Walter interview – NFM 25 year anniversary

Walter Øverland
CEO NFM Group AS

Walter, the CEO and one of the founders of NFM Group, has lived his entire life on a farm in Ski, a small town outside of Oslo. In Ski, he volunteered for the Norwegian Home Guard as a 16-year-old part time soldier where he was issued the standard issue rifle, a German Mauser left over from WW2. He was allowed to take it home, along with his uniform and equipment, which was certainly outdated at the time. During his service, he met some of his lifelong friends who were serving in the same unit in Ski. These friends would band together to form NFM, approximately 25 years ago.

The four of us were not satisfied with the equipment we had been issued. Twenty-five years ago, our load bearing systems were leftovers from the Second World War and nothing was made to house our AG3 magazines (former standard issued rifle in the Norwegian Armed Forces). We tried to source external suppliers, but we did not find any that suited our needs, so we decided to make some ourselves.

We asked the Norwegian military if it would be possible to use some of their camouflage fabric to make our own load bearing systems. Immediately, they called us in for a meeting. They were about to try and find a supplier for a new type of load bearing vest and we were given a small development contract to make them some. They even allowed us to use their camouflage fabric. It was pure luck that that we contacted them at that specific time.

We then established a company called “Norsk Forsvars Materiell” translated to “Norwegian Defence Materials”. The name is still used today but as an acronym, “NFM” as it is easier for our overseas customers to understand. One of the guys had a basement that we could use as his children had moved out of home, so we turned it into an office and scraped enough money together to rent a small building in Ski to use for production. When I say production, I mean that we would all go there to sew these load bearing systems ourselves after work and on weekends. We found a lady that had experience with sewing, so we ended up with our first employee.

R&D is very important for us as the world is forever changing. New battlefields are being born in different environments. We need to stay up to speed with these developments, so we invest heavily in the latest technology. Yesterday’s battlefield in the middle east could now change to Northern Europe or Southeast Asia.

It has been a fantastic journey. I am very proud of what we have achieved here. It has been a lot of hard work to get to where we are today, and I am very thankful for those that helped along the way. We have managed to grow at a rapid rate in the sewing industry which is a very old traditional one and that is quite remarkable.

Of course, when you look back, there are some things we could have done differently but the important thing was that we made informed decisions based on the knowledge we had at the time. We did get a little diverted with some activities that are not the core of our business, and this caused us to lose focus momentarily but that is something that we have learnt from.

We will continue to grow and develop, and we will stick to our core business products. We will also of course,  continually look for new opportunities and try to expand our market share in different regions.

The time of the Roman republic is fascinating. We know a lot of things that happened during the year 0 but if you look at 300 years before and after, not much is generally know about this time. Europe was formed during this period and so many different types of events took place.

Winston Churchill. He had a very complex personality from all the different positions he held in England. That man was involved in a lot of important changes in European history. He was also a soldier in WW1, a Noble Prize winner for literature and was without a doubt, the most famous British Prime Minster that ever existed.

Well, none in particular but I really enjoy books about history. Ken Fullet is a good author who has written a lot of different books that are easy reading.

Actually I am a pretty quiet person that likes to stay in the background, so there would be many!