Humlegårdens Ekolager (Hops farm) - "I didn't have a thought of starting the company in the first place"

Art. no. 216385421 24 Apr 2025

Humlegårdens Ekolager was not only the first in Sweden to bring in products for breweries, they have also influenced the entire Swedish development of small-scale beer brewing. Since its inception, they have been the leader in their market in Sweden and have made an incredibly awesome journey.

Below you can read Svante Ekelin's story about Humlegården's journey:

What do you sell in your shop?
We sell high quality raw materials, equipment and literature for advanced home brewers and small breweries. In the beginning when we started our company, there were less than 10 breweries in Sweden and there were very few private individuals brewing beer as a hobby. But over the past 10-12 years, a lot has happened, both beer breweries and home brewing at the hobby level have increased enormously and it has been very cool that we have been able to be part of that journey. Today there are around 500 breweries in Sweden and the hobby of home brewing has grown enormously in recent years.

You only sell your products online, have you ever thought about setting up a physical store in addition?
We have thought about offering our customers a physical store as it can be nice but our niche and market is aimed at a fairly small target group that is spread throughout Sweden. This has led us to the conclusion that an e-commerce is better suited to our products. But if you live nearby, there is the option for our customers to come to our customer reception and pick up their order from our warehouse. So we don't offer shelf sales, but you can at least choose pick-up from our warehouse as a delivery method. In the beginning, we received orders via email, given that the web was not yet very developed, and after a few years I found a shopping cart solution that we used. But it had some shortcomings, for example it didn't keep track of the stock balance so every day we had to upload a new file manually to maintain the stock and customers could only pay by invoice and cash on delivery.

What is the best thing about running your own business and webshop?
The best thing about running your own business is that you can influence your own life and you can work with your interest. In our case, we also got to influence the entire Swedish development in small-scale beer brewing and it has been a very fun and interesting experience. For me it started as a hobby, I discovered that you could get really good beer by brewing it yourself. I didn't have an idea to start the company from the beginning but when we discovered that there was a shortage in the market, it was my wife Eva who came up with the idea that we should start a company and offer this niche to the Swedish market. We started our company back in 1992 so we were very early, this was before the web broke through which meant that we had to be persistent in the beginning. But the positive thing about it all was that we were the first in Sweden with this niche, which I think has contributed to us becoming as big as we have become.

Why did you choose Abicart as your e-commerce platform?
When we wanted to invest in a more advanced webshop solution in 2009, we did a thorough research to find the platform that suited us best and we ended up using Abicart. The reason we chose you was because it is an extremely affordable platform and in addition, we had just started using Specter as an ERP system and Abicart offers an integration that connects Specter and Abicart. This means that everything sold on the website automatically changes in the stock balance in real time, which we appreciate very much. This link between Abicart and Specter was an important part for us and it was one of the reasons why we chose Abicart as our e-commerce platform. Another integration that we use is Trustpilot and it is very important to us. We are very happy with Abicart as a platform and we have had it since 2009 without wanting to change.

Which subscription with us do you use and why?
We use the Pro subscription on Abicart and we have had it since the start I think. We have grown in size in recent years so for us it is absolutely necessary to have that subscription to drive our business forward and to be able to use the integrations we want and we get a lot for our money. Until now we have had a common webshop for the homebrewers and for the small breweries but now we are creating a multi-store system. Abicart is helping us to develop a sub-store that will be entirely focused on breweries. So within a few weeks we will be running two webshops on Abicart's e-commerce platform, one for private customers and one for companies. It will be exciting to follow how it will develop in the future.

• My tip is to find something you are interested in and good at. It will be a win-win situation in the long run and the work will be more fun if you have a genuine interest in what you sell. If you combine it with products and a niche that is not so common so there are few established companies in the market, there are very good chances of establishing a large e-commerce.

• Another important thing to consider when running an e-commerce is customer service. You should always aim to keep the customer happy, especially when you work with a niche market. Then you are usually unknown to new traders and then it is important to show that you are a company you can trust, for example by sharing your reviews on Trustpilot. It includes a sense of security for new visitors and customers.

Take a look at Humlegården's cozy webshop!