MADE IN EUROPE: Vertical Integration as a Superpower with HANZA Founder & CEO Erik Stenfors

What if your supply chain felt like one well-run factory instead of a maze of vendors and shifting promises? I sit down with founder and CEO Erik Stenfors at Hanza's Capital Markets Day in Stockholm to unpack a simple but powerful idea: build a manufacturing partner the way a buyer wishes it worked. That means vertical integration where it counts, smart outsourcing where it helps, and a single accountable brain coordinating many capable hands.We walk through the evolution from scattered globalization to an orchestrated model that turns fixed costs  variable, reduces delivery risk, and makes room for growth. As Erik explains, HANZA's framework runs on three axes—geography, technology, and capacity—so investments land where customers feel them most. HANZA 2025 was a phase focused on capacity and balance, HANZA 2028 shift toward technology, adding processes that expand the scope of supply and collapse handoffs. Not every site needs every tool; instead, clusters keep a common backbone while deepening specialities that remove real bottlenecks in electronics, mechanics, and final assembly.Voice of customer sits at the center. We share a standout story where a client moved from roughly forty suppliers to one orchestrated solution, gaining shorter lead times, clearer data, and fewer escalations. Acquisitions matter only when they extend the backbone or sharpen regional coverage without diluting standards. The aim stays constant: a consolidated supply chain that behaves like an integrated plant, priced like a flexible network, and measured by outcomes buyers actually care about—reliability, responsiveness, and total landed cost.If you’re ready to rethink how you scale, reduce risk, and free your team to focus on design and market instead of firefighting, press play. Subscribe for more candid operations strategy, share this with a teammate who’s drowning in vendors, and drop a review to tell us what capability you want added next.This podcast is part of series recorded at HANZA's Capital Markets Day in Stockholm on March 10th 2026.MADE IN EUROPE is a Global Electronics Association podcast hosted by Philip Stoten and produced and published by SCOOP. For more information on Global Electronics Association visit https://www.electronics.org/