Hello Lars, we're delighted to welcome you and Bolia to Connox. Could you briefly introduce yourself?
Of course. I'm Lars Lyse, CEO of Bolia International A/S. Besides my great passion for Scandinavian design, creativity and happy customers, I'm a music producer, mountaineer and family man, and I enjoy life with my wife, our three children and two dogs.
What's special about working at Bolia?
I love my job and my colleagues at Bolia.com. And even though I've been CEO at Bolia for more than 10 years, every new day is still just as exciting as the first day I walked into the office.
What makes a good piece of furniture for you? And what excites you about good design?
My heart beats faster when I see how many different things come together in a single product design. It's about cleverness and simplicity, shapes and beauty, uniqueness and Bolia's identity. It's about the choice of materials, craftsmanship, feel and functionality, sustainability and durability – and about making that design a natural part of the whole collection.
And finally, I also love it when a design has a special story to tell. A design background, a fun reference, a hidden function or simply another quirky little detail that gives the design some extra personality.
You joined Bolia in 2005 and have made the company a leading brand in the industry. What do you remember about your first days?
I believe that preserving memories and documenting history as you progress is an important part of leading a growing company. As we take a step forward every day and the months and years go by, we tend to look ahead and sometimes forget where we came from.
To document our progress, we have a complete print of our very first collection and a library of every lookbook and brand book we've created over the years. It's all a great way to visualise how our company, our designs, our brand and our culture have developed.
In many cities, such as Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Hanover in Germany, customers can already experience the Bolia brand in person. How do you choose new locations for your stores?
We want every single store to look and feel local and to be relevant to its community. That's why no two Bolia stores are the same. So for us, one of the most important aspects is finding a location and a beautiful building with history, identity and authenticity.
In its stores, Bolia offers customers a holistic shopping experience with its own music, visual world, signature scent and coffee alongside Scandinavian design. At the same time, Bolia has online shops in more than 30 countries. How do these two worlds go hand in hand?
That's right – we've been working on the sensory store experience for more than ten years now. It's been a lot of fun and it's very well received. But making our products available via online shops to other customers who may not live near a store is, for me, another logical and important step.
That sounds like a lot of passion and a lot of work. How and when do you relax best?
Some of my favourite things to do when I need to relax or recharge are spending time with my wife, drinking a good red wine, running and working out, refuelling with natural food, listening to music and meditating, taking our two French bulldogs (Conrad and Bowie) to the nearby beach or into the woods, or playing "The Last of Us" on my PS5 for the 20th time [laughs].
Bolia also wants to improve its customers' quality of life and is working on a comprehensive sustainability strategy, among other things. What does quality of life mean to you personally? When do you go to bed at night and think: that was a good day?
Oh, that's a big question. I'll try to keep it short. If, at the end of another eventful day full of meaningful encounters and plenty of decision-making, I can go to bed satisfied that I've brought about positive change and steered things in the right direction, I couldn't ask for much more.
Thank you so much for talking to us, Lars. And welcome to Connox!
Shop the Scandinavian look from Bolia:
