Fiskars Corporation
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| Public | |
| Traded as | Nasdaq Helsinki: FSKRS |
| Industry | Consumer products |
| Founded | 1649 |
| Headquarters | Helsinki, Finland |
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Key people
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Kari Kauniskangas (President & CEO) Paul Ehrnrooth (Chairman) |
| Products | Scissors, gardening tools, kitchenware, glassware, ceramics, knives, outdoor equipment |
| Revenue |
 €1,105.0 million (2015) |
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€65.1 million (2015) |
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Number of employees
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9 003 (2015) |
| Subsidiaries |
Iittala Group Gerber Legendary Blades Fiskars Waterford Crystal Wedgwood Royal Doulton Rörstrand |
| Website |
www www |
The Fiskars Corporation (Fiskars Oyj Abp) is a global consumer goods company founded in 1649 in Fiskars Bruk (Finnish: Fiskarsin Ruukki), a locality now in the town of Raseborg, Finland, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of Helsinki. Fiskars is Finland’s oldest company that has operations today.
Fiskars has grown to be a leading consumer goods company with globally recognized brands including Fiskars, Iittala, Gerber, Royal Copenhagen, Waterford and Wedgwood . The company operates as an integrated consumer goods company and has two strategic business units: SBU Living and SBU Functional. Fiskars’ three primary reporting segments are Living, Functional and Other. Fiskars' Other segment contains the Group’s investment portfolio, the real estate unit, corporate headquarters and shared services. In addition, Fiskars reports group-level net sales for three secondary reporting segments: Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Fiskars global headquarters are located in the Arabianranta district of Helsinki, Finland.
Fiskars is best known for its orange handled scissors, created in 1967.
The Fiskars Corporation was formed in 1649 when a Dutch merchant named Peter Thorwöste was given a charter to establish a blast furnace and forging operation in the small village of Fiskars. When the ironworks were founded in Fiskars, Finland was under Swedish rule. At that time Sweden was one of Europe's biggest producers of iron. The furnace produced pig iron that was shingled to wrought iron in the finery forges powered by water wheels. In the early years, Fiskars made nails, wire, hoes, and metal reinforced wheels from wrought iron.
In the late eighteenth century, copper was discovered in nearby Orijärvi and thus the focus of production shifted to processing copper from the Orijärvi mine. For almost 80 years, Fiskars main source of business came from copper however, by the nineteenth century there was little copper left in Orijärvi.
In 1822 the apothecary Johan Jacob Julin (later, von Julin) from Turku acquired the Fiskars ironworks and village. During this time the ironworks were actively developed and production focused on processing iron. In 1832 the first cutlery mill in Finland was founded in Fiskars with the production range increasing from knives to include forks and scissors. In 1837 the first machine workshop in Finland was founded in the village which led to Finland's first steam engine being manufactured at the workshop.
In 1915 Fiskars was listed at Helsinki Stock Exchange. In September 2015, Fiskars celebrated 100 years of being listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Stock Exchange along with Nokia, Wärtsilä and UPM.
Fiskars is perhaps best known for its scissors and their distinct orange colored handles. The first pair was manufactured in 1967 and had been designed to have handles that were going to be either black, red or green. As the prototype went into production, the machinist decided to make a first sample with the orange color he had left over in the machine. This resulted in four different colored prototypes of which the orange and black were the most popular. After an internal vote at Fiskars, the orange color was chosen. That same orange color, Fiskars Orange®, was officially registered as a trademark in Finland in 2003 and in the US in 2007.
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Wikipedia