A furniture manufacturer with many legs

A furniture company with many legs

The company which Kåre Stokke, the only child, joined at the age of 23 in 1960 was one of the most clearly profiled furniture manufacturers in the new furniture region of Sunnmøre. Kåre's father, Georg, had just taken the initiative to develop and manufacture reclining chairs in the Star range. At the time the company was also manufacturing furniture on a daily basis both for public establishments and private homes all over Norway. Right from the time he could walk, Kåre Stokke would frequent the factory, and during the holidays he would work in the various departments at the factory. By 1960 he had completed his language studies at upper secondary school, he had attended a working course for students, he had studied at the Army Ordnance Officers' Training School and he had studied economics for one year in England. All his further education was carried out at the company which his father had started and for which he had the primary responsibility. Stokke had proved itself to be a company that was willing to try new ways. One of the first deliveries made by the company, which was formed in 1932 under the name of Møller & Stokke, was bus seats. Møller & Stokke was also one of the first furniture manufacturers to employ female workers. Georg saw that women were stable workers and well suited for work being planned by the company. It was also noted in 1954 that Georg Stokke employed a newly qualified designer, Arnt Lande, thus becoming the first furniture manager in Sunnmøre brave enough to take such a step. Taking on an in-house designer showed that the company was willing to engage in the untraditional practice of rejuvenation, a practice that Stokke continued to adhere to during the following decades. Stokke had previously also used a professional designer. The company's 1942 product catalogue features Model 202, a simple low recliner with open sides, designed by Bendt Winge.

Limited cashflow

At the end of the 1950s, Stokke was influenced by the same circumstances that had created the Sunnmøre furniture industry during the 1930s and '40s. There was a big demand for robust and

The furniture manufacturer Møller & Stokke started operations in the premises that they rented from Erik Foss in Spjelkavik in 1932. The partners Bjarne Møller and Georg Stokke acquired their professional expertise from the workshop of the Danish furniture upholsterer Carl Møller, which was located in Røysegata in the centre of Ålesund. “Furniture was in the air during those years,” says Georg Stokke by way of explanation as to why he had started furniture production. Depicted here are Bjarne Møller, front left, and Georg Stokke, front right, sitting in one of the company's first chair models. Behind them are their employees, Hans Aasen and Daniel Myren, who joined the company during its first year of operations.

The first reclining chair from Møller & Stokke, Model 129, dating back to 1932. This model was developed by the factory owners themselves. There were many earlier examples of this chair! Model 202 dating back to 1942. Design by Bendt Winge. There were not many other furniture companies in Sunnmøre that used models created by professional designers during the war. At that time it was a seller's market.

reasonably-priced furniture, by new consumer groups of office workers, industrial workers, fishermen and smallholders who during that period acquired their own homes and the financial resources to furnish them with furniture bought from shops. During those days in Sunnmøre there was the right mix of available and reasonablypriced labour in possession of good work ethics and an aggressive entrepreneurial culture. People with an enterprising spirit and courage were inspired by success stories like the one relating to P.I. Langlo from Stranda, who during the course of just a few years succeeded in building up a furniture company which became one of the largest in the country up to 1930. Bjarne Møller and Georg Stokke numbered among the ranks of those who were inspired and who participated in meeting the great demand for reasonablypriced and functional furniture during the 1930s. This demand for furniture continued during World War II due to the general lack of commodities and an abundance of money. This was also the case after the war when there was a big demand for consumer goods like furniture due to the priority given to rebuilding the country and consequently to the important role allocated to building houses and furnishing them.

Towards the end of the 1950s, the market situation gradually started to change. This was partly due to the fact that the Norwegian market was becoming more open to foreign countries. We joined EFTA in 1960 and Norwegian furniture producers were faced with stronger competition from foreign furniture after having previously operated in a market which had been relatively protected. Rationalisation and efficiency measures introduced by Norwegian furniture companies also made competition on the domestic market more clearly felt. Anyone wishing to be competitive on price had no choice but to invest in capital-intensive manufacturing equipment. As regards Stokke, there were two other factors that were responsible for the company's tough transition into the 1960s: the buying out of former co-owner Bjarne Møller and the financial expenditure incurred in connection with the construction of a new factory at Moa in 1948, a building which was extended by one floor in 1956.

The fact that Georg Stokke became the sole owner of the company with effect from 1956 hardly came as a surprise to anyone who had been following Møller & Stokke closely during the years prior to that date. Bjarne Møller was the son of the furniture upholsterer Carl Møller, to whom Georg Stokke had become apprenticed in 1930. Bjarne was more influenced by traditional crafts than his colleague, who displayed his industrial ambitions at an early stage. In Georg's biography, which was written by Harald Grytten, the founder stated: “I already at this point, was convinced that the days of handmade cane furniture were past. I was of the opinion that the production of other types of furniture would take over and that such furniture would be produced as industrial goods.”2

The factory building which was inaugurated in 1948 was built in accordance with well thought-out plans where production flow was the key concept. Georg had visited the US in 1951 and returned home full of ideas about how production could be further rationalised. In his biography he summarises the experiences he acquired on his US trip as follows: “Rationalisation, active marketing, planning – these ideas were already in the air. On my trip to America I saw them in operation and understood that I could learn from them and make use of them to help us manage the new era.”

