Jonsered is a brand of

chainsaw A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable gasoline-, electric-, or battery-powered saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. It is used in activities such as tree felling, limbing, bucking, pru ...

s and other equipment, owned by

Husqvarna AB The Husqvarna Group () is a Swedish manufacturer of outdoor power products including chainsaws, trimmers, brushcutters, cultivators, and garden tractors. Founded as a firearms manufacturer in 1689, it is one of the oldest continuously runnin ...

History

The Scotsman William Gibson, who had immigrated to Sweden in his youth, founded a

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

in 1832 in

Jonsered Jonsered () is a locality situated in Partille Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 930 inhabitants in 2010. Jonsered is an old, traditional industrial community by the Säve river outside Gothenburg in Sweden. Jonsered's facto ...

. His sons later took over the company that remained in the family's control until the 1920s. In 1872 the company became a limited company, Jonsered Fabriker AB, diversifying its textile output. By the 1880s it was producing and exporting woodworking machines along with its textiles, with one notable production being canvas. The Jonsered sailing canvas was very well known in the 1800s in Sweden and gave the company a good reputation. Another important textile product were fire hoses (until 1975), many of them still in use today. In the 1950s Jonsereds Fabrikers AB started producing the chain saw model "Raket" (Rocket) which, along with its successors, became a major success and Jonsereds started exporting chain saws worldwide with the biggest export market being North America. Another success was the forest crane production that started about 1959. The most profitable unit was the

tarpaulin A tarpaulin ( , ) or tarp is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with polyurethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. Tarpaulins often have reinforce ...

production. In 1969 the company started to shut down its textile part and evolving into a pure engineering industry with customers in the forest industry as the main customer group, with the tarpaulin unit being kept within the company. In 1975 it became a subsidiary of Investment AB Asken. Asken came in financial difficulties and parts of Jonsereds AB were shut down and others sold. In 1978 it was sold to

Electrolux Electrolux AB () is a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. It is consistently ranked the world's second largest appliance maker by units sold, after Whirlpool. Electrolux products sell under a variety ...

and production of chainsaws was later moved to Husqvarna. Husqvarna still maintains an R&D unit in Jonsered. The tarpaulin unit was also acquired by Electrolux but later sold. The brand "Jonsereds" is still in use by its current owner Hallbyggarna. File:Jonsereds fabriker september 2013 02.jpg, The old entrance to Jonsereds Fabriker File:Jonsereds fabriker september 2013 04.jpg, The former headquarters in Jonsered File:Jonsered vattenkraftverk september 2013.jpg, Jonsereds Fabriker's hydro power station

External links

Jonsered
{{Husqvarna Companies established in 1832 Chainsaws Swedish brands Electrolux brands Textile industry of Sweden Companies based in Västra Götaland County