The conglomerate, 1969–1977 D
uring the first few years of Stokke's company history its organisation was simple and clear. Everyone understood what people were talking about when Stokke the furniture manufacturer was mentioned. It was known as Stokke Fabrikker, a manufacturer of reclining chairs, lounge furniture and contract furniture, located since 1948 in Moa in the municipality of Ålesund. The fact that the company collaborated on exports and sales with Westnofa Ltd. in Ørsta and Blindheim Møbelfabrikk did hardly any thing to detract from this view. It was just the way that all furniture companies with ambitions of being something more than just a flyby night company were organised. But Stokke had ambitions far beyond this. During the years 1964-65, the desire to find new business areas, possibly combined with the desire to please some district mayors by providing new jobs, was responsible for making the organisation far less trans parent than had previously been the case. One key to understanding the expansion that followed was offered by Georg Stokke himself. He quickly returned to working full-time after his unplanned absence due to illness in 1965. At that time Georg was a man in the prime of his life, in his mid -50s, with a range of unrealised business ambitions. For G eorg Stokke and his peers in the Sunnmøre furniture industry, the desire to have several legs to stand on was part of a survival strategy which they exploited more or less consciously. With low establishment and production costs, this was a strategy which could be used without incurring
any great financial risks, providing them with a safety net. If one model or a product range fell by the wayside, the company had alternatives which could help it through the loss, giving time to find new solutions. There were plenty of examples of companies that had staked everything on one product, or on one recipient of sub-deliveries, which had to shut down when the one leg they rested on collapsed. Georg Stokke did not want to expose himself or his employees to such risks. Experience gained by Stokke during the 1970s helped to confirm that this was a sensible strategy. Up until the early 1970s, Stokke Fabrikker had enjoyed great success and made substantial profits on its reclining chairs. I 1971, Ekornes presented its Stressless recliner, taking a huge bite out of the reclining chair market. It was then a good thing to have several legs and companies to rely on. With effect from 1965, the company that had initially been c alled Stokke Fabrikker AS developed from having a simple and easily recognisable size to being a conglomerate of companies. Around 1975 it was no longer quite so easy to know what people were talking about when the name Stokke was mentioned. It would depend on the whereabouts of the person who was talking, i.e. whether they were in Vågå in Ottadalen, in Åndalsnes in Rauma, in Tranås in Sweden or in Tennfjord in Sunnmøre. The only thing that one could be fairly certain about was that it was someone with the surname of Stokke who owned the company that was the focus of everyone's attention.
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