Esselte

"When Björn Savén was 26 years old, his father died of a heart attack, which hit him hard. That was one of the reasons why he and his future wife Inger returned to Sweden after his graduation from Harvard. They wanted to be close to family, his mother, and sister. Here, he sought out Esselte, a growing international multibillion company that sold office supplies. Sven Wallgren was the boss there. He belonged, together with business leaders like Hans Werthén at Electrolux, to the generation that started a wave of international corporate acquisitions in the 1970s and 1980s. Sweden was on the offensive, even though currency regulations still restricted freedom."

"The sons were named Ragnar and Torsten, and at the next generational shift, the two began building an investment company with a broad focus, where the wholesale business became one of the assets. They foresightedly bought shares in companies that were part of the growing Swedish basic industry, such as the mining company Gränges and the forestry company Holmen, but also refining businesses such as Bulten, which still produces bolts for the automotive industry today, the electrical engineering company Asea (ABB), and Sweden’s lithographic printing company, which later became Esselte. The new investment company was named Ratos, built from the first letters of Ragnar and Torsten’s names. In 1954, the company was listed on the stock exchange; this was a way to allow individual family members to sell shares without affecting the business. The family secured control by forming the Söderberg foundations, with 27.1 percent of the votes in the company. An additional 46.4 percent was still owned by the family in 2012."

"The sons were named Ragnar and Torsten, and at the next generational shift, the two began building an investment company with a broad focus, where the wholesale business became one of the assets. They foresightedly bought shares in companies that were part of the growing Swedish basic industry, such as the mining company Gränges and the forestry company Holmen, but also refining businesses such as Bulten, which still produces bolts for the automotive industry today, the electrical engineering company Asea (ABB), and Sweden’s lithographic printing company, which later became Esselte. The new investment company was named Ratos, built from the first letters of Ragnar and Torsten’s names. In 1954, the company was listed on the stock exchange; this was a way to allow individual family members to sell shares without affecting the business. The family secured control by forming the Söderberg foundations, with 27.1 percent of the votes in the company. An additional 46.4 percent was still owned by the family in 2012."