Orkla Group

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Orkla ASA

Type	Public
Founded	1654
Headquarters	Oslo, Norway (formally registered in Sarpsborg)
Key people	Dag J. Opedal (CEO) Stein Erik Hagen (Chairman)
Industry	Consumer goods Speciality materials
Revenue	NOK 63,867 million (2007)
Employees	35,000 (2007)
Subsidiaries	Borregaard, Elkem, Sapa, a large number of branded consumer goods companies.
Website	http://www.orkla.com

Orkla Group (OSE: ORK) is a Norwegian industrial conglomerate operating in the Nordic region, Eastern Europe, Asia and the US. The company's main divisions are branded consumer goods, aluminium solutions, materials, associates and financial investments.

1 Operations
2 History
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Operations

Orkla's branded consumer goods division produces brands in many fields, primarily in the Nordic region, but also in other places, especially in the Central and Eastern European countries, Russia and the Baltic region. Among the companies owned by Orkla are Abba Seafood, Bakers, Beauvais, Chips, Collett Pharma, Felix Abba, Göteborgs Kex, KiMs, LaMote, Lilleborg, Mavalli Tiffin Rooms, Peter Möller, Nidar, Nora, OWL, Procordia Food, SladCo, Stabburet, Sætre, Sapa, Elkem and Borregaard.

Borregaard is a Norwegian chemical company with products within wood based chemicals and other organic chemicals. Borregaard has 20 plants in 13 countries. Elkem is a Norwegian-based industrial company producing aluminium, silicon and specialised products including carbon, ferrosilicon and microsilica. Elkem has 40 plants wordwide. Sapa is a Swedish-based company that produces high value-added profiles, building systems and heat transfer strips in aluminium. Sapa's aluminium profiles business was in 2007 merged with Alcoa's, almost doubling Sapa's turnover.

Orkla also owns Orkla Finance which consists first of all of portfolio of investments. In addition it consists of Orkla Finans Group who offer investment management and investment and pension counselling, Real Estate, who develop real estate in addition to Borregaard Skoger who own and manage the groups forest properties.

Through its portfolio of investments (market value of NOK 17.5 billion in 2007), Orkla owns a number of stock in different companies, primarily listed companies in Norway and the Nordic Countries. As of September 2006, Orkla has major ownerships in Renewable Energy Corporation (39,73%), FAST Search & Transfer (23,77%), Rieber & Søn (17,21%), Storebrand (14,07%), Steen & Strøm (11,92%) and Capio (5,01%).

[edit] History

Orkla started out in 1654 with pyrite mining at Løkken Verk in Sør-Trøndelag, Norway. Later the company also started mining copper, but the copper mining was abandoned in 1845. In 1904 Orkla Grube-Aktiebolag was founded by Christian Thams to start commercial mining at Løkken Verk, including the construction of Thamshavnbanen, the first electric railway in Norway, between Løkken Verk and Thamshavn. This railway is still operated as a museum railway after the mining operations at Løkken Verk were closed on July 10, 1987.

In 1929 Orkla became listed on Oslo Stock Exchange and in 1931 the new smelting plant at Thamshavn outside Orkanger is opened. By 1941 Orkla started with a separate investments portfolio, and opened offices in Oslo in 1975. In 1984 Orkla started a major takeover of Norwegian newspapers, creating Orkla Media as one of the three largest media companies in Norway. Half of the magazine publisher Egmont-Mortensen is added to Orkla Media in 1992 and the Danish Det Berlingske Officin in 2000. Orkla sold the media section to Mecom in 2006.

In 1988 Orkla merged with Borregaard based in Sarpsborg to form Orkla Borregaard. The company then merged with Nora Industrier in 1995. Orkla heavily invests in foods and among others acquired Swedish brewery Pripps as well as other companies including Abba Seafood, Baltic Beverages Holding and Procordia Food. Norwegian Ringnes and Pripps were merged with Carlsberg Breweries, where Orkla acquires a 40% ownership in 2000. Orkla sold its ownership in Carlsberg in 2004, the same year it buys SladCo. In 2005 Orkla bought the Norwegian material company Elkem and Sapa in Sweden.