POUL WINSLÖW MEETS Preben Holm

In 1967 Preben Holm was advertising for apprentices to his pipe-factory. Poul read the advertisement, thought it might be something and decided to go there and try to get a job. Well there, he found that a lot of young boys had had the same thought. They were all intervued by Preben Holm in person and obviously he found that Poul was just the type of boy he wanted, for he got the job.

Young and optimistic as he was, Poul thought that he should start making pipes directly. So he was a little disappointed when he found that his first duties were to sweep the floors and perform other unqualified tasks. But it did not take long till he took part in the production of pipes and very soon he showed his ability. So just a few years later he found himself being the head-assistant of Preben Holm. A proof of how highly valued he was by Preben Holm, is that when he had to do his military service, he was offered to keep 1/3 of his salary during the service, just to make sure that he would come back afterwards.

But, as mentioned before, the luck for Preben Holm turned and when Poul got back from a vacation in 1985, he found the factory closed and that he himself no longer had a job. Of course this was a hard blow, but it was also a chance to make an old dream come true - to start on his own. He decided to try, and built a small workshop in his house in Hvidovre. Of course it is hard to start like that and Poul says that the first years were tough. But he got good help from Stanwell, the biggest Danish pipe-factory. He went with them to different exhibitions abroad, where he made almost ready pipes completely ready, while the customers were watching. In this way he got the opportunity to make contacts with people in the business, so these exhibitions were very important to Poul, even if he was not allowed to sell his own pipes at these occations.