Good tone through 20 years

CEO of Platekompaniet, Rolf Presthus.

The history of Platekompaniet began in Grønland in Oslo in 1992. When the photo and music store at the subway station went bankrupt, BI students Rolf Kristian Presthus, Richard Ona and Egil Dahl stepped in and bought the bankruptcy estate for NOK 40,000.

- "We were a group of people interested in music, and owning our own record store was a dream come true," says current owner and general manager Rolf Presthus.

From hobby to livelihood
At first, running the store was almost a hobby project, but the young students quickly came to believe that it was possible to sell music as a profession and livelihood. Under the motto "cheapest in town", the small shop quickly became popular among the capital's music lovers.

- "Eventually, we also saw the opportunity to build this into a chain. We first expanded to strategic locations in Oslo, then we expanded with stores in the largest cities in Norway and eventually also to the largest shopping centers," says Presthus.
Today, Platekompaniet is the country's leading retail chain within music, film and games, with 25 outlets, an online store, 330 employees and NOK 764,000,000 million in annual sales.

Constantly evolving
Platekompaniet has constantly developed its product range. Rolf Presthus believes this is one of the reasons why they have been so successful.

- "We saw early on that people were getting more and more used to being able to buy several product categories in one place. So we expanded from just selling CDs to also selling movies, Blu-ray, games, books and, most recently, vinyl. Part of the development also involved the creation of an online store. We have seen what trends are coming and what people expect to get," says Presthus.

20 years of Dagbladet
When it comes to marketing, Platekompaniet has tried many different things over its 20 years of operation, but Dagbladet has always been a stable and important partner for the chain.

- "When we started up, we didn't have particularly large budgets to deal with. We therefore chose to spend what we had on advertising in Dagbladet. Their profile in relation to culture and music suited our target group," says Presthus.

Good cooperation
Despite increasing marketing budgets, Platekompaniet has not changed much in its choice of channels 20 years later.

- "We still spend most of our money on print and of course some on the internet. When it comes to Dagbladet as a channel choice, nothing has changed. They are still just as relevant to us. The fact that we've been with Dagbladet for so long is a sign that we've had a good relationship and a good tone throughout all these years. I think they still have a profile that suits our products. In addition, Dagbladet's consultants have always been keen to see our needs, understand them and see new opportunities for us. Not everyone can boast that," Presthus concludes.