Case Studies

Ramnebergs Fastighetsservice AB, Sweden

Klaus Wollny founded Ramnebergs Fastighetsservice AB, a facilities maintenance company, in 2019. Now he leads a team of four and serves large commercial and municipal customers in the region of Vänersborg and Trollhättan in south-western Sweden.
Klaus’ work is varied, and like many contractors, Ramnebergs Fastighetsservice does everything that the customer requires in terms of property management. “For my customers, I try to assist the property’s facilities manager by taking on some of their workload. That could mean landscaping, sweeping, winter maintenance, and lots more in between. Contrary to popular belief, there is no guarantee that we’ll get snow every winter in Sweden. We have winters with no snow at all.”

Armed with this knowledge, Klaus decided to purchase a Multihog CV 350 multi-purpose sweeper in December 2020. It’s mostly been used for sweeping, but Klaus has also purchased some winter attachments to take advantage of its versatility. The motivation for the purchase was to serve a new customer who operates a wastewater treatment plant inside a mountain, a couple of hundred metres underground. Despite the fact that the entry to the underground plant involves some steep slopes, the CV sweeper had no issue navigating them downhill or uphill, according to Klaus. “This customer is a little bit different – certainly not your average sidewalk sweeping job. They have very stringent requirements for sweeping. As the plant is located deep underground, under a mountain in fact, it’s really important that there is no dust contamination in the air to set off the fire alarms, etc. We sweep there once a month, and this job pushed us to look at the Multihog. I had originally planned to work with another company on this job, but when the start date approached, I found that they could no longer take on the work. This made me think about buying and having my own equipment, and thus I came across the Multihog online. It’s a game-changer to have your own machine as a facilities maintenance contractor – now I’m not depending on other people to fulfil work with me.”

Klaus wasn’t familiar with his local dealer, Sweep Sopmaskiner, prior to the purchase. “I’m so glad I bought the Multihog from Sweep. They are very good guys, and they know what they’re talking about. And as a contractor, after-sales service is hugely important to me, and they have delivered on that side of things very consistently.”
The company also has a snow plough and sand spreader in their inventory, but have only used the snow plough so far. “We haven’t had a chance to use the spreader yet. But a sand spreader is always a good investment. We never know if we’re going to get snow in the winter, but one thing that is guaranteed is the gravel that’s laid down to counteract icy paths and sidewalks. Every spring there is a mountain of it to be cleared away. Now, with the spreader/sweeper in our fleet, we can compete for contracts to put this gravel down in winter, and then remove it in the spring.”

And he doesn’t plan to stop there. “I’m definitely looking at expanding our operations with new attachments. That’s one of the reasons we chose this machine. Lots of other machines are good at sweeping but not winter maintenance, or vice versa. I can say with absolute certainty that the Multihog sweeper is really good at sweeping, but also equally good at lots of other tasks. The fact that it’s truly multi-purpose really sold it for us. I’m looking at expanding into grass mowing work right now, and the Multihog will be the machine I rely on for that. Chemical-free weed control is also the future, and I know the Multihog is ideal for it. We will be trying to align our new work with our commitment to be a leading, eco-friendly, facilities maintenance company. And Multihog offers a lot of opportunity to do that, with the range of eco-friendly attachments which can be fitted on their machines.”

Currently, the machine is also used to sweep woodchips at two heating plants in the locality every fortnight, to counteract fire risks at the plants. Aside from sweeping gravel in the spring, Klaus also says that competing for new business will be much easier with the CV on board. “The fact that the sweeper is using a Stage V engine makes a big difference when competing for municipal contracts. Swedish municipalities have a lot of regulations about the kind of equipment that can be used for maintenance in urban areas, and rightly so. The CV complies with all of these, and I was particularly impressed by its 4 star rating in the PM10/PM2.5 test standard. I test drove a competing machine before I purchased the Multihog, and it left a huge dust cloud in its path. I don’t want to experience that again. We want to be a company who operates in an environmentally friendly way, and who puts the wellbeing of our local citizens first. The fact that the CV uses such a clean engine means we will be able to use this machine for many years to come.”

Aside from helping him to win new business, the Multihog is also speeding up day-to-day operations, with its true 40 km/h (25 mph) travel speed between job sites. Last, but not least, Klaus mentions the comfort of the machine, particularly for his team. “Although I was sold on it through my online research, I still had a demo before I placed my order. Sweep had an easy sale with me! But truly, the driving experience absolutely convinced me. I love driving it, the suspension is amazing, really very good. To be honest, the comfort level in this machine simply could not be better – it’s perfect. Driving for a long time is also no problem, as you have the cruise control button. Comfort is very important to both me and my team. I want them to be comfortable during long shifts and I know the Multihog provides this. We are really happy with the machine, with the dealer, and its performance. We’re looking forward to expanding our facilities maintenance business with this addition to our fleet.”