10 Aug 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 He was allowed to take it home, along with his uniform and equipment, which was certainly outdated at the time.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.
How did NFM begin?
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.
“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.
“It was then time to make a decision. Should we continue to do this as a hobby or make a full go of it and leave our secure jobs?”
This was of course, just a part time “hobby” for us as we did not earn enough money to do it full time. We all had regular jobs, mine being as an instructor in the military and I also worked at my father’s store in Oslo selling bathroom equipment. When we had made some tactical equipment, I would often sell some of it to students taking part in the courses I was running. The numbers were small, but it was a start.
It was then time to make a decision. Should we continue to do this as a hobby or make a full go of it and leave our secure jobs? We chose the latter in 1998 and worked countless hours to get NFM to the stage where it started to make some money.
After a while, we had more contracts coming through for the Norwegian military and decided it was time to attend our first military trade show in Paris, called Eurosatry. We had a small booth and made contacts there that lead to our first overseas customer, being the Belgian armed forces.
Eventually more customers were acquired, and we knew that growth meant hiring more employees which was too expensive for us in Norway, so we chose Poland as a location to expand.
In the beginning, we chose an existing company there to do production for us, but it was unreliable, and the quality was not up to our standards, so we took another calculated risk and opened NFM Poland in 2001. We started with four ladies sewing garments, to over 450 employees there today.
We were constantly chasing the next technological level in production. A lot of businesses can do sewing, so we felt that ballistics was a natural next step. So, sometime around 2006-2007 we decided to start with ballistic plate production in Norway. We bought a small company that had completed some ballistic development in co-operation with FFI (Norwegian Defence Research Establishment). We then invested heavily in R&D for hard and soft ballistic production and last year we produced almost 500,000 ballistic products. This does not include our latest flagship product, HJELM™.
HJELM™ is something unique for us as we have no prior experience in ballistic helmet production. Previously we sold Ops Core helmets to the European markets, but we lost that channel once Gentex bought Ops Core, so we decided to use the knowledge we had gained in helmet development and its market, to produce HJELM™ in 2019.
We do not copy other designs; we like to create something unique and HJELM™ is certainly that.
What investments have you made to position NFM for the future?
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.
How does this 25-year anniversary make you feel?
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.
What would you do differently?
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.
Can you reveal any plans of expansion if you have any?
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.
Fun facts
Favourite moment in history
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.
Conversation with someone: either living or dead, who would it be?
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.
Favourite book?
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.
Whats something about you that not many people know.
Actually I am a pretty quiet person that likes to stay in the background, so there would be many!
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