David has just returned from three days of paddle tennis in Torrevieja, Spain. His first boss at Svensson was his football coach when he was in school. Today, he says about his nine-year-old son, Jonatan: "I want him to have a sport."
But 42-year-old David Johansson, now in his 23rd year at Svensson in Kinna, says he is not crazy about sports.
"The important thing is that I want Jonatan to learn the spirit of being in a team," he says. "You learn a lot about other countries and people when you play a team sport."
David deputizes for the Department Head of Inspection and Assembly, Anders Jöbelid, ensuring the team has all the supplies they need to dispatch orders worldwide. He’s also their key forklift driver, responsible for getting tons of deliveries out of the factory gate.
He believes that a team functions as one person and that everyone should stick together. "Togetherness is important, and we have that here. It doesn't matter where you come from here."
David started in "syningen," the department responsible for quality control in the factory, before moving to logistics, but the principles remain the same. "It's important to be outgoing - we always talk to our colleagues," he says.
Working in a factory is social, he explains, but small talk serves more than just a social function during the workday.
"There isn't a long learning curve, but you have to talk and take initiative," David points out. "A machine that stops for an hour means that more than a kilometer of climate fabric won't reach the customer."
In "syningen," where every error is digitally logged by the operator, it’s still important to talk to colleagues in weaving, so they get the full picture of why a fault was logged.
Perhaps it's this constant communication that has kept David at Ludvig Svensson for 23 years.
"It's always been about friendship - even with my supervisor, Anders," he says. "Anders can be a bossman at times, but he feels more like a friend."