AB Felix was a Swedish food company with seat in
Eslöv
Eslöv (;) is a town and the seat of Eslöv Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 19,598 inhabitants as of 2018.
Eslöv is part of the Öresund Region, and the Malmö Metropolitan Area.
History
According to a map from 1717, Eslöv village ...
. The Felix brand has been part of
Orkla since 1995. Its main products were produced from potatoes and pickles.
The company was founded by
Herbert Felix (1908-1973) who arrived in Sweden 1938 as a refugee from Nazism. He was hired by
AB P. Håkansson who had a surplus of
acetic acid
Acetic acid , systematically named ethanoic acid , is an acidic, colourless liquid and organic compound with the chemical formula (also written as , , or ). Vinegar is at least 4% acetic acid by volume, making acetic acid the main compone ...
needed expertise in
pickles
Pickle, pickled or Pickles may refer to:
Food
* Pickle, a food that has undergone pickling
* Pickled cucumber
* Pickle, a sweet, vinegary pickled chutney popular in Britain, such as Branston Pickle, also known as "sweet pickle" or "ploughman's ...
. Herbert Felix had the necessary experience since he had worked with the family company Löw & Felix (founded in 1868) in modern-day
Znojmo
Znojmo (; ) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 34,000 inhabitants. Znojmo is the historical and cultural centre of southwestern Moravia and the second most populated town in the South Moravian Region. The hi ...
. They were known for their ''Znaimer Gurken'' and in the new company cucumber pickles (including the famous
Boston Cucumber) were the major products, even after the company expanded its production to include potato-based foodstuffs. Following the Second World War, an important client of the company became the United States forces which were still stationed in Europe. In 1959, AB Felix started an Austrian subsidiary company, Felix Austria.
Cavenham Foods
Cavenham Foods (also known as Cavenham) was a retail and food processing conglomerate started by Sir James Goldsmith in 1964. The company started out as a group of struggling UK food brands, including Carr's and Hollands Toffee purchased and br ...
purchased 75% of the shares in the company in November 1972 from its owner AB Cardo for $13.5 million, and by December 1976 had purchased the remaining shareholdings it didn't own.
In April 1980, as part of Cavenham's divestment in food production, AB Felix was sold to Swedish firm Beijerinvest.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ab Felix
Defunct food and drink companies of Sweden
Companies based in Skåne County
Eslöv Municipality