far from the fancy central business district — with just 25 people running 200+ companies.

Johnny Alvarsson, who ran Indutrade from 2004 to 2017: “Big players have no interest in a small country like Sweden. Better to have an engaged local market distributor.”

Under Alvarsson, Indutrade grew from 60 companies to over 200. Returns since the 2005 IPO: roughly 50x with dividends reinvested. The philosophy he installed — radical decentralisation, disciplined acquisition multiples, minimal corporate overhead — continues under his successor.

King in your own country

The decentralisation is extreme, even by serial acquirer standards. Each company keeps its own systems, its own finance function, its own identity. There are no shared services, no integration synergies, no standardised processes.

Alvarsson: “You’re king in your own country. If you want to become emperor and build a group, you can do that too.”

The logic mirrors what you see at Lifco, Roper, and Judges Scientific. The people running the businesses know them better than anyone at headquarters ever could. Corporate’s job is capital allocation and accountability, not operations.

But Alvarsson was blunter than most about why centralisation fails: “Who cares down there if someone doesn’t pay bills on time?” Local CFOs create accountability. Central finance departments create distance.

Disciplined multiples

Indutrade pays a maximum of 8x operating profit after tax, with a 6% capital charge applied uniformly. The discipline is non-negotiable.

Alvarsson: “If they want the highest price, then it is for someone else to buy.”

Deal sourcing is relationship-based and can take years. The seller’s personality matters as much as the financials — the business must be “the most important thing in their life.” Indutrade adopts businesses more than it buys them.

The multiples are similar to what Lifco and Judges Scientific pay. The Swedish compounders compete for the same types of sellers: founders who care about legacy, who want their businesses to continue rather than be absorbed.

Swedish trust

Alvarsson on why decentralisation took root in Sweden: “Swedish society works with a high level of trust, so the decentralised model more naturally took root here. It is easy to acquire companies in Sweden — you can do a deal with a 15-page document, whereas in the UK you have a hundred pages and lots of lawyers involved.”

The observation extends beyond paperwork. High-trust cultures enable looser oversight. When you can rely on people to do what they say, you don’t need the controls that create bureaucracy.

Whether the Swedish model exports is an open question. Indutrade now operates in 30+ countries with 200+ companies. The decentralisation has scaled. Whether the trust culture has is harder to measure.

Sell solutions, not products

Tindberg had one core message for every company: don’t sell single products — sell solutions that solve customers’ problems. This wasn’t just philosophy. Companies that sold solutions got better pricing power and often sold customers a wider range of products than initially sought.

The benchmarking system reinforced this. Managing directors compete against each other on common metrics. One story captures the effect: a 65-year-old manager had maintained a 10% profit margin for years. Four years after benchmarking was introduced, he hit 18%. His explanation: “You challenged me!”

To prepare for continued growth, Indutrade promoted its most senior managing directors to business segment leaders — the key link between business areas and subsidiaries, responsible for driving acquisitions. This expands the pool of leaders capable of executing deals while creating opportunities for younger talent to step into managing director roles.

What Alvarsson built

The numbers: 15% EPS CAGR since IPO, roughly 50x total return, growth from 60 to 200+ companies. Bo Annvik, who succeeded Alvarsson in 2017, has continued the playbook — revenue has more than doubled.

The philosophy is familiar if you’ve studied Lifco, Lagercrantz, or Addtech. The Swedish serial acquirers share DNA: decentralisation, permanent ownership, disciplined multiples, minimal interference. The differences are in emphasis and sector focus, not in kind.

Alvarsson’s contribution was proving the model could scale from 60 companies to 200 while maintaining the culture. The constraint on these businesses is usually finding enough good acquisitions. Indutrade found them.

Connects to Field Notes: EBITA-WC · Depth Before Breadth

Connects to Library: The Compounders · Process Power · Switching Costs · Optionality

See also: The Lifco Way — The closest comparison: same Swedish tradition, same decentralisation, different sector mix. The Judges Approach — Similar multiples and philosophy, UK-based scientific instruments.