An ownership shift had previously occurred in the original general partnership as far back as 1949 when the company's share

Sunnmøre wins through

Most of the companies involved in the upholstered furniture industry became established in Sunnmøre from the 1930s onwards. It is not possible to explain this wave of establishments by rational economic arguments alone. We also need to consider technological and cultural factors.

Prior to the interwar years, most Norwegian furniture production had been done in cabinet-making workshops either in or near large cities. Furniture production was regulated by cooperative agreements between the trade associations, the trade unions and the authorities, so that it was difficult for beginners without the right professional ballast to enter into competition with established manufacturers.

Throughout the 1920s there was an increased demand for furniture from new consumer groups and it soon became evident that the authorities lacked the will to enforce legislation designed to regulate the production and sale of crafted products. One important reason for this was that the new manufacturers springing up in rural areas, particularly in western Norway, were setting up their production facilities in accordance with industrial principles. They were not therefore subject to the Crafts Act which contained provisions stating that those involved should have official trade qualifications. The new furniture manufacturers were employing young boys who started work without a longer apprenticeship period than that required in order to perform limited specialist tasks in a value-creation chain dominated by piecework.

Georg Stokke was the industrialist in partnership with Bjarne Møller, and over time became the sole owner of the company.

The entry ticket to the market for Sunnmøre manufacturers was reasonably-priced and functional furniture for ordinary people. Georg Stokke recalls that there were many manufacturers offering their products on the market, and anyone wishing to sell products was forced to keep their prices down.1 In the face of such competition, the traditional cabinetmakers were unable to assert themselves. Although they were generally close to the markets, they were unable to provide consumers with equally cheap products. This was because they had higher production costs, especially higher labour costs. The unions were strong in the urban cabinet-making companies. The employees' representatives ensured compliance with the professional requirements imposed on the workforce and kept wages high. The master cabinetmakers were reticent about adjusting to modern production processes that they thought would threaten the traditional quality criteria applicable to the cabinet-making trade. Furthermore, it was not easy for them to switch over to modern production principles which involved using more machinery in the small premises where the first cabinetmakers were located. All this put the traditional cabinet-making companies on the defensive and the new furniture producers in Sunnmøre were ready to take them over. These included Georg Stokke and Bjarne Møller, who started their business in 1932 in premises leased from Erik Foss in Spjelkavik.

In 1936 Møller & Stokke built their own factory at the foot of Myrabakken in Spjelkavik. Georg purchased a plot of land from Johan D. Myren, who was married to his sister, Synnøve. They had previously been purchasing the wooden frames for their furniture, but now they had had their own woodwork department, on the ground floor. This is where the furniture was upholstered. Polishing, varnishing, assembly and packing took place on the first floor. A drier was later built in the eastern end.

Production and staff increased quickly after furniture buyers throughout the country became aware of the functional and reasonably-priced furniture being manufactured by Møller & Stokke. Depicted here are members of staff gathered together during a lunch break in the late 1930s. We recognise, from the left: Alfred Holkestad (in a suit and flat cap), Paula Olsvik (with her back to us), Per Wick (on the right of the door opening), Nelly Olsvik, Nikka Forøy (seated), Ingrid Olsvik, Mary Blindheim, Bjarne Rødset (at the back, against the window), Annemor Solberg (seated), Ester Blindheim (seated), Randi Myren, M. Grytebust (back), Lars Rødset, Bjørg Røssevoll, Arnt Lande and Knut Myren (up on the right).

Stokke's new factory which was built in Spjelkavik between 1946 and 1948, was an imposing building in the local industrial landscape. “One of the largest new factory buildings in our county”, wrote Sunnmørsposten when it was opened in 1948. The building had a total floor area of 3,000 m2 spread over three floors, and was equipped for rational industrial production. The ground floor was used for cutting material, technical installations and a dining room for the 60 employees; the first floor housed a machine shop and a drawing office; and the sewing and upholstery division was located on the second floor. Photograph taken in 1949, with Stokke's factory in the foreground on the right. Just behind it is Spjelkavik Skofabrikk (a shoe factory).

capital was doubled to NOK 100,000, with Bjarne Møller acquiring a 25 % stake and Georg Stokke 75 %. As time passed, Georg realised that a break between them would be inevitable in order to achieve what he regarded as being important industrial development for the company.3

Georg also thought that it was basically rather tricky to continue having divided ownership. His experiences indicated that it was difficult for two or more co-owners to always be in agreement when important strategic decisions needed to be made about the company. This could result in failure to take action and to make any necessary adjustments to the company.

Georg was therefore willing to sacrifice a good deal in order to achieve the concentrated ownership which he thought would be the best for the furniture company, which changed its name to Stokke Fabrikker AS at the end of 1956. The most obvious sacrifice made was the amount of money paid to buy out Bjarne Møller. NOK 180,000 was the amount they had agreed upon. For Georg Stokke and the company this was a considerable amount, coming as it did in addition to an outstanding loan of NOK 125,000 which had been taken out seven years earlier in order to finance the new factory.

