This is the story of how the market for student caps and other accessories – and generally the way today’s Swedish school leavers celebrate their graduation – was transformed by three young men. It all started back in 2000 in Täby, a suburb of Stockholm, when Alexander, Babak and Tomas celebrated their own senior high school graduation. Keeping to previously established traditions is all well and
good, they thought, but surely they could do so much more. This was the start of a movement that would fundamentally change how future students were to celebrate their high school graduation along with all the associated traditions and activities. From now on graduates would view the entire year as an inspirational springboard into their future, with the purchase of the student cap being just the start. Celebration, proud tradition and great memories were the watchwords. And ABC-Gruppen was born. However, it could all have ended just soon after it started since many of the established suppliers in the market felt threatened. Instead of using this opportunity to evolve the market themselves, they chose confrontation and conflict. But our young trio was not to be beaten. Through conviction, courage and a returning stream of very satisfied customers, eight years after they started ABC-Gruppen, the company was named Company of the Year in Stockholm County and officially named as a Gazelle Company. The business has continued to develop ever since, resulting in the formation of the Estate Group, which now includes the original ABC-Gruppen brand. Inspired by its vision, in 2008 the company set its sights on establishing operations in Denmark as the first Nordic country outside Sweden. Again Estate faced setbacks and hostility from established suppliers and channels, just like it did in Sweden. But Estate is never daunted and again picked itself up and is now moving forward. Our very name, Estate, means summer in Italian, which truly acts as a metaphor for our company and culture. We never admit defeat, we are positive, we are alive, we challenge and we thrive. Now we have recaptured much of the market share we originally lost in Denmark and we continue to challenge! Our next project focuses on school photo. Because we think it is wrong to release toxic chemicals into the environment merely for the sake of speculative selling. It cannot be right to entice parents into purchasing products they have not even ordered by sending school photographs direct to their homes on a sale or return basis. And, worse still, it is often the students who ultimately get lumbered with the costs. This does not even take into account the often lackluster quality of the photographs themselves. So at Estate, we want to revolutionize the school photograph market, just like we did with student caps and student clothing. We know they’ll be resistance from established suppliers, but we will never give up. We are here to give our customers what is right and best for them. And it is our customers who we value above all else.
