Entering Denmark through distributors: regional hospital buying, SKI agreements and a first contact on paper

Denmark is a small market with well-organised buyers. Its hospitals buy through five regions that often tender together, its medicines go through one regional purchasing company, and a central purchasing body owned by the State and the municipalities runs agreements that around a thousand public organisations use. A manufacturer rarely bids into that system alone; it reaches it through the Danish distributor that already holds the contracts. What Denmark asks in return is Danish product information where the law requires it, invoices that public buyers can read electronically, and a first approach that is not a marketing e-mail.

Putting it simply: Danish professional and public customers are served by wholesalers and specialist distributors. Hospital purchasing is organised by the five regions, which run joint tenders through Regionernes Fælles Indkøb; medicines for public hospitals are secured by Amgros, owned by the regions; SKI runs procurement agreements for the State, municipalities and other public bodies. Award notices above the EU thresholds are on TED, smaller contracts with a clear cross-border interest on udbud.dk. Public buyers receive only e-invoices. Marketing by e-mail needs the recipient's prior consent, companies included, so the first contact goes by post, at a fair or through an introduction.

How the market buys

Distributors and wholesalers

In most technical, medical and professional categories the manufacturer sells to a Danish distributor or wholesaler, which holds stock, handles the Danish-language side of the range and serves hospitals, municipalities, installers and companies. Its territory may be Denmark alone or the wider Nordic region; agree that point early. It is also the company that already knows the public agreements and how to bid for them.

The five regions buy for the hospitals

Denmark's hospitals are run by five regions: Region Hovedstaden, Region Midtjylland, Region Nordjylland, Region Sjælland and Region Syddanmark. Since 2014 they have organised joint purchasing under the name Regionernes Fælles Indkøb (RFI), whose members are the five regions and, formally since 2017, Amgros. Under the cooperation agreement, revised on 9 August 2024, one selected region or Amgros can run a tender, or prepare a category strategy, on behalf of the group; among RFI's stated purposes is to secure the supply of goods and products to the hospitals. One regional tender may therefore cover several regions or all five, and a distributor already on such an agreement is often the fastest way in.

Amgros for medicines and hearing aids

Amgros is owned by the regions and does work for them that they "would otherwise have to do themselves individually". Its core task, with the hospital pharmacies, is to secure the right medicines for patients at public hospitals; on behalf of the five regions it also tenders hearing aids and supplementary devices for the public hearing clinics. For medicines and hearing devices, study Amgros rather than the individual hospital.

SKI, the central purchasing body

SKI (Staten og Kommunernes Indkøbsservice) is "a central procurement organisation that offers procurement services to the Danish public sector on commercial terms", set up in 1994 and owned by the Danish State (55 per cent) and Local Government Denmark, KL (45 per cent). In 2025 around 1,000 public organisations used its agreements, DKK 18.8 billion (about EUR 2.5 billion) was bought through them, and there were 1,605 suppliers on SKI agreements; around 86 per cent had fewer than 250 employees. SKI puts its share at about 3 per cent of total public spending, so most purchasing still happens in each buyer's own procurements.

Municipalities

Municipalities buy partly through SKI agreements and partly through their own tenders, many of them small; there a distributor the buyer already knows counts for more than a direct bid.

The proof Danish buyers expect

Conformity and Danish labelling

CE marking and a declaration of conformity are the baseline wherever EU product law applies. Language is where Denmark becomes specific. For medical devices, the Danish Medicines Agency (Lægemiddelstyrelsen) states that labelling and instructions for use must be in Danish when the device is made available to the end user or patient in Denmark, whether the users are professionals or others; only the manufacturer or its authorised representative (or another party holding their power of attorney) can apply for a dispensation, which is not available for in vitro diagnostics for self-testing or near-patient testing. Other product rules carry their own language requirements, so check yours; in any case a distributor will want Danish instructions, price lists and marketing material for its customers, with your English technical file as a starting point.

A CVR number and a public company record

Danish companies are registered in the Central Business Register (Det Centrale Virksomhedsregister, CVR), which, as the Danish Business Authority (Erhvervsstyrelsen) puts it, holds current and historical information about all Danish businesses and gives each registered legal entity a unique number. CVR data is public and searchable at datacvr.virk.dk. Before you sign, look up the distributor there: name, address, legal form and the filed annual reports tell you whether the company is the size it claims to be.

E-invoices to public buyers

Public buyers in Denmark receive only e-invoices, as Erhvervsstyrelsen states. The Danish Business Authority's own strategy paper (March 2026) records that the Ministry of Finance introduced the requirement in 2005 for companies supplying goods and services to Danish public authorities and institutions. The current executive order on electronic settlement with public authorities (BEK nr. 206 of 11 March 2011, as amended from 1 January 2024 by BEK nr. 1832 of 28 December 2023) requires the buyer to give, with each order, its EAN location number, a reference and its credit-period policy; the invoice must quote the location number and reference, may name only one CVR number as creditor, and must be received electronically in a format the buyer's system can read directly, with an invoice template as the fallback for suppliers without their own e-invoicing system (§§ 3 to 5). A public buyer may postpone payment of an invoice that does not meet these rules (§ 6). The Danish format, OIOUBL, travels over the NemHandel infrastructure; Erhvervsstyrelsen plans to replace it with Nemhandel BIS 4, based on Peppol BIS 4, with the transition expected to be completed by mid-2029. In practice your distributor usually invoices the public buyer; if you will invoice directly, check the format and channel with your adviser.