As of 1 October 1956, Georg Stokke became the sole owner and only Board member of the company. His deputy was his wife, Johanne.4

In 1958, Paul Gerhard Røsvik was employed as the Office Manager of Stokke Fabrikker. Almost three years had passed since Bjarne Møller had been bought out, but Røsvik remembers that the cash situation was very tight when he arrived at the company. Sometimes money was so scarce that they had to borrow money from the bank in order to pay their employees. The bank always gave them the helping hand they needed, which shows that the bank regarded Stokke Fabrikker as being creditworthy and that it was confident that the tight cash situation was merely transitory.

Johan Riise, a new agent

The Administration Department at Stokke Fabrikker was very simple in 1958. It consisted of five people in addition to Georg Stokke. His office was the furthest down the corridor on the first floor of the

This is how Møller & Stokke presented themselves to Norwegian furniture customers after the company moved into its new premises in 1948.

Møller & Stokke's products consisted of upholstered lounge furniture, chairs and sofas. Bed-settees were also items that were very much in demand during a time when people had limited living space. This is a Haakon wing chair made in 1948 and the Kari lounge suite made in 1950. Both designed by Arnt Lande.

Administration Building. Georg Stokke took his management responsibilities seriously and made all important, strategic decisions himself. However, he usually asked his employees for their advice, and in his capacity as Office Manager, Paul Røsvik became a valuable/trusted conversation partner for Georg. Paul Røsvik believes that they complemented one another. The new Office Manager had an analytical and systematic mind and contributed towards a critical review of the company's strengths and weaknesses. It is obvious that Stokke suffered from poor profitability up until 1958, and the main reason for this was not because the company did not have the right products. On the product front, Stokke was not lagging behind any of its competitors in Sunnmøre. However, both Røsvik and Georg Stokke were aware that sales work out in the field was not good enough and that it was not dedicated enough towards Stokke's products. They thought that more could be gained in this area. Therefore, one of their central moves after 1958 involved a shakeup of their sales team, with some members being made redundant, while others were taken on.

The most important person involved in this new sales drive was Johan Riise, a native of Sunnmøre, who joined the company in 1958 after having previously built up one of Norway's largest furniture agency businesses in Oslo. He had previously contributed towards a heavy increase in sales in eastern Norway, both for Ekornes and for Møre Lenestolfabrikk. Johan Riise remembers that he first met Georg Stokke at a furniture exhibition at Kontraskjæret near Akershus Fortress in Oslo in 1958. They hit it off and Georg quickly came straight to the point and asked if Riise would be interested in

Social responsibility

A responsibility which rested heavily on both Georg, and later his son Kåre, was their responsibility towards the company's employees. They could both wake up in the night worrying about how they could raise enough money to pay their employees. Many things could be postponed, but their employees' wages had to be paid punctually, because most of them had homes and family obligations which could not be postponed. The legendary bank manager, Ola Skjåk Bræk, was fully informed about businesses in Sunnmøre and knew that the companies' managers were concerned about those who provided them with their daily bread. In his memoirs he talks about a furniture manufacturer who once submitted terrible accounts figures. Skjåk Bræk asked him why he had done this: “I was unlucky with some models and had to reduce production. But I could not let my people go. We had been to the same school and are good friends. They have also built houses which must be paid for, and their families have to live. I have told the tax office that. You will not be getting any tax from me this year, but you will receive tax from my people.”5 This statement was not made by someone from Stokke Fabrikker, but it could easily have been.

Arnt Lande was permanently employed as a designer at Stokke in 1954. He had also worked for the company before embarking on his architectural studies. When developing his products, Lande emphasised that furniture should be simple to produce so that competitive models could be made which most people could afford to buy. This is a Guri sofa from 1954. An exhibition of Stokke's furniture, about 1950. The company exhibited their models in several hotels in Norway's largest town at this time. This photo probably shows furniture on display at the Hotel Astoria in Trondheim. A Haakon recliner in front, with a Kari lounge suite on the left. An “Åkerblom” chair can be seen in the middle of the photograph.

taking over as Stokke's agent in eastern Norway. Johan Riise had been an agency spokesmen for a long time, calling for an increase in sales commission which had remained at 4 % ever since the War. He had argued strongly in favour of higher commission for agents in order to encourage them to boost their marketing and sales efforts. He had had difficulty in persuading both Ekornes and Møre to accept his claims. Stokke was not well established as the other two Sunnmøre manufacturers and Georg firmly believed that it would be beneficial to cooperate with Riise in order to boost sales volumes. He realised that they could live with 6 % sales commission if the company's sales increased by as much as Riise was hoping. The result was therefore that Johan Riise terminated the contract with Møre Lenestolfabrikk and entered into an agency contract with Stokke Fabrikker with effect from 1958. This was to prove to be a good choice for Stokke – and for Riise. Stokke had no trouble in accepting a higher rate of commission as a result of increased sales.

