Vald. Birn partner up with Eryk to secure remote IT-resources

Vald. Birn is looking toward Eryk—and Eryk is looking toward Africa—to find the resources needed to develop a new data platform for all six companies in the group and to transform the IT department into a digital business partner.

Vald. Birn is in the process of developing a completely new data platform for all six of its companies. It is a large, multi-year project, and it is not made easier by the fact that it is difficult to secure the necessary workforce in Denmark.

• However, this is not a new challenge for us, says David Stampe Grønborg, Group IT Manager at Vald. Birn A/S.
• For several years, we have used so-called remote IT services, meaning that IT specialists in another country work on our tasks. But as something new, we have now entered into a partnership with Eryk and turned our attention toward Africa to secure the necessary resources.
  

We at Eryk specialise in delivering technical services to companies throughout Europe. Recently, we established a sister company for remote IT services in Lagos, Nigeria. From there, Ayo and Funmi recently were in  Denmark for a month of training and onboarding, and more assistance is available where that came from. Nigeria educates 600,000 young people at university level each year, and unemployment is high.

David Stampe Grønborg explains that the employees from Nigeria are professionally fully on par with Danish and other international employees:

• They lack domain knowledge, but there are not many data engineers who know about the foundry industry anyway, so we are used to training new employees in that area ourselves. That is also why we invited them to Denmark for a month of training, so they have become well acquainted with our company and are ready to take on the tasks after returning to Nigeria.

David Stampe Grønborg also sees other advantages of the new collaboration:

• Ayo and Funmi speak English, but we have, for a long time, had many nationalities on the payroll, so we are used to that. They work in the same time zone as us, and we are very pleased to contribute to real development in Africa. Especially in the IT field, we can easily work remotely, so we can offer good, well-paid jobs where people live.

Funmi is pleased that Vald. Birn invested in a month of training and education for the new employees, but she did look forward to returning home and getting started with the work:

• We have experienced great kindness at Vald. Birn, but it is quite cold in Denmark. I sat in the office wrapped up in winter clothes from Sport 24 in Holstebro. It has been wonderful to return to familiar surroundings, family, and friends, and I am extremely excited to begin the tasks for Vald. Birn, she says.

Eryk is, of course, happy about the collaboration with Vald. Birn, but they are especially pleased that Vald. Birn is helping to create development in Africa in this way.

• Our founder Jens-Christian Moller has the goal of contributing to creating the same development in Nigeria that he helped initiate in Poland more than 20 years ago, says Ole Aaroe, Sales Manager at Eryk.
• He aims to build a Nigerian company with 1,000 remote IT service employees before he retires, and we are already well underway. The collaboration with Vald. Birn is an important step along the way.

As a country, Nigeria is also strongly interested in good cooperation with European companies. The shortage of technical labor is a challenge across Europe, and at the end of 2025, EIFO (Denmark’s Export and Investment Fund) held a seminar on opportunities to address the shortage of technical labor by recruiting in Africa. There, Idris Muhammad Bugaje, representing the Nigerian Ministry of Education, stated that Nigeria is very interested in cooperating with Europe both on importing labor under proper conditions and on remote collaboration. Both approaches create a higher level of competence and income for Nigerian employees and their families. And since most return home, and remote employees never leave the country, this also creates a foundation for establishing new, modern companies in Nigeria and thereby supporting the country’s development.

Facts about Vald. Birn A/S

With 550 employees in Holstebro, Vald. Birn A/S is one of the municipality’s largest private employers and one of Northern Europe’s largest iron foundry groups. The company is 128 years old and remains owned by the founding family.

Vald. Birn A/S is part of BIRN Group, which in total employs 750 people across six companies in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany. The six companies specialize in different areas within casting and processing of cast iron.

As part of the company’s digital transformation, Vald. Birn A/S is currently developing a new shared data platform for all six companies, while the IT department is being transformed into a more digital business partner. This requires additional resources, which can be difficult to find in Denmark.