Lilleborg
AS - (en)
Lilleborg AS is a major hygiene and cleaning article company in Norway,
owned by the Orkla Group. It was established in 1833, and was one of
the first companies in Norway to start manufacturing brand name
products. It currently operates three factories in Norway, and employs
a total working staff of 595.
History
Originally a family business, established in 1833 on the banks of the
Aker river in Oslo, Lilleborg expanded in 1842 to manufacturing
hygiene products with the opening of "sæbesyderiet", the
"soap boilery". Here the company's manufacture of soft soap
and bathroom soaps took place. In 1897, it became an aksjeselskap, and
changed its name to A/S Lilleborg Fabrikker. In the final years of the
19th century, the company was offering a broad range of oils, bathroom,
household and soft soaps. It was also the largest company of its sort
in Norway, with more than 100 employees on roll.
At the end of the 1920's, Lilleborg had developed a close relationship
with Denofa, a cooking oil producing company based in Fredrikstad.
This culminated in 1930 with an agreement of cooperation between
Lilleborg, Denofa, and the British company Lever Brothers (later
Unilever), which had large ownership interests in the companies. As
part of this agreement, Lilleborg acquired ownership and production of
several well-known Lever Brothers brands, Sunlight being perhaps the
foremost. Focusing strongly on brands throughout the 1930's, the
company launched several of their strongest-selling brands of today in
the years before the war, including Lano, Solidox, Blenda and Lux.
Unilever decided to sell their stocks in the company in 1958, but
agreed upon another cooperation agreement which was to last for 20
years. This agreement was subsequently reformed on two occasions, and
is still in effect - and will be until 2014. The following year,
Denofa and Lilleborged merged to form A/S Denofa og Lilleborg Fabriker,
which soon became a major player in the Norwegian hygiene market. The
company then, in 1973, acquired Goma fabrikker, which in turned owned
(amongst others) A/S Ello in Kristiansund.
In 1996, Lilleborg and Denofa split once more into two separate
entities, in which Denofa continued the cooking oil activities, while
Lilleborg was evolved into a pure brand-name manufacturer. In relation
with this split, Lilleborg was reorganized as a company under Orkla
Brands, a division of the Orkla Group, whilst Denofa was placed under
Orkla Chemistry. In 1997, the activity by the Aker river ceased, while
a new laundry detergent factory was opened in Ski.