Johan Riise and the other agents were undoubtedly right when they maintained that low commission was detrimental to both manufacturers and agents alike. If agents received a low rate for each product sold, they would be forced to service a large number of suppliers, something that could affect their follow-up of individual suppliers and their products. With slightly more generous financial parameters the agents could also deliver better quality service. Johan Riise retained fully-manned premises in Oslo where companies could unpack items for furniture retailers. He also employed his own furniture architect who provided manufacturers with product development assistance. He provided good follow-

Furniture was wrapped in brown paper and secured with ropes before special furniture packaging was developed during the middle of the 1960s. This is Bjarne Nygaard in the Packing Department. Arthur Møller was Bjarne Møller's brother. This is Arthur working with a spray gun. The photograph must have been taken after 1948, because there were no varnishing booths at the company's first premises.

MODEL AKABA

MODEL CONGO

MODEL LEIKA

Some of the models manufactured by Stokke from the middle of the 1950s: Petit, Form, Combi, Congo, Akaba and the Spilka I bed-settee. Most of the models were designed by Arnt Lande, but the Form chair was designed by a German designer. MODEL COMBI

MODEL FORM

MODEL PETIT

up of the companies' collections and gave advice about product development, the choice of materials and pricing. This is what Johan Riise has to say about how he first started cooperating with Stokke:

“I went up to Stokke's factory in Ålesund immediately after the furniture exhibition was over and went through the company's collection. We agreed to focus more heavily on a small chair that had been designed by Architect Lande. It was named Leika after the dog that was sent into space on a Russian spaceship. [...] I found that the price of the chair was not competitive enough and I wanted to know how it had been calculated. It appeared that it was based on the cost of a trial run of 100 chairs. So I said: “If you were planning to manufacture 10,000 chairs, what would the price be then?” “But they have to be sold,” objected Georg Stokke. “Yes, but that's my business,” I replied. “If you produce 10,000 chairs at a competitive price, then it will be up to me to sell them.” I sold over 11,000 chairs during the first year.”6

The development and marketing of the Leika chair is a good example of the successful cooperation that existed between the manufacturer and the sales link. Stokke had given a lot of thought to the development of this model in particular. It was an attempt to achieve the greatest possible cost-effective utilisation of materials and rational production. For chair upholstery they needed exactly one metre of standard-width material. The arms were designed so that they could be cut from one piece, with minimal wastage. Transport of the chairs was also carefully planned from the start. They could be packed flat with four chairs to one carton. There were often 25 cartons in one consignment, i.e. one hundred chairs at a time. And when the agent introduced his sales force and promised excellent sales of a rationally designed product, things could not have been more promising.

Georg Stokke saw this German chaise longue at an exhibition in 1955. Georg had been on several trips abroad and concluded that many customers were ready for this style of furniture. After Stokke joined Westnofa in 1955, he hoped that the company would receive the marketing help it needed in order to bring this product to the right customers. After a short while he realised that he was a few years too before his time with this experiment, which was called Soloform.

Concentration

Kåre Stokke spent his first few years with the company learning about the furniture industry and Stokke Fabrikker's marketing apparatus and production set-up. His cousin, Arne Seljeflot, started working for the company at the same time, and became the company's Production Manager in August 1960. Together with Stokke Sr. and Office Manager Paul Røsvik they intensified their work on improving the organisation of the company and achieving better flow in the production system.

Arne Seljeflot had completed his upper secondary school education at a technical college in the Skien area and was interested

not only in the technical details of production, but also in finance and calculation. He participated in production analyses, purchasing plans, and calculations which provided the company with better tools for financial management. His calculations showed clearly which products were profitable and which were non-profitable. Arne and Kåre realised, like Georg and Paul Gerhard Røsvik had previously, that the key to profitability was the cultivation of an industrial profile. The company would need to reduce product diversity and concentrate on developing product ranges with long production runs. This principle was one which was also adopted by architect Arnt Lande. In a conversation with Møbelavisa (a furniture newspaper) in 1966 he explained his work on the development of new models. He spent a long time calculating how furniture should be built up so that it could be processed as rationally as possible through the production apparatus. “If a 'good' model is also sold in reasonable quantities, it needs to be adapted to the production apparatus, thus achieving favourable prices which will in turn lead to more sales, longer production runs and consequently greater rational utilisation of the production system.”7 The same thought also applied to the development of suites. Speaking about the Derby suite which was launched in 1964, Lande said: “Rational use is made of the materials. The suite components have been designed so that machines can be used for most of the operations.”8 Arnt Lande and Stokke started using the concept of industrial design and were among the first to do so in a Norwegian

furniture context. In an article in Møbelavisa in 1966 where the concept was defined, it was emphasised that industrial design built a bridge between production, sales and consideration for consumers.9

Kåre Stokke entered the family company full time in 1960. By this time he had completed a study year in England. During his time there he had acquired a good command of the English language, which served him well when meeting foreign customers at exhibitions and in furniture businesses. The 1958 Combi Star reclining chair allowed users to change their sitting position by making simple adjustments. The chair came at the right time. Norwegian workers had more free time, some of which was spent leaning back in a reclining chair supplied by Stokke.

Relaxing ...

