Petra Hilleberg, the President and CEO of Hilleberg the Tentmaker, tells us how she set up the brand in the USA after leaving university, grew the business, achievements and her focus on quality.
Hilleberg tents are renowned for their quality, durability and are perfect for expeditions, often seen in the polar regions and the Himalayas, as well as mountains and forests.
Petra’s father, Bo Hilleberg, set up the company in 1971 before marrying his wife Renata. Petra has now taken charge of the business but knows what a crucial role her mother took in getting the tent brand off the ground.
She said: “Mom is a very crucial piece because she did all the prototype work. Dad would draw it on a piece of paper and she would put it to product. She set up the production of how to sew the tents and it’s how we still work today.”
Petra always knew she wanted to be in the tent business, at the age of 12 she told her father that she wanted to sell tents in the USA.
Petra said: ““He’d been on a trip to the US. We didn’t sell anything in the US, he went to see what the market was about. When he came back, I said I’m going to sell tents in the US one day. And he said, yes, of course you are.”
And that dream came to fruition after Petra moved to the US for her higher education.
Petra added: “I only went through a gymnasium (upper secondary school, sixth form or high school, years 10–12) in Sweden. I ended up going to Seattle University for my bachelor degree.
After finishing her degree, Petra set up the US side of the business in a flurry of activity.
She said: “I graduated in 2000, which was an interesting time to be in the Seattle area because it was before the .com bubble burst.
“The original plan was to graduate in June, have the summer to slowly set it up and have a very soft start in the fall and really start in 2001. We put out a small ad for people to order a catalogue in an August issue of a magazine.
“In about March or February of that year, we realised that in the US the August issue was actually July/August, but it comes out in June.
“So, while I was doing my senior project, I was running with lawyers, real estate agents and accountants and setting up the office at the same time.
“I graduated on June 10th and then the first tent went out on June 15th.
“It was a very hectic time. I decided I wanted to be in in Redmond outside of Seattle, which is where Microsoft is headquartered. But, because of the .com bubble there was zero office space available.
“I rented a 1,000 square foot storage unit in an office park building. I taped in my own carpet. l had some shelves that separated the warehouse from the desk and there was no running water.
“Every time I had to go to the bathroom, I put a sign on the door saying we’ll be right back and ran to the bathroom upstairs in a different unit.
“It was a very hectic time.”
Petra now had to grow a hardly known brand in the US market from scratch.
She said: “I worked by myself for the first two years. We hadn’t sold anything outside of Europe or had hardly any presence.
“I only sold direct at the beginning. We sent out a lot of catalogues and were lucky enough to have some brand recognition in the high-end category.
“It was very slow work because advertising in the US is super expensive. What we spent for the next three years is what one of the big companies would spend in one ad.
“So, just a lot of word of mouth and really working on sending and handing out catalogues got Hilleberg out there.
“Then we had a few retailers that came, made sure that they had catalogues, and just built from the ground up. Sales were low at the beginning, but it just built up based on reputation.
“There were others in the industry that had said that you can never sell a tunnel tent in the US. I said, ‘Well, we’ll take our chances’.
“We have both tunnel tents and other models, but, I think, that it doesn’t matter what market you’re in, when you’re out sleeping in the forest or in the mountains, the needs that you have are the same whether you’re in Europe, the US or Japan.
“My philosophy was that you’re going to realise that a tunnel tent always gives you the best weight to space ratio and that just because you’re not used to it as an American, I think that they could see the value of that and that’s what happened.”
Petra’s success in growing Hilleberg has led to a number of accolades. In 2012 she was honoured by the 2012 SGB (Sporting Goods Business) 40 Under 40 Awards and the 2012 Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40 Awards. In 2022, she was awarded the “Female Shooting Star” prize by Ernst & Young at the Entrepreneur of the Year gala for Northern Swede
She said: “You don’t go out to try to get awards. I was just plugging away, just focusing on the quality and making sure that we make the very best tents that we possibly can.
“Every little detail on the tents are there for a reason, everything is focused on that.
“Even from 1971. that’s how we’ve grown the business. It is slow growth because you can’t have a really steep sales curve because the production can’t keep up. Quality leads everything we do. Awards are great, but it’s not what I set out to do.”
Petra stepped up from President of the US side of the business to be President of Hilleberg AB, the Swedish office, as well as the CEO of the Hilleberg Group, where she oversees the operations in Sweden, the US and their factory in Estonia.
She said: “I’d been doing the US for 16 years when I took over from my dad. I was very familiar with all aspects of the business. I started working for Hilleberg when I was 10 years old in the summer breaks!
“One of the things I focused on the most in the beginning was to make sure that the US and the Swedish office we’re working together as a team towards one goal.
“In the Swedish office, we have sales in Europe, a warehouse, repairs and product and material development. In the US office, we have sales outside of Europe, warehouse and repairs and the marketing team for the whole company.
“Everyone works really well, hand-in-hand together.
“I think because I came from the little US office I wanted to make sure that both offices are taking into account all markets.
“The key is to have a good operations manager, which I do.”