Digital bookkeeping

The Bookkeeping Act of 2022 (bogføringsloven) applies to businesses established in Denmark and to business activities carried out in Denmark by companies based abroad (§ 1). Businesses that must file an annual report, or whose net turnover exceeds DKK 300,000 in two consecutive income years, must record transactions and keep vouchers in a digital bookkeeping system (§ 16); Erhvervsstyrelsen summarises this as all companies and sole proprietorships above that turnover. A manufacturer selling from abroad through a Danish distributor is not normally carrying out activities in Denmark itself, but a branch or a Danish sales company would be; check with your adviser.

Payment terms

Under the Interest Act (renteloven), a payment term agreed between businesses may not exceed 30 days from the date the creditor sent or presented its request for payment, unless the creditor has expressly accepted a longer term and that term is not unreasonable to it (§ 3 a). For public authorities the agreed term may not exceed 30 days (§ 3 b), and late payment interest is the Nationalbank's reference rate plus 8 percentage points (§ 5). Quote 30-day terms by default; if a distributor asks for more, decide deliberately and check with your adviser.

Where public demand is visible

Two places matter. Contracts above the EU thresholds, from 1 January 2026 EUR 140,000 for supplies and services bought by central government and EUR 216,000 for other contracting authorities (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152), are published on TED; EU-level notices can no longer be created on udbud.dk. Below the thresholds, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority (Konkurrence- og Forbrugerstyrelsen) says buyers must publish on udbud.dk any purchase of goods or services with an estimated value of at least DKK 100,000 that has a clear cross-border interest, and may publish smaller ones voluntarily. The older duty to advertise contracts over DKK 500,000 under the Tender Act (tilbudsloven) was abolished with the Public Procurement Act (udbudsloven), so do not rely on guides that still quote that figure.

For a manufacturer the useful record is the award notice: it names the distributor that won a regional, SKI or municipal contract in your category. Joint regional tenders make those notices especially telling, because one winner may supply hospitals in several regions.

Lawful first contact

Denmark is strict. Section 10(1) of the Marketing Practices Act (markedsføringsloven) says a trader may not approach anyone by electronic mail, an automated calling system or fax for direct marketing without that person's prior consent, and consent must be withdrawable easily and free of charge. The Consumer Ombudsman's guidance applies the ban to every recipient, consumer, company or public authority, because the provision says "anyone", and it makes no difference whether you write to info@, a main mailbox or a named director. It also applies to a sender established outside Denmark when the e-mail is aimed at Danish recipients. The exception in section 10(2) covers only customers who gave you their e-mail address when buying from you, and only for your own similar products.

The first contact therefore goes another way: a short letter by post to the managing director with a one-page summary of your range and the reason it fits what the distributor already sells; a stand or a visit at the sector's trade fair; or an introduction through an association, a buying group or an existing partner. A letter to a named person must state clearly that they can refuse further marketing and offer an easy, free way to do so (section 10(6)). Once a distributor writes back, ask for consent before any marketing by e-mail and keep a record. The detail is on the Denmark market page; check your plan with your adviser.

What this means for a manufacturer

• Find the distributors through the award notices on TED for the larger contracts; on udbud.dk, where the duty is to advertise contracts of DKK 100,000 or more with a clear cross-border interest, watch what is being bought.
• For hospital products, study the joint regional tenders; for medicines and hearing aids, Amgros; for categories under an SKI agreement, its suppliers.
• Check every candidate in the CVR register before you sign.
• Plan Danish labels and instructions where the law requires them, and Danish sales material in any case.
• Make sure someone, usually the distributor, can send public buyers an e-invoice with their EAN location number.
• Quote 30-day terms unless you deliberately agree otherwise.
• Write the first approach on paper, meet at a fair or get an introduction; e-mail only after consent.

Where Cresques fits

Create a market for Denmark, choose your CPV categories (or let the materials reader suggest them from a brochure or website), and Cresques shows the companies named in TED award notices for those categories and the buyers they won from, with personal details removed. Opening a company profile shows every award with its value and buyer and an AI-researched role, so you can tell an independent distributor from a manufacturer's own sales company; for Danish companies, paid plans also show filed financials where we hold them. The first message is drafted in Danish with an English version and, because cold e-mail is not allowed in Denmark, written to work as a letter, a contact-form message or a LinkedIn company message rather than a marketing e-mail; if you post it to a named person, add the line on refusing further marketing yourself (section 10(6)). Paid plans add e-mail alerts on new awards in the markets you follow. Contracts below the EU thresholds on udbud.dk are not in Cresques yet; search them yourself.