Best value for money

"That thing about making things happen and making things succeed – I definitely got that from my father"

The story of the owner of Stetoskop.dk and Seagull Healthcare, Anni Tolstrup-Christensen, truly begins in Herning in the 1970s among pots and pans.

Why do we end up where we end up? We cannot avoid coincidences. Nor that environment plays a big role. But then there is also the matter of genes – the inheritance from our parents, our flesh and blood. Anni Tolstrup-Christensen is the owner of Stetoskop.dk and Seagull Healthcare. That she succeeded in selling precisely medical equipment is also due to meeting the right people at the right time, but if you really want to understand why the businesswoman and entrepreneur has reached where she is today, the story begins in Herning in the early 1970s. Here, Anni Tolstrup-Christensen's parents buy the city's largest hardware store. The tall, slender woman speaks with gravity – moved, but composed. Back then in Herning, she gained values. Strong values that she carries forward with pride and gratitude. "My father came from very poor conditions. He was sent out to work on a farm at just nine years old. Simply to earn money. It’s almost impossible to understand. He was so sad and did everything to get home again, and he succeeded. He simply ensured he got a lot of small jobs himself and thus earned money for the family: he became a real little entrepreneur," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen, who immediately got a role in the family business. Behind the counter in Herning, the 13-year-old teenager advised customers on pots and pans, and when the door was locked at closing time, business was discussed further at home. There was always something going on. New goods, new businesses, new opportunities. "My father was really active. He optimized, set records, and was constantly creating something new," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen.

‘Always new ideas’

Her father, Johs Tolstrup, ended up owning two hardware stores and a sports shop and helped establish both Inspiration and Sportmaster. Through chains, the 'little entrepreneur' saw opportunities in collaborating and exchanging experiences with other shop owners around Denmark. "I definitely got that from my father. That thing about buying and selling. That thing about making things happen and making things succeed. I also always have new ideas in my head," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen, who was never trained in retail but was in what she calls 'master apprenticeship' with her father. After her high school graduation, Anni Tolstrup-Christensen studied HA (Bachelor of Science in Economics and Business Administration), took a Graduate Diploma in Accounting (HD), and later she could also add an MSc in Business Administration and Information Systems (cand.merc.dat.) to her CV. That it ended up being stethoscopes and blood pressure monitors and not cutting boards and toasters is due to the coincidences that life also offers.

Cheaper quality products

In the 2000s, Anni Tolstrup-Christensen taught at Køge Business College and got a colleague, Nicolai Bille Krogh, who, together with a doctor and an engineer, saw opportunities in importing quality Polish stethoscopes for Danish doctors, who were paying far too much for their American models. Anni Tolstrup-Christensen initially got the accounts in order, but soon it was just her and Nicolai Bille Krogh. The pair also saw opportunities in Oplevelsesgaver.dk and made it part of the business, but the two areas – medical equipment and gift cards for everything from skydiving to romantic dinners – were ultimately too difficult to reconcile, so they decided to buy each other out. Since 2010, Anni Tolstrup-Christensen has thus been at the helm alone. Back then, it was exclusively about trade with general practitioners, but the assortment and customer base have been constantly expanded, and since then, the company Seagull Healthcare, which is aimed especially at Danish pharmacies, has also been added. "I can thank my father for a lot when it comes to my success. The idea that nothing comes for free. That you always have to be on your toes. And the values: decency, initiative, and quality awareness," says the 60-year-old business owner with the strong merchant gene.

Health is a passion

Anni Tolstrup-Christensen, owner of STETOSKOP.DK and Seagull Healthcare, combines business acumen with healthcare professionalism, but the path there wasn't straightforward.
"I actually didn't own a thermometer when my two sons were small," she says, knowing it’s a surprising statement.
For the woman behind the words knows more than anyone about measuring human temperature correctly. In fact, there may be no one in the kingdom who knows more about thermometers.
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Thermometers, stethoscopes, blood pressure monitors… yes, countless products have passed through her hands over the years. Turned, twisted, tested. Instruction manual after instruction manual with technical details has been read and processed so that they spoke pedagogically to the consumers.
But that medical equipment and health became a passion for Anni Tolstrup-Christensen is a development over time, and the absent thermometer in her small home testifies to the fact that it is a development that almost started from zero.
"You could actually say it’s the irony of fate that I now sell thousands of them a year," says the owner of Stetoskop.dk.
After becoming the sole owner in 2010, she continued to develop the business, and a big leap forward was the establishment of the sister company, Seagull Healthcare. It was created primarily to pave the way to the shelves of Danish pharmacies – and thus to private consumers, who were also to benefit from the expertise that until then had primarily been enjoyed by the country's doctors.
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Optimizing sales efforts and managing the sales representatives on the road, however, proved to be such a difficult task that she had to scale back her ambitions for a while and rethink the strategy.
"Money was pouring out of the coffers at that time. I had to react. Otherwise, it would go wrong," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen.

Got the business back on track

In 2013, she met her current husband, Henrik. He was a large-scale farmer, and they agreed to move the businesses to the farm so that the vast majority of costs became variable, and slowly they found their footing again. But as revenue began to grow again, so did the tasks for the couple.
"We could never take time off. And most people can probably figure out that it’s not sustainable in the long run to manage a webshop from a hotel in Mexico. So we started hiring again in 2018," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen, who still has her fingers deeply buried in all the company's processes.
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"I want to know our products. If not all of them, then at least I know our core products inside out. I have them in my hands, test them, and am constantly seeking more knowledge – for example, in scientific reports."
"For us, it’s about ensuring that the quality is up to par and knowing the product we are selling. But it’s also about ensuring that we are constantly on our toes regarding product development," says the owner of Stetoskop.dk and Seagull Healthcare, who, for instance, has worked on developing a special stethoscope for hearing-impaired doctors.
"Quite simply, the idea was that our general practitioners are getting older and older because, as a society, we want to retain them. And doctors do, in fact, lose their hearing over time. I find that part of my work incredibly exciting, too. Making things happen really drives me," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen.
At the time of writing, she is working on developing eye charts for clinics and hospitals that meet the requirements of the Danish Health Authority.
"First and foremost, I have a strong merchant gene from home. I know what things should cost when I buy them. But as the years have passed and I have built up so much knowledge about medical equipment and its correct use, well, health has become a passion of mine. Or my calling, if you will," says Anni Tolstrup-Christensen.