Electrolux celebrates 100
with anniversary book

In August 2019 it will be 100 years since Swedish white-goods giant Electrolux was founded by mythical business mogul Axel Wenner-Gren. The company celebrates this with an anniversary book called “Shape living for the better: The first 100 years of Electrolux”, published by us at Business History Publishing.

Axel Wenner-Gren (1881-1961) was one of Sweden’s great entrepreneurs. He created a company that almost from day one was a global success. He turned the vacuum cleaner and the fridge into products that every household could afford, which revolutionized every day life, not the least for women.

The book “Shape living for the better: The First 100 years of Electrolux” (Business History Publishing, 2019) is written by business journalist and historian Ronald Fagerfjäll. It begins with the early life and successes of Axel Wenner-Gren. He made his fortune with Electrolux and became one of Sweden’s richest people, living a life of grandeur, working on various (more or less imaginative) business project, all the while donating money to research.

After Wenner-Gren’s departure from the company in the 1950s, Electrolux continued to provide homes with new innovations in smart design. Iconic products were the vacuum cleaner “The Loaf”, the bench dish washer “Round Can”, the chargeable vacuum cleaner Ergorapido and the world’s first robotic vacuum cleaner Trilobite. By the end of the 1980s, Electrolux had become the world’s largest white goods manufacturer, after the new leadership under Hans Werthén acquired several competitors.

The vacuum cleaner ”Luxomatic” was launched in 1964, with a flexible mouth piece. (Source: Electrolux historical archives at the Centre for Business History in Stockholm.)

”Space to Breathe”, en Electrolux-kampanj i sociala medier om hur luftrenare och dammsugare kan motverka astma hos barn.<br />

Electrolux smarta ugn CombiSteam Pro med en invändig kamera och appen My Electrolux. Under 2017 såldes sammanlagt runt 6 miljoner uppkopplade apparater i världen. Prognoser tyder på att motsvarande siffra år 2020 kommer att uppgå till 120 miljoner. Förutom att produkten får fler funktioner och blir enklare att använda, innebär uppkopplingen att det blir enklare att hålla kontakten med konsumenten efter köpet. Källa: Electrolux historiska arkiv hos Centrum för Näringslivshistoria.

Electroluxkoncernen gick i täten när vitvaror inte längre var vita utan till exempel avokadogröna eller vinröda. Källa: Electrolux historiska arkiv hos Centrum för Näringslivshistoria.<br />

Axel Wenner-Gren, 74, utanför Electroluxfabriken på Lilla Essingen år 1955. Foto: K W Gullers. Källa: Electrolux historiska arkiv hos Centrum för Näringslivshistoria.<br />

Electrolux hushållsassistent cirka 1940. Ur AB Electrolux arkiv hos Centrum för Näringslivshistoria.

Electrolux hushållsassistent cirka 1940. Ur AB Electrolux arkiv hos Centrum för Näringslivshistoria.

About the book

When working on the book, author Ronald Fagerfjäll have had access to Electrolux large corporate archive  at the Center for Business History in Stockholm. The archive does not only hold unique and long-forgotten documents, but thousands of images and photos. The book contains about 300 images from the company’s centennial, many previously unpublished. 

Shape living for the better: The first 100 years of Electrolux is printed in a hard-cover English version, published 21 January 2019. A Swedish version of the book has been published in pdf for download. A shorter version of the Swedish and English book is available as audio book.

Project team

The book’s project team at Business History Publishing (owned by the Center for Business History) was:

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