Meet Thomas Larsson – Alvi Group’s new Sales Director, part-time farmer, early-morning runner and self-confessed restless soul

It’s early when Thomas Larsson gets going. The dog needs walking, and somewhere out in the Skåne countryside – fifty minutes from Malmö – his day starts long before most meeting rooms have switched on the lights. That’s by design. By the time Thomas wakes up, China has already put in half a day’s work, and the factory in Poland has been running since six.

“A good day starts with something having already happened overnight – something I can get my hands on,” he says. It may be the shortest possible description of the man: always a little ahead, always in motion.

Back in the plastics industry after twelve years

Thomas is new to the role of Sales Director, but not to the trade. With a background in the plastics, metal and electronics industries, he’s now making a comeback to a sector he left twelve years ago. What drew him back? Proximity. In previous roles, the decisions were made far away – often on another continent.

“Here you’re close to where things are decided, and you can follow along in a completely different way. That’s something I’d missed.”

The other draw is the breadth. Alvi stands for one core technology, but the applications are almost endless. “One day you meet a customer in medical technology, the next someone cleaning exhaust gases from diesel engines for the sake of the environment. You get into so many different applications – and you’re part of making things a little better.”

After his first month, he’s clear on what has impressed him most: how much a company of just over 300 employees achieves with limited resources. “As a smaller business, we’re well ahead in areas you wouldn’t expect.”

And what would his wife say?

We tried a little trick: if we asked his wife for three words to describe Thomas, what would she say? He laughs. “Well, I’d have to admit I keep quite a high pace. She’d probably call me fairly irritating and a bit much at times – pretty short-fused.” A pause. “But I think she’d also say I’m usually in a good mood.”

A cheerful, impatient type with a short fuse, then – and enough self-irony to say it out loud himself.

The forester’s farm – and the people along the way

Outside work there’s a different rhythm. Thomas and his wife own an older property – a former forester’s cottage – with woodland, fields and animals grazing through to spring. It’s not somewhere you just visit; it asks something of you. “There’s work to do in the forest, and animals to look after. It takes time – but it’s your own.” He keeps in shape with running, for as long as his knees and hips will go along with it.

And then there’s the travelling. His heart beats especially for Eastern Europe, with Albania and the wine country of Moldova among his favourites. But what he really travels for is the people.

“I can sit at a café and just study people. Understanding people’s daily life is very inspiring to me.”

That’s perhaps where the circle closes. Whether it’s a new customer across a meeting table or a stranger at a café in Tirana, Thomas Larsson is curious about people. Not the worst trait to bring into a new role as Sales Director.

Welcome to Alvi Group, Thomas.