{"id":46,"date":"2020-12-09T12:25:09","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T11:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agra.no\/en\/history\/"},"modified":"2024-02-07T12:18:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T11:18:29","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/agra.no\/en\/history\/","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mills-block-featured alignwide alignwide wp-block-mills-block-featured\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1213\" height=\"800\" style=\"width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:cover\" src=\"https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/12\/Melange-car.png\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background\" alt=\"Old Melange car\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/12\/Melange-car.png 1213w, https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/12\/Melange-car-300x198.png 300w, https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/12\/Melange-car-1024x675.png 1024w, https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/12\/Melange-car-768x507.png 768w, https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/12\/Melange-car-80x53.png 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1213px) 100vw, 1213px\" \/><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container\">\n<h1 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-post-title has-text-color has-neutral-1000-color\">History<\/h1>\n\n<p class=\"t2-ingress has-text-align-center align wp-block-t2-ingress\">In 1885, K.K. Heje from Fl\u00e5 in Hallingdal, founded A\/S Agra Margarine Factory at Gr\u00fcnerl\u00f8kka in Oslo. The Agra Group&#8217;s head office is still located at the same address, and the company is still owned and managed by the Heje family.\n<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"has-text-align-center mills-published-date wp-block-post-date has-text-color has-neutral-1000-color\"><time datetime=\"2020-12-09T12:25:09+01:00\">09. December 2020<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\t\t<div class=\"has-background has-neutral-0-background-color is-style-vertical-spacing alignwide wp-block-mills-section has-background has-neutral-0-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-mills-section__inner aligncenter\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull card-info is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">In 1885, K.K. Heje from Fl\u00e5 in Hallingdal, founded A\/S Agra Margarine Factory in Gr\u00fcnerl\u00f8kka in Oslo. The Agra Group\u2019s head office is still located at the same address, and the company is still owned and managed by the Heje family. Through organic growth and acquisitions, Agra has become a significant player in food production throughout Scandinavia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Active ownership has been a continuous thread throughout the history of the company. The challenges have changed over the years, with industrial structure, brands and consumer understanding at the heart of the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Margarine was the starting point, and Melange is one of Norway\u2019s oldest and most famous brands. Melange was launched in 1919 and quickly became a huge success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Agra played a leading role when A\/S Margarincentralen was founded in 1936. After World War II came prosperity and a market with high purchasing power that demanded new and exciting products. Margarincentalen started with the Mills products that currently account for the largest share of sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Agra played a leading role when A\/S Margarincentralen was founded in 1936. After World War II came prosperity and a market with purchasing power that demanded new and exciting products. Margarincentalen started with the Mills products which today accounts for the largest proportion of sales.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"686\" src=\"https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/01\/Melange_Agra.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-51\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/01\/Melange_Agra.png 650w, https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/01\/Melange_Agra-284x300.png 284w, https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/01\/Melange_Agra-76x80.png 76w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\t\t<div class=\"has-background has-neutral-0-background-color is-style-vertical-spacing alignwide wp-block-mills-section has-background has-neutral-0-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-mills-section__inner aligncenter\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull card-info is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">New factories were built, and in 1970 A\/S Delikat Factories in Drammen were purchased. Margarincentralen became Forenede Margarinfabrikker (Forma) after a merger in 1970. Agra only owned 19 per cent of Forma and, like its other shareholders, Agra was merely a producer of margarine and Mills products. Eventually, it became clear that Forma had a less than optimal shareholder structure and too many production sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">It was clear that the company needed to be restructured. In the years that followed, Agra acquired the other shareholders. The final step towards a full takeover came with the purchase of Mustad Industrier\u2019s position in Forma in 1995. With this, Agra had acquired full control and streamlined the production structure and merged sales, marketing and production into a new business: Mills DA in 1997. Eventually, in 2002, Delikat was also merged with Mills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">On Agra\u2019s 120th anniversary in 2005, it could be ascertained that the group in Gr\u00fcnerl\u00f8kka had become one of the leading food companies in the Nordic Region. Unilever, however, was still clearly represented with 34 per cent of the shares. In 2015, Unilever\u2019s shares were repurchased and Agra once again became a one hundred percent Norwegian-owned family company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/01\/Mills_office_building.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/01\/Mills_office_building.jpg 650w, https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/01\/Mills_office_building-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mills.no\/content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/01\/Mills_office_building-80x47.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\t\t<div class=\"has-background has-neutral-0-background-color is-style-vertical-spacing alignwide wp-block-mills-section has-background has-neutral-0-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-mills-section__inner aligncenter\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull card-info is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">The next year, Agra and Mills moved into the new and award-winning premises at Sofienbergparken. The former factory had been converted into an office building with a professional food centre and commercial kitchen in the basement. The production that used to take place there before had been moved to the Mills factory in Fredrikstad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">In 2020, there were changes in group management. Knut G. Heje resigned as CEO after 42 years and became chairman of Agra. Knut K. Heje stepped down from his position as Managing Director of Mills and took over as CEO of Agra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">In order to realise the Agra Group\u2019s vision and business concept, businesses have over the years been built up in Sweden and Denmark:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>Sweden: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">1994: Delikat purchases Rubin Partysallad<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">1995: Agra\u2019s Delikat subsidiary acquires Rydbergs Sallader<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">2010: Fj\u00e4llbrynt products are purchased by Foodmark<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">2015: Lohmanders AB is purchased by Foodmark<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>Denmark: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">2003: Agra purchases Graasten Salater AS<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">2008: Stryhns AS is acquired by Agra and merged with Graasten Salater AS<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">2015: Stryhns acquires Hafnia AS and Royal AS<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">2016: Stryhns acquires Jensens K\u00f8kken<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">2017: K-salad becomes part of Stryhns Gruppen <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2023: Stryhns Gruppen purchases Delitaste <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1885, K.K. Heje from Fl\u00e5 in Hallingdal, founded A\/S Agra Margarine Factory at Gr\u00fcnerl\u00f8kka in Oslo. The Agra Group&#8217;s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":47,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_searchwp_excluded":"","hide_post_title":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-46","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.9 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The history of the Agra Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 1885, K.K. 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