10 Swedish brands and innovations
Tools, toilet paper and Tetra Paks – here are 10 Swedish brands and breakthroughs you'll find around the world.
1. Adjustable spanner
People may know Swedish brands and innovations without knowing that they're Swedish. A really old Swedish innovation and a staple in many toolboxes, the adjustable spanner or wrench, also popularly called ‘monkey wrench‘ or ‘English key’ (!), often comes in very handy during do-it-yourself (DIY) projects.
While it was British Joseph Stubs who patented one of the first iterations of this spanner in 1840, Johan Petter Johansson is behind today’s adjustable spanner, the ‘Swedish key’. He was a Swedish inventor who improved upon Stubs' original concept and patented it in 1891.
2. Electrolux household appliances
While people probably recognise the name Electrolux on their kitchen appliances, many may not know that this company is Swedish – or that it is one of the best selling household appliance manufacturers in the world.
Started in 1919, the company originally sold Lux hoovers, or vacuum cleaners, and later added refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers and a variety of other appliances to its product line. Today, the Electrolux Group – which includes AEG, Frigidaire and many other brands – sells its household products in around 120 countries every year.
3. Essity – from baby care to toilet paper
Essity is about the bare necessities of life. It is one of the world’s leading health and hygiene companies, with well-known brands such as Libero, Libresse and Cushelle toilet paper, to name a few.
The company's previous product developer Solgun Drevik is one of the world's leading innovators within feminine care, or femtech, with over 70 European and globally filed patents to her name alone.
Once part of forest company SCA, founded in 1929, Essity broke off in 2017 to become an independent company, with sales in around 150 countries.
4. H&M fashion
Bringing Sweden’s quintessential minimalist yet chic style of fashion to the world is H&M, more known as H&M. Started in 1947 as a women’s clothing store called Hennes (which means 'hers' in Swedish) in Västerås, founder Erling Persson later bought hunting and fishing equipment store Mauritz Widforss – and that’s how Hennes & Mauritz, later H&M, was born. In 1968, the company added men’s and children’s clothing.
Other brands that are part of the H&M family are ARKET, Cheap Monday, COS, H&M HOME, Monki, & Other Stories, Sellpy, Singular Society and Weekday. H&M Group now has more than 4,000 shops around the world.
The adjustable spanner – in every person's home? Photo: Amanda Westerbom/imagebank.sweden.se
An ad for the hoover Luxomatic, launched in 1964. Photo: Electrolux
Essity promotes hand washing, as part of its focus on hygiene. Photo: Melker Dahlstrand/imagebank.sweden.se
H&M's first store in Västerås, Sweden. Photo: H&M
Swedish Spotify has brought streamed music to everyone's ears. Photo: Scandinav/imagebank.sweden.se
The modern walking frame is the brainchild of Aina Wifalk. Photo: Sofia Sabel/imagebank.sweden.se
The adjustable spanner – in every person's home? Photo: Amanda Westerbom/imagebank.sweden.se
An ad for the hoover Luxomatic, launched in 1964. Photo: Electrolux
Essity promotes hand washing, as part of its focus on hygiene. Photo: Melker Dahlstrand/imagebank.sweden.se
H&M's first store in Västerås, Sweden. Photo: H&M
Swedish Spotify has brought streamed music to everyone's ears. Photo: Scandinav/imagebank.sweden.se
The modern walking frame is the brainchild of Aina Wifalk. Photo: Sofia Sabel/imagebank.sweden.se
The adjustable spanner – in every person's home? Photo: Amanda Westerbom/imagebank.sweden.se
An ad for the hoover Luxomatic, launched in 1964. Photo: Electrolux
Essity promotes hand washing, as part of its focus on hygiene. Photo: Melker Dahlstrand/imagebank.sweden.se
H&M's first store in Västerås, Sweden. Photo: H&M
Swedish Spotify has brought streamed music to everyone's ears. Photo: Scandinav/imagebank.sweden.se
The modern walking frame is the brainchild of Aina Wifalk. Photo: Sofia Sabel/imagebank.sweden.se
5. Spotify music streaming
When Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon launched Swedish company Spotify in 2008, they bridged a gap by providing legal online music streaming services as an alternative to pirated music file-sharing sites.
Spotify offers users not only millions of music tracks, but also podcasts and audibooks. The company estimates that it has more then 750 million users around the world, of which 290 million are paying subscribers.
6. Tetra Pak food packaging
Founded in 1951, Swedish Tetra Pak grew out of a simple but transformative idea: packaging that protects food while using minimal materials. Perhaps best known for its iconic carton packages for milk, juice and other liquids, many people encounter Tetra Pak products in everyday life and in their supermarkets.
Today, some of its cartons allow products to be stored for long periods without refrigeration. In this way, Tetra Pak helps reduce food waste and enables safe distribution of products across long distances.
7. Three-point seatbelt
In 1959, Volvo inventor and safety engineer Nils Bohlin developed the three-point seatbelt. Volvo patented it, but decided to let other manufacturers use it for free.
The seatbelt is now a standard requirement in every passenger vehicle, and it is estimated to save around one life every six minutes. The Y shape is designed to spread out energy across a moving body during an accident.
8. Volvo
Among the more famous Swedish brands and innovations, we find Volvo – as iconic as Swedish meatballs. Known around the world for its estate cars (that's station wagons to Americans) that have made the brand a beloved family cliché, Volvo is also synonymous with a wide range of other products.
In 2018, Chinese automotive manufacturing company Geely Holding Group bought a large share of Volvo Group – the part of the brand that mainly makes lorries, buses and construction equipment – and has owned Volvo Cars since 2010. Volvo's headquarters are still located in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, though.
First founded in 1927, Volvo Group has nearly 100,000 employees in 100 locations worldwide. Add to that the around 40,000 employees of Volvo Cars.
9. Walking frame
There are many personal stories behind Swedish brands and innovations. Swedish social scientist Aina Wifalk contracted polio – a virus that can cause temporary or permanent paralysis – at the age of 21. After tearing her shoulders from using walking sticks for two decades, she came up with the walking frame, or walker, an invention that has made life easier for elderly and disabled people since the late 1970s.
Because Wifalk wanted the walker to be accessible to as many people as possible, she never patented it. To this day, the walker helps people stay mobile and active.
10. Zip
Swedish–American inventor Gideon Sundbäck improved and developed the modern-day zip – or zipper, if you're American – from an earlier less effective model in 1913.
In 1917, Sundbäck patented his newly redesigned version called the ‘separable fastener’. It features interlocking teeth pulled together and apart by a slider.
