Wasabröd is a Swedish producer of

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

n style

crispbread Crispbread is a flat and dry type of bread, containing mostly rye flour. Crispbreads are lightweight and keep fresh for a very long time due to their lack of water. Crispbread is a staple food and was for a long time considered a poor man's diet ...

(). The Wasabröd company has been in business since 1919, opening its first

bakery A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based baked goods made in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, bagels, Pastry, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as Coffeehouse, cafés, servi ...

in the city of

Skellefteå Skellefteå (, locally ) is a Cities in Sweden, city in Västerbotten County, Sweden, with a population of 36,388. It is the seat of Skellefteå Municipality, which had 77,322 inhabitants in 2024. The city is historically industrial, with mining ...

. Since 1983 it has been under foreign ownership, first by the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

pharmaceutical corporation

Sandoz Sandoz Group AG is a Swiss company that focuses on generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars. Prior to October 2023, it was part of a division of Novartis that was established in 2003, when Novartis united all of its generics businesses under the ...

(later merged with Ciba Geigy to become

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical company, pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and was the eighth largest by re ...

), and from 1999 by the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

food producer Barilla Alimentare S.p.A.

History

The first bakery in

, founded by Karl Edvard Lundström, was supplemented by another, completely mechanized, one in

Filipstad Filipstad is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Filipstad Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden, with 10,644 inhabitants in 2019. Filipstad was granted city privileges in 1611 by Charles IX of Sweden, who named it after his son Ch ...

in 1931, which has since become the main seat of the corporation. It later acquired several other Swedish bakeries. It started exporting bread in the 1940s, with the first foreign subsidiary founded in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

in 1965 and the first foreign bakery built in

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle (district), Celle in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller (Germany), Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in 1967. In the early 21st century Wasabröd sells about 80% of its production outside Sweden. K. E. Lundström, the founder of the company, had run his own bakery in Skellefteå since 1915 (''Firma K. E. Lundström''), with the corporation founded in 1919, ''AB Skellefteå spisbrödsfabrik'', taking its original name from the hometown. The Filipstad subsidiary which developed into the main part of the company took the name ''AB Wasa spisbrödsfabrik'' in 1934, which was shortened to ''AB Wasabröd'' in 1964. The brand ''Wasa'' was originally that of one particular product, ''Vasaknäcke'', featuring an image of King Gustavus Vasa. The company has used both a royal crown and the peculiar

heraldic charge In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an '' escutcheon'' (shield). That may be a geometric design (sometimes called an '' ordinary'') or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object, building, or o ...

, the garb (), which gave name to the

Vasa dynasty The House of Vasa or Wasa was a royal house that was founded in 1523 in Sweden. Its members ruled the Kingdom of Sweden from 1523 to 1654 and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1587 to 1668. Its agnatic line became extinct with the death ...

, in its marketing. (Using the letter ''W'' instead of ''V'' is an

archaism In language, an archaism is a word, a sense of a word, or a style of speech or writing that belongs to a historical epoch beyond living memory, but that has survived in a few practical settings or affairs. lexicon, Lexical archaisms are single a ...

in Swedish; it is not uncommon in marketing, but does not affect the pronunciation.) Barilla's bakery in Filipstad employs 310 people and produces 33,000 tonnes of crispbread annually. In 2009-2014, the owner invested 150 million kronor in the Filipstad factory to modernise the equipment.

Products

Wasabröd produces a wide variety of

s. The original crisp bread is made of

rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...

, but their various products include

sesame Sesame (; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a plant in the genus '' Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for ...

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

, and other

grains A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and le ...

Royal warrant

The company has the status of a Purveyor to the

Royal Court of Sweden The Royal Court () is the official name for the organisation ( royal households) that supports the monarch and the royal house. The incumbent monarch, King Carl XVI Gustaf, is head of the Royal Court. Organizational structure The Royal Court is d ...

References

External links

*
Wasa homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasabrod Brand name crackers Food and drink companies of Sweden Purveyors to the Court of Sweden Barilla (company) 1919 establishments in Sweden Food and drink companies established in 1919 Swedish brands Companies based in Västerbotten County Conglomerate companies of Italy Skellefteå 20th-century establishments in Västerbotten County

History

Products

Royal warrant

See also

References

External links