38 great years at Norske Backer AS

- It's probably unnecessary to say since I've been here for so long, but we have a great time here at Norske Backer AS. Everything is in order, there's never any nonsense about anything. Bosses have come and gone over the years, but the working environment has been just as stable and good all the time. Very pleasant colleagues, and very little turnover. That says it all," says Sjønnesen.

From plant to production

Erland Sjønnesen's stubbornness and determination secured him a job at Norske Backer AS. At the beginning of the 1980s, construction work was predominantly seasonal, and the young construction worker Sjønnesen was tired of being unemployed all winter. So he supplemented his income with extra jobs for the element manufacturer, which at the time was located in the premises where Coop on Langeland is now.

- The production manager asked if I could work at Easter. That was in 1983. I said I could, but on one condition, that I got a permanent job in production. At first it was out of the question, but the next day he called and said the job was mine if I wanted it. I did, and I've been here ever since.

Still an active cyclist

Erland turns 59 in November, but no one would believe it. It's cycling in particular that has helped the veteran stay youthful and fit.

- "I've always loved cycling. I got my first racing bike when I was nine years old, and I still take at least two training rides a week," says the man who, over the years, has become well known on small and large roads throughout the district.

Six or seven miles is a "leisurely ride" for an old, active cyclist who has cycled Birken twice, the border race three times and the "great test of strength" between Trondheim and Oslo once and a half.

- "Last time, the weather was absolutely awful. It was so windy that we had to roll the bike over Dovrefjell. Then I stopped down in the valley. That'll have to do!"

So dark on the situation

Today, Erland is a Kongsvinger patriot and as good a Glåmd beer as anyone, but it was a long time coming. It was his father who took over a 100-acre smallholding at Slåstad and dragged a rather reluctant Erland with him on the moving truck from Moss. At the time, he took a rather dim view of things, as he says.

- I was 18 years old and didn't know anyone here. I took the train back to Moss every weekend. But there was one big advantage up here, and that was that there was a much shorter waiting time to get a driver's license. So I had the license, while my friends only had a car," he laughs.

It took him a couple of years to get the hang of it, as he says, and today he enjoys it immensely. The smallholding has long since been sold out of the family, and Erland Skjønnesen has absolutely no interest in such things. He has had as many ups and downs at Gjemselund as he had at Melløs, and when the two teams were still at the top of their game in Norway, he wisely left both the yellow and red scarves at home.

Not a dull moment

Tyson is the reason Erland Sjønnesen has to get up at quarter past four in the morning. The 10-year-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier lives up to his name, and needs to be walked thoroughly every morning before his father leaves for work. Their children Tine, 35, and Dennis, 25, have long since left home. Now it's just him, Tyson and his partner Heidi Bakken in the spacious terraced house at Langeland in Kongsvinger, close to where Norske Backer AS' production facilities were located until 2008.

- The commute has become longer, but it's not far to SIVA, either. "And it's much more exciting to work with specialty products like we do now than it was in the years before series production was moved to our factory in Poland," says the man who was promoted to team leader, but who is still happy to lend a hand where needed in the factory.

- "Distances are short here at Norske Backer AS, and we work closely together," says the group leader, who also met his partner Heidi at work many years ago.

- We are three team leaders. Together with factory manager Uno Rybråten and sales engineer Frank Sparby, we have a planning meeting every Monday at nine o'clock where we go through what we have to do that week. As I said, not a dull moment here at Norske Backer AS.