Skanem celebrates 100th anniversary

A company that started out in the metal packaging business and rose to become one of the world's largest label printers is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2006.

One hundred years ago, few could imagine that a small company founded in Stavanger, Norway, would emerge as one of Europe's largest label printers in the 21st Century. Skanem AS has seen its fortunes rise as it turned itself from a metal packager into a label printer.

Today it boasts 14 printing plants, 1,100 employees and revenues totaling around €170 million. Its success is down to one man, Norwegian entrepreneur Ole Rugland, who invested €6,000 of his own money into what was then a fledgling enterprise in 1986 and borrowed another €2.5 million from the local bank.

It was little over 30 years ago that the Skanem brand really emerged in its own right. It was all to do with a new type of packaging – an ‘Easy-Opening’ lid. This led to cooperation with a French packaging group – Cebal. At this time the company was known as Stavanger Bliktykkeri, which had the exclusive rights in Scandinavia for selling the Easy-Opening lid products from Cebal. And this is when the name Skanem was created.

The date was October 1973 and Stavanger Bliktrykkeri was re-branded as Skanem AS. This led to Skanem's expansion with the building of a new factory and export orders followed thereafter. Toward the end of the 1970's, Skanem's exports rose from 35 per cent to 50 per cent and then in 1984 the company was acquired by an export group in Oslo. In 1985 a young Ole Rugland became its MD and subsequently bought the company in 1986.

Rugland was only 30 years old when he made this bold move and today, while his company is still private, he sits astride a truly global enterprise. Only last year, the company made its first move into Eastern Europe when it acquired label printing plants in Poland and Russia. According to Rugland, ‘the world is really set on globalization and you need to be able to print labels in many different styles and languages for the multinationals who lead the way in brand marketing.’  And these same companies see Eastern Europe as ripe for adopting Western-style branding for their goods, which mean that labels and labeling is now big business there.

‘In 2004, the use of self-adhesive labels grew overall by 4.9 per cent but in Eastern Europe it was up by a massive 19 per cent – four times more than Western Europe - and shows no sign of wavering,’ added Rugland.

Today, Skanem prints labels for many of the world's best-known brands and the chances are that when you are next in a supermarket you won't fail to see a popular product with a Skanem label. The labels come from Skanem plants around Europe, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the UK, Germany, Poland and Russia and can be found on products ranging from foods and beverages to household cleaning products and beauty aids.

From the company's humble beginnings in 1905, when it was merely a tin printer, it has evolved today into what it describes as a company with international strength but with a strong local presence. Over the years it has acquired companies, divested itself of others and consolidated and built a truly global enterprise.

The turning point for Skanem came in 2001, when it acquired SE-Labels. Around the same time it sold its metal packaging companies in Denmark, closed down another in Norway and self-adhesive labels became its core business.  Rugland believes the next 100 years will be just as exciting. ‘We still have a lot to do and other markets to conquer,’ he says. Knowing his past record, few have any doubt that he will stay on top of the label pile.