Electrolux got its name from a vacuum motor maker and a lamp company
The word Electrolux is a merger in miniature. Elektromekaniska, a Stockholm firm making motors for vacuum cleaners, joined forces with Lux, which made outdoor kerosene lamps. In 1919 the combined business was renamed Elektrolux, and a salesman named Axel Wenner-Gren, who had brokered the whole partnership, ended up owning most of it.
Engineer Sven Carlstedt founded Elektromekaniska on 19 January 1910 to build universal motors for vacuum cleaners. In 1912 he met Wenner-Gren, who persuaded him and Lux owner Carl G. Lindblom to cooperate: Lux would build vacuum cleaners under licence from a Philadelphia company, fitted with Elektromekaniska motors. Wenner-Gren then launched his own Elektron vacuum brand in 1915, bought control of Elektromekaniska the following year and took a large stake in Lux, before the 1919 renaming. The spelling switched from a k to a c in 1957.
From vacuums the company spread into the whole kitchen. It bought the refrigerator maker Arctic in 1923 and added absorption fridges, then washing machines in 1951 and dishwashers in 1959. A burst of acquisitions in the 1960s swept up Nordic rivals and the lawnmower brand Flymo, and in 1978 it merged with Husqvarna. Counted by the number of machines it sells, Electrolux now trails only Whirlpool among the world's appliance makers.
Branding in America got tangled. Electrolux left the United States market in 1968 and returned in 1974 by buying Eureka, selling its own vacuums under that name. Meanwhile a separate company, Aerus, had long sold Electrolux-branded machines there, only handing the trademark back in 2000.
Demand could outrun supply. In Norway after the war, an Electrolux advertisement in 1952 noted it was the first in 12 years and hoped long delivery waits would soon end. A cooker factory at Eidsvoll, built in a disused paper mill, turned out its 500,000th cooker in 1977 and its millionth seven years later, before closing in 2002 and becoming rental storage.
Source: Electrolux
