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Major events in the history of Orkla

2009 Alcoa and Orkla swap assets: Orkla receives Alcoa's ownership interest in Sapa Profiler, and Alcoa receives Orkla's ownership interest in Elkem Aluminium.
2008 The business area Orkla Branded Consumer Goods is co-ordinated in terms of management and organisation. The new business area gets the name Orkla Brands and is divided into four business units, each with its own Managing Director. Each business unit reports to Executive Vice President Torkild Nordberg who has general responsibility for Orkla Brands.
2007 A deal with Good Energies Investment and Q-Cells makes Orkla the largest owner of Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) with 39,99 % of the shares. Orkla acquires MTR Foods in India.
2006 Orkla Media is sold. Orkla acquires Dansk Droge and the Russian chocolate company Krupskaya.
2005 Orkla takes over Elkem/Sapa and Chips Abp. Dag J. Opedal takes over as Group President and CEO.
2004 Carlsberg Breweries sold. Orkla buys SladCo, a leading Russian manufacturer of chocolate, biscuits and confectionery products.
2001 Finn Jebsen takes over as Group President and CEO.
2000 Orkla enters into a joint venture with Carlsberg A/S and acquires a 40 % interest in Carlsberg Breweries. Orkla Media purchases the Danish media group Det Berlingske Officin. The sale of NetCom shares yields a gain of NOK 2,239 million.
1997 Orkla Beverages increases its focus on Eastern Europe by acquiring an interest in Baltic Beverages Holding. Pripps Ringnes is now wholly owned by Orkla.
1995 Orkla takes over the food manufacturing companies Procordia Food and Abba Seafood in Sweden. The Swedish brewery Pripps and the Norwegian brewery Ringnes merge and are jointly owned by Orkla and Volvo. Orkla invests heavily in Russia through Baltic Beverages Holding.
1992 Orkla Media and Norske Egmont establish the magazine company Hjemmet Mortensen.
1991 A merger with Nora Industrier lays the foundation for focus on the Nordic branded consumer goods sector.
1987 Mining operations at the Løkken Works are closed down at the end of the afternoon shift on 10 July.
1986 Orkla and Borregaard merge and form Orkla Borregaard. The company’s core businesses are branded consumer goods, chemicals and financial investments.
1984 Orkla invests heavily in the media sector, purchasing the publishing company Ernst G. Mortensens Forlag.
1981 Orkla and Outokumpu enter into a 50/50 joint-venture over the mining operations at Løkken Verk.
1979 Jens P. Heyerdahl d.y. becomes the Managing Director of Orkla Industrier.
1977 Orkla becomes a fully Norwegian-owned company when Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken sells its shares. Financial Investments become a separate business division.
1975 Orkla establishes an office in Oslo with a view to expanding the company’s industrial platform.
1941 Orkla Industrier begins to build its investment portfolio.
1931 The smelting plant in Thamshavn starts up operations, based on the sulphur extraction process developed by Orkla.
1929 Orkla becomes a listed company.
1913 Marcus Wallenberg sr. of the Swedish family of financiers becomes Chairman of the Board of Directors.
1908 HRH King Haakon opens the Thamshavn railway, Norway’s first electric railway.
1904 Orkla Grube-Aktiebolag is established to continue mining operations at Løkken Verk.
1898 Christian Thams starts planning industrial-scale mining operations. Chr. Salvesen & Chr. Thams's Communications Aktieselskab is founded to build a railway from the mine to the port.
1845 The last copper ore is smelted, and in 1851 the transition is made to pyrite and new operations.
1760 The last royally appointed director of the Løkken Works, Hans Rasmussen Müller, dies.
1705 Norwegian citizens become main partners.
1654 First pyrite mining operations at Løkken Verk.

Last modified: 10.12.2009
 
 

Corporate presentations

See historic corporate presentations from 1984, 1986 and 1996.

Strategy presentations

Below you will find contributions to understand the background for today's Orkla's group strategy.

 
Dag J. Opedal on the new group strategy (29 November 2005)
 What creates value? (H. Stenstadvolds commentary in the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv 20. June 2005)
 Jens P. Heyerdahl's Lehmkuhl presentation (September 2000)


Living history

Sophia Loren in a commercial for Lux beauty soap
Over the years Orkla companies have produced a large number of commercials. They are mostly in Norwegian.


More about Orkla's history