Stokke was constantly searching for rational products with commercial potential and from time to time their furniture hit the bull's-eye, thus giving Stokke Fabrikker a decisive boost forwards. This was the case with the 1958 Leika chair and the new reclining

chairs, the first of which was the 1960 Combi Star. One of Stokke's strengths had been its ability to find products which fulfilled the needs of the market. This was the case after the War, when there was a need for simple furniture which could allow new houseowners to feel that they belonged to the welfare society that was emerging. The expression “coming from a furnished house” evokes a smile today, but a few decades ago the extent and quality of one's furnishings and furniture were important indicators of one's position in society. The fact that ordinary working people could buy furniture that was similar to the furniture used by wholesalers, lawyers and other high-status professions was one of the most important aspects of social equality in Norwegian society, and

Stokke Fabrikker took part in several exhibitions with the other Westnofa Ltd. companies. This photo was taken at an international exhibition during the early 1960s. Stokke chose to focus mainly on the Combi Star, safe in the knowledge that it was way ahead of the field in the development of chairs for rest and relaxation purposes. Stokke's big sellers during the early 1960s were the Combi Star, Kro and Leika. The demand for these chairs was considerable and steady. There were therefore no fears that some would be produced merely for storage. In 1964 Stokke announced to its customers that these models were available for immediate delivery.

Stokke contributed to this trend from the 1930s onwards with their industrially produced copies of lounge furniture based on exclusive traditional crafts.

Around 1960 the framework conditions for Norwegian furniture manufacturers were somewhat different from what they had been during and just after the War. A basic level of prosperity and furnishing had been reached. It was no longer sufficient for a chair to have four legs, a seat and a back. It also needed to have the correct design, and not least, it had to be good to sit on. In 1958, normal working hours were reduced from 48 to 45 hours a week. Wages continued to rise and there was almost full employment among able-bodied men. New consumer goods were being developed, and private consumption was directed towards so-called luxury consumption. It was in 1960 that the last regulations on goods were lifted with the liberation of car sales. Now everyone who had sufficient capital could buy their own car, travel around and acquire new inspiration. New inspiration was also provided by television. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation started ordinary TV transmissions in 1960 and during that decade, an increasing number of Norwegian households started buying their own TV sets. Towards the end of the decade, households without a TV set of their own were the exception rather than the rule.

These social changes influenced furniture fashions and functions. In Western society, an increasing number of hours in the day were

being spent sitting down. You started the day by sitting at the breakfast table and continued by sitting in the car on the way to work. Many people sat throughout the day at schools, in offices or in front of production machines and they also sat down at the end of their working day, in front of the TV screen. In the home environment, which was still Stokke's main focus in the early 1960s, an opening arose for a new type of model; the reclining chair. Stokke put in an early appearance. As early as around 1958 the factory management and designer Arnt Lande started experimenting with high-backed chairs with backs that could be lowered when the user wished to vary his/her sitting position and relax, a style which was very popular during the 1960s. Stokke wanted to give people chairs that they could relax in, thus anticipating a

theme which it would cultivate more or less exclusively with effect from the1980s, i.e. furniture which allowed for movement and variation. The movement and variation achieved was not extensive and probably not of the type advocated by the factory's product developers at a later date, but even so, a straight up-and-down movement from a sitting to a reclining position allowed users to enjoy a new feeling of seated comfort and much longed-for relaxation after long stressful days. Stokke came to the market with the right type of product at the right time.

Finally out of the red

The first reclining chair that was launched had a simple tilt system and was quite simply called Vipp. The chair could be tilted back and operated by body movement. Designer Arnt Lande was pivotal in the development of the model. Lande possessed an unusual degree of practical insight and concentrated on technical solutions. Before embarking on his design studies he had worked in Stokke's Production Division, and the combination of his industrial experience and ability to find practical solutions for design and functional challenges proved to be fruitful.

The response from customers was excellent and the company management realised that there was a promising customer base for this type of chair. With the next reclining chair, the Combi Star, they developed a system whereby the seat could be locked at several different angles. This was an important step forwards. This principle allowed users to find a stable, comfortable position. Now peace in the household was assured: husband and wife did not need to argue about who would be the first to take a nap on the sofa after dinner. Now one of them could have their longed-for rest in Stokke's Combi Star. The reclining chair family was augmented in future years by new members. In 1964 the Telstar tilting chair was launched as a more affordable alternative to the adjustable Combi Star. The first Telstar model did not have a lock, only a tilt function. Customers also wanted to be able to lock the less expensive model in a reclining position, and such a version was quickly introduced to the market.10

Another milestone was reached with the development of the Swing Star in 1965. Again, Arnt Lande was responsible for the practical adjustments, with Kåre Stokke involved as an interested party and marketing expert. At the time this chair was the most demanding and most advanced chair that Stokke had made. It was the first Scandinavian chair to rest on a chassis that allowed unrestricted 360 degree rotation. At the same time the chair adjusted backwards into any position desired by the user. “This chair can be adjusted to accommodate several positions. It can also swing round, and is therefore eminently suitable for all TV lounges,” was the company's own description of the chair when it was launched in 1965. This was a reclining chair that many people had long been calling for, and this was reflected by the sales figures. With this model, Stokke had a product that ensured a good flow of cash into the company. After many lean years, the 1966 accounts showed figures that brought the company out of the red for the first time. Sales increased by 35 % compared to the previous year.11 In 1967 sales reached the NOK 15 million mark, giving a net profit of NOK 1.5 million. This was a completely new situation for Stokke Fabrikker.

