Carl Hansen & Son
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| Privately held | |
| Industry | Furniture |
| Founded | 1908 |
| Founder | Carl Hansen |
| Headquarters | Aarup, Denmark |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
| Products | High-end furniture |
| Website | carlhansen.com |
Carl Hansen & Søn is a Danish furniture company. It is the company behind many of the classical furniture designs of Hans J. Wegner, one of the leading figures of the Danish modern movement.
The company was founded by master cabinetmaker Carl Hansen when he opened his first workshop in Odense on 28 October 1908. His first real factory opened in 1915, specializing in bed room furniture for the bourgeoisie and landed gentry on the island of Funen.
The global economic crisis which arrived with the 1930s also affected furniture sales in Denmark. It hit Carl Hansen hard and in 1934 his second-oldest son, Holger Hansen, took over the business after his father. A contract with the American sewing machine manufacturer Singer for the production of wooden cases for some of their models helped the company through the difficult times. Hansen Jr. also set up a small-scale export of furniture to Sweden.
In the years after World War II, a new generation of young Danish furniture designers such as Finn Juhl, Hans J. Wegner and Børge Mogensen. Carl Hansen & Søn as the company was now called entered into a collaboration with the salesman Ejvind Kold Christensen who had an eye for the new trends. In 1949, he set up a meeting between Wegner and Holger Hansen which resulted in a lasting collaboration between the two parties. Instead of just promoting their furniture to retailers, the company also began a comprehensive exhibition and advertisement activity targeted on end consumers.
In the early 1950s, modern Danish furniture design also began to attract attention abroad and especially in the US. Together with four other manufacturers of Wegner furniture, Carl Hansen & Søn established a joint sales company, Salesco, which was responsible for exhibitions and marketing abroad, including on the furniture fairs in Cologne. The Y Chair was a particularly big success for Hansen & Søn, accounting for more than half of its sales. In 1968, a failed exclusivity agreement with a dealer put a temporary end to the success on the US market.
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Wikipedia