Silvan A/S is a Danish chain of hardware stores established in 1874. It is one of the largest retailers of DIY building materials in Denmark, and they primarily sell to nonprofessionals but also to professional tradesmen. The name, ''Silvan'', comes from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

word for forest, ''silva''. Silvan has 42 DIY stores situated near larger cities around Denmark. The average size of the stores is 2,400 square metres excluding warehouse, administration, garden center, and drive-in. In addition to the 42 DIY stores, Silvan also has an

online store Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the ...

with more than 22,000 articles. The day-to-day operations of Silvan A/S takes place in the head office in Brabrand near

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwes ...

where approximately 100 people are employed.

History

Silvan was established back in 1874 when the grocers Johan Christian Strudsberg and Peter Thomsen established and opened the company for the first time under the name: ''Trælast- og Kulhandelen Silvan''. In 1894 Silvan was registered as a partnership and in December 1900, the company was bought up and turned into a joint-stock company by industrialist Vilh. Lange, factory owner H. P. B. Kierulff, wholesaler C. J. Christensen and grocer Christian Lund. In 1913 the company changed its name to ''Akts. Trælasthandelen Silvan'' as the coal trade was sold to A/S Slagelse Kulkompagni. From then onwards, Trælasthandelen Silvan sold mainly timber and building materials. In 1968, Silvan opened the first store in

Slagelse Slagelse () is a town on Zealand, Denmark. The town is the seat of Slagelse Municipality, and is the biggest town of the municipality. It is located 15 km east of Korsør, 16 km north-east of Skælskør, 33 km south-east of Kalundborg and 14 k ...

with an even broader product offering. Here customers could also buy hand tools, gardening equipment etc. Together with Stark, Silvan has through the years been owned by Danske Trælast which in 2006 changed its name to DT Group. Danske Trælast was established back in 1896 under the name: ''Aarhus Trælasthandel''. In 2007 DT Group chose to sell off Silvan which was bought the same year by the German investment firm Aurelius Group which is the current owner of Silvan. Aurelius currently has 20 portfolio companies located across Europe which employ around 15,000 people and generate annual revenues of more than EUR 3.5 billion. The shares of Aurelius Equity Opportunities are traded on all German stock exchanges. Silvan has previously also had 11 hardware stores in Sweden. These were closed on May 31, 2009, where three of the stores in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popula ...

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational city at the mouth of the Nissan river, in the province of Halland on the Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat of Halmstad Municipality and the capital of Halland County. The ci ...

, and Gothenburg were acquired by

Beijer Byggmaterial STARK Group is one of the largest retailers and distributors of building materials for the professional segment in Northern Europe with approx. 12,500 employees at its more than 550 branches in 7 countries, and headquartered at Frederiksberg, Denm ...

References

Retail companies of Denmark Retail companies established in 1968 1968 establishments in Denmark {{Denmark-company-stub