Här är du: Home / About Martinson / History

From simple sawmill to market-leader

The Martinson story begins in Bygdsiljum in  1929. This was when Karl Martinson purchased a mobile sawmill, which his son Sigurd travelled with around the countryside surrounding Bygdsiljum. In the early 1940s, Sigurd Martinson built a permanent sawmill on the same site on which the plant in Bygdsiljum stands today.

A limited company was established in 1954 in which all of the Martinson children became part-owners. Sales at that time were approximately SEK 500,000. In 1963, Sigurd's sons Nils and Åke Martinson took over the company's operations. Glulam manufacture began in 1965 and five years later, the first specialised glulam factory was built. In 1975, a sawmill was built at Bygdsiljum, which at the time was the most modern in Europe, being both computerised and using advanced electronics.

In 1989, Martinson built its first wooden bridge - a branch of production which blossomed when the company purchased a 50 per cent share in the Svenska Träbroar company at the end of the 1990s. Sales of glulam to Japan began in 1992 and have grown to such an extent that Japan is now the company's largest export market.

In 1996, Hällnäs Såg AB was incorporated into the Martinson Group and in 2003, the group bought Wallmarks Såg AB in Kroksjön. With that, the company also became the sole owner of the Svenska Träbroar AB company. Production of Martinson's CLT Wood began in the same year. 2005 saw the inauguration of Europe's most modern sawmill in Bygdsiljum - a new investment of SEK 225 million. An expansion of the sawmill at Kroksjön began in 2007, and in 2008 in Hällnäs. This will result in an even further increase in milling capacity.

When current CEO, Lars Martinson, took up the position in space 1998, he represented the fourth generation of Martinsons to head the company. Several of Karl Martinson's great-grandchildren are currently active in managerial roles within the company, which over time has grown from a small, local sawmill to a market-leading wood processing enterprise with customers located throughout a large part of the world.