"Collaboration helps us to be at the forefront!"

The growing company Thule's products for an active outdoor life are seen all over the world. But it is in Småland's Hillerstorp that the company will develop tomorrow's products — in collaboration with the research program GRACE.

—Active life is the common thread. "Bring your life" — whatever you need to bring with you, we will find a solution for it, explains Fredrik Ekvall in JTH's premises on campus, which were finalised quite precisely when he graduated as a mechanical engineer in the nineties. Now he is responsible for project management within Thule's "Bike & Strollers" segment, which is part of the company's global range. Roof racks, boxes and bicycle racks are among the most famous products, but they also make tents, dog cages and various bags, for example.

—We are constantly growing with high business goals. The latest product is a new child car seat that has taken several years to develop, which inbludied building our own track for crash tests in Hillerstorp. The chair has received top marks, says Fredrik Ekvall proudly, noting that he has worked with product development throughout his professional life.

Wear and tear of weather and wind

Thule participates in two GRACE projects: ProValue and In2Circ. In different ways, both are about how the industry must meet requirements linked to sustainability and circularity, which will become even clearer in the future.

In Thule's case, the focus is on products made of plastic, aluminum and steel.

—JU can help us in areas where we are not able to manage ourselves. We want to find a way to be able to have a product on the market for ten years and then take it back, take care of the material and remake it to fit into a new product. But after the wear and tear of weather, wind and tension, we don't know if it has the same properties anymore, explains Fredrik Ekvall.

Joel Johansson is a digitization expert at Thule but also works for JTH where he once studied and started his research.

—We have very well defined models for the monetary part of the product, but you don't know how to calculate sustainability and circularity. We would have to agree on a joint model, he believes.

Traceability in each product

Part of Joel Johansson's work in GRACE deals with how each individual product should be able to have its own identity.

—With a unique product passport, you can track them over their lifetime, see what they have been through and approximately how the material has been affected, he says, and explains that the work is also about how the choices made early in the development process affect the final CO2 footprint.

Now the actual research in ProValue and In2Circ is just one of the reasons why Thule participates in GRACE. Here is a competence that we do not have, while we have competence and practical insights to share. We also want the research to be reflected in how students are educated — hopefully in a direction that is good for us.
—This is our closest recruitment base, says Fredrik Ekvall. And collaborating with companies facing similar challenges in a neutral environment that research projects together with JTH offer provides great added value, he believes.

—We are bitter competitors in one way: we want to attract the same amount of employees. If we try to learn from each other, we can create attractiveness in the region and attract even more — and then we will be able to provide each other with resources. We always need recruitment and must strengthen the sustainable and circular work in product development. Do more — but consume less.