Meticulous design for export

Reclining chairs constituted a substantial product segment for Stokke. Another segment was devoted to furniture intended for public environments. This furniture was fairly similar to that contained in Stokke's export collection, i.e. furniture which sold through the company's export organisation, Westnofa. One architect who was important to Stokke in this regard was Gerhard Berg. Even though Stokke had its own designer in Arnt Lande, the company sometimes obtained drawings and products from other sources in order to bring in new creative ideas which the company believed were necessary for making headway in the various markets.

Gerhard Berg was introduced to the furniture industry in Sunnmøre through Vatne Lenestolfabrikk during the autumn of 1954. He made his debut as a designer on behalf of Vatne at one of the first furniture exhibitions ever held in Norway, in the air-raid shelter located beneath Abelhaugen in Oslo. After his days with Vatne, he designed many models for Hareid Bruk, a company which was run by Petter M. Erstad from Sykkylven for several years after World War II. Erstad employed Berg to design products which would fit in with his export strategy. Erstad was one of the first furniture manufacturers in Sunnmøre to investigate foreign markets, in the first instance England. Erstad was not entirely successful and after a period of time his company went bankrupt.

Georg Stokke became interested in Berg and thought that his designs were well suited to the export collection that Stokke was building up. Stokke therefore took over some of the models that Berg had designed for Hareid Bruk. The Runde chair, suitable for home use, was one of them. It was a small, compact armchair with a rounded shape, where the back and armrests were joined together. The Marina chair was also transferred to Stokke.

Berg was an experimental designer who was intrigued by the new plastic materials which the furniture manufacturing industry was starting to use in the 1950s. While developing the Sula and Aksla

Sula, design Gerhard Berg, approx. 1958. This chair was made for a competition sponsored by Askim Gummivarefabrikk. The furniture industry was keen to focus on foam rubber as an upholstery material. Berg later designed an armchair, Aksla, with the same concept. Both were put into production by Stokke.

models for Hareid Bruk, he worked with Askim Gummivarefabrikk. Together they developed aluminium moulds into which they moulded foam rubber cushions. The cushions were glued onto the chair's round back and glue was then injected on the front side of the mould so that the textile cover sat firmly. This upholstery method had been unknown to Stokke when they first contacted Berg.

The first model Gerhard Berg designed especially for Stokke was a light easy chair with loose cushions, the Caro (1957). It was later supplemented by a sectional chair without arms, the Duo. These two models were purchased for the airport terminal at Vigra when it opened in 1958. During the 1960s a number of new models were produced, all with distinctive and upright lines. Westnofa's catalogues for the 1960s feature some of the best Norwegian designs that were marketed under the name of Scandinavian design. They include Ingmar Relling's Bagn, Base, Baku, Junior and Senior, Øyvind Iversen's Citychair, Arne Halvorsen's Finse and Stokke's models designed by Arnt Lande and Gerhard Berg. Berg's chairs in the catalogue include the Tyrol, Duo and Caro. The Kubus range was in a class of its own. It was gradually developed into individual pieces of furniture, i.e. sofa, reclining chair, living room table, coffee table, conference table, conference chair and stackable

The first Stokke models required a considerable amount of manual work. This photo shows the assembly process.

With the Kubus range, Stokke made its mark as a top designer. This range, which was designed by Gerhard Berg, was marketed in both the home furniture and contract furniture sectors.

Harald Breivik finishing an arm on the Aksla chair. It was the design of the arm in particular that gave Aksla its prominent design status. But the product was not entirely suited to an industrial context.

Before Kåre and Turid built their house in Spjelkavik in 1964, they lived on the top floor of the factory. Here is Kåre with his children Geir and Rune on his lap, November 1962.

Kåre Stokke took over from his father Georg as the Managing Director on 1 August 1964. Georg suffered a period of illness and wanted to slow down after having spent 30 active years in the furniture industry.

chair with and without arms. Kubus was an example of furniture which had been adapted as a result of international trends, but which was also attractive to consumers in the domestic public market. Gerhard Berg describes the Kubus range as one of the most exciting projects he had ever worked with. It allowed him to think in a grand scale and in a more architectural manner.12

The Kro chair, designed by Arnt Lande, was the item of contract furniture that remained with Stokke for the longest period. This chair was launched around 1960 and was manufactured by the company well into the 1980s. Towards the end of the 1970s, between 3,000 and 4,000 chairs were still being produced with good financial margins.

Gerhard Berg participated in boosting Stokke's reputation as a modern and market-oriented furniture manufacturer, but his exclusive designs played a lesser role in strengthening Stokke's financial position.

Kåre Stokke nurtured the company's cooperation with Gerhard Berg in the same way as he nurtured Stokke's other important connections. Gerhard Berg was often invited to Kåre and Turid's home after they built their own house in Nedregårdsveien in Spjelkavik in 1964. Turid entertained Gerhard Berg and his Danish-born wife, Lillian, in an exemplary manner, and as the evening wore on, the conversation turned to design and trends both at home and abroad. Turid felt that Gerhard Berg was a designer who gave the impression that he knew where he was going. Kåre praises Berg for his sure sense of style, but adds that his models could sometimes challenge the company's production logistics. The management at Stokke was being increasingly forced to consider rational production, partly as a result of rising costs during the 1960s. The machinery and equipment which the company had been using since the end of the 1950s was intended for industrial production, i.e. production of large quantities of identical and standardised components. Not all of Gerhard Berg's models were suited to such principles, and one problem was that several of Berg's models failed to generate the required sales volumes.

Georg has to retire

For Georg it had been a relief to have his son Kåre involved in the daily management of the factory. It had not been difficult to persuade Kåre to participate in the family business. Kåre had been involved in the various aspects of factory management from a young age. He was still just a boy when he was given the responsible task of going to Møre Privatbank in Ålesund every Friday to collect the employees' wages. He was also allowed to try his hand in both administration and production as his abilities and skills gradually developed.

The first consequtive period worked by Kåre at the factory was during 1958. He then spent a year studying in England in order to obtain formal qualifications for joining the management team at Stokke. From 1960 he worked fulltime, and was responsible for managing production, as well as for marketing and sales. The insight he had acquired into factory management and procedures was to prove useful when the family was dealt a hard blow in 1964 with Georg's diagnos of cancer of the thyroid gland. His prognosis was not good, and he made all the arrangements that he thought would be necessary in order to ensure stable development for the company – no matter how things might turn out for himself. He transferred Stokke Fabrikker to his son Kåre in August 1964, and Kåre was also given responsibility for the daily management of the company.

Such responsibility felt like a heavy burden to bear at the age of 27. When he took over and was interviewed by the company's information magazine, he said that he had no plans to make

any changes in the production process. He wanted to continue the expansion of more efficient production processes and to develop the company's designs so that they were in step with the times – preferably a little ahead.13 Georg Stokke continued as Chairman of the Board of the company after Kåre took over as Managing Director.

Georg succeeded in overcoming his illness and during 1965 he returned to the company on a full-time basis at the age of 54. Kåre retained his position as the Managing Director of Stokke Fabrikker and was the sole owner. However he and his father continued to cooperate closely during the following years. In many ways their cooperation helped to form the development of Stokke, with for example the establishment of new subsidiaries. The experiences and feelings Georg had had during his period of illness in no way served to dampen his entrepreneurial spirit – in fact quite the contrary. Georg tells Harald Grytten in his autobiography that “being able to be active and effective are two of the most important things. Being able to use your life to create values during the time we are given, takes on a new and urgent meaning the day you stand face to face with the sudden threat posed by a killer disease.”14

There was a woman behind it

The one factor that contributed more than anything else to Kåre's success in confronting the challenges of being the young leader of Stokke Fabrikker AS was his wife, Turid. Kåre himself is the first to acknowledge how important Turid has been for the development of the company. He realises that he could never have devoted so much time and energy to the company in his role of Managing Director if Turid had not supported him by taking care of the important tasks of looking after the home and children.

Kåre met Turid in 1956 when he was in Oslo as a student at Oslo Handelsgymnas. At the time Turid Hagberg was 15 years old and in her first year at the same school. They quickly found each other and established a relationship which would come to last. Turid also accompanied Kåre when he went to England to study economics in 1959. Turid had just finished upper secondary school at the time and had no objections to living abroad. She was interested in learning languages, and with her business background from Norway it was natural for her to start studying at the Commercial College in Manchester. In the England of those days it was not easy to obtain lodgings as an unmarried couple living together. In order to remove such practical problems, Turid and Kåre decided to get married

The Icelandic Foreign Minister Gudmund Gudmundsson, visited Stokke Fabrikker in August 1964. Here we can see Kåre Stokke, who earlier in the month had taken over as the Managing Director of the company, showing him the arm of a chair. The Foreign Minister was presented with a Combi Star chair as a gift.

Turid and Kåre were married in 1959. Since then Turid has closely followed the development of Stokke and has been an important sounding board for her husband.

The house that Turid and Kåre built in 1964. It was often used for business entertainment and as a showcase for presentations of furniture produced by Stokke Fabrikker.

Kåre placed great emphasis on nurturing contact with retailers both at home and abroad. De Boers from Toronto in Canada was one of Stokke's major customers. He often visited Turid and Kåre at home when they moved to their own house in Spjelkavik in 1964. The Ergo dining chair in teak lacquered beech. A solid 1960s model with clean lines. Design: Farstrup Savværk and Stolefabrik.

before they went to England. Turid was only 19 years old and Kåre was 22 when they celebrated their wedding. It should also be said that it was not unusual to get married at such a young age in the 1950s. As Turid puts it; “Today everyone wants to stay young as long as possible, but at that time we wanted to grow up as fast as possible!”

They returned to Norway and Spjelkavik in the summer of 1960. Kåre threw himself with gusts into managing the factory. In the beginning they lived in the so-called caretaker's flat on the top floor of the administration wing. Kåre not only lived there, but he also took on many of the duties of a caretaker. He ensured that the boiler was working properly and used to make the rounds of the factory to check that everything was in order after the others had gone home. Although Turid had dinner ready every day at around four o'clock, she remembers that she often had to keep it hot for him. Sometimes she got tired of waiting and took it down to him in his office. Sometimes the small family had relatively lively discussions about how they spent their time and about their priorities, but in retrospect Turid says she understood why Kåre spent so much time at work. The company had some demanding tasks involving its economy and the reorganisation of the sales and distribution apparatus.

At one point, Turid wanted to work in the family business herself. She thought that this might at least let her see her husband more often, but Kåre disagreed. He thought that it would be a bad idea to mix business with their private lives and that it would be better for the other employees if his wife worked somewhere else. So after their return from England, she worked as a supply teacher at Spjelkavik School for a while. Her feelings of loneliness faded away after the family grew. Rune was born i January 1961. Then the others followed at intervals: Geir Kåre in 1962, Knut Olav in 1964 and Kristin Elisabeth in 1969. 1964 was a very active year for the Stokke family – not least for Turid. Kåre had just taken over responsibility for the family business. They built their own house in Spjelkavik, a stone's throw away from the factory. They built a holiday cottage at Lesjaverk. Knut Olav was born. And Turid became busier in her role as hostess and a discussion partner for Stokke's business connections.

Early in the 1960s there was very limited hotel capacity in Ålesund. Hotell Noreg was the best accommodation alternative for agents, suppliers and other business contacts in Sunnmøre, although even there capacity was limited. Kåre therefore often took visitors home and gave them food, drink and lodging. On these occasions Turid was the one who was in charge. She remembers that things were particularly busy during May when American Westnofa customers visiting the Copenhagen Exhibition came to Ålesund and Sunnmøre to see the factories where all the furniture was made. It could sometimes be quite hectic in the mornings. First the children had to be woken up, served a good breakfast and sent off to school with packed lunches. After they had left, there was a new round of breakfasts, this time for the long-distance travellers. Both home-baked bread and home-made jam were on the menu.

The significance of such personal customer service for maintaining and strengthening the business side of activities should not be underestimated. Buyers of furniture products have had many choices. A supplier that also nurtures personal relationships will often have a competitive advantage and be preferred over others.

Marketing Manager Audun Bondevik was pivotal in the Blisto joint venture. He wanted to increase the marketing budget of Stokke and Blindheim and thought that the companies would earn good returns on such an investment. Bondevik was also the editor of Møbelavisa, a magazine which Stokke and Blindheim had distributed to all their retailers since 1964.

Einar Blindheim.

In 1963, Stokke Fabrikker entered into a market and sales joint venture with Blindheim Møbelfabrikk. These two companies had collections that complemented each other. Stokke and Blindheim's management team was presented in the first edition of Møbelavisa. From the left, Kåre Stokke, Einar Blindheim, Karl Hanken and Georg Stokke.

So even though Turid Stokke never directly contributed to improving the financial situation of the company, her efforts have without doubt played a role in the positive results that carried Stokke forward each year.

Blindheim and Stokke – a new couple

One of the first initiatives taken by Kåre was to invite Blindheim Møbelfabrikk to formalise the sales collaboration which the two companies had enjoyed. Stokke and Blindheim had been cooperating by using the same agents ever since the 1950s. In 1964 the time was mature to put this collaboration on a firmer and more formal footing. One of Kåre's supporters in this process was Audun Bondevik, who had been a freelance marketing consultant for Møre Lenestolfabrikk, Vest-Norske Møbelfabrikk, Blindheim Møbelfabrikk and Stokke since 1962. In 1964 he was employed on a permanet basis at Blindheim and Stokke and started drawing up joint marketing and sales plans for the two companies. At this time there were several furniture companies in the country that were reorganising their sales strategies.

Previously all marketing contact had taken place through agents. After 1962, several companies started to directly influence the public by using integrated presentations, usually in cooperation with their retailers. Audun Bondevik advised Stokke on this matter, and the company began directly advertising its product in weekly magazines for the first time in 1962. Shortly afterwards, advertisements for Stokke furniture could be found on Nitedal's matchboxes.

Naturally the agents who were supposed to convince furniture retailers to accept Stokke's products had no objections to this help in getting started.

It was no coincidence that it was Stokke and Blindheim that joined forces on the sales front. The two companies, each with their own specialities, complemented each other and both became market leaders in their own areas. Blindheim produced board furniture and had two top sellers: Ergo de luxe shelving system and Olapulten desk. Stokke produced lounge furniture, reclining chairs and simple chairs for the public sector. The companies' collections were combined in various ways in their presentational material. Blindheim's Ola-pult and Stokke's simple Kro chair were a combination which was in great demand for many years.

This sales cooperation appeared to be mutually strengthening for the two companies. The advantages of being able to offer such a wide product range placed the companies in a strong negotiating position in sales. The retailers also benefited from the alliