Bjørn Gundersen

Björn Gundersen started Arcos in April 2007 as a one-person consultancy in safety and emergency preparedness, drawing on his background at Nutec (now RelyOn) in Bergen. He saw a gap for that kind of business in the northern part of Norway. Major capital wasn't the obstacle — being small and unknown to customers was. Revenue in the first year was NOK 900,000, growing steadily to NOK 9 million and 6 employees by 2015, Arcos's best year of that period.

The real turning point came in 2015, when Arcos bought Tromsø Sikkerhetssenter — a full-scale training centre with 15 full-time employees, NOK 12 million in annual turnover, and an annual loss of NOK 3 million. The acquisition shifted Arcos's core business from consultancy to safety training. "Arcos's acquisition of Tromsø Sikkerhetssenter in 2015 — a poorly managed company with significant financial losses — was perhaps the most important milestone. Without that decision we hardly would have been part of Presto, or any corporate group," says Björn Gundersen. Today Arcos has 9 full-time employees and an annual turnover close to NOK 40 million, delivering courses all over the country, including Svalbard.

Presto's Gustav Nord and Gustav Paringer visited Björn in Tromsø in late 2022. "Their personalities, attitudes, business ideas and plans for onboarding our company after acquisition appealed to us," says Björn Gundersen. He weighed other buyers and staying independent, but the structure Presto offered — preserving Arcos's identity while being part of a large corporate group — tipped the decision. Due diligence, he says, was "well-organised, and also an educational experience which gave us a better overview of our own business."

"Being part of a corporate group enables us to exchange resources and expand our business, both geographically and in terms of delivering higher volumes," says Björn Gundersen. Access to professional sales and marketing resources, he adds, is another major change Arcos can now benefit from.

For Arcos specifically, Björn sees the biggest opportunity in an even more targeted sales and marketing strategy; more broadly, he points to successful acquisitions as the growth driver for the wider Norwegian market. His advice to another entrepreneur weighing a similar decision: "Just go for it — but ensure that you pick the right people."

• Founded 2007 by Björn Gundersen as a one-person safety consultancy
• 2015: acquired Tromsø Sikkerhetssenter, pivoting from consultancy to safety training
• Today: 9 full-time employees, annual turnover close to NOK 40 million
• Delivers courses nationwide, including Svalbard
• Acquired by Presto in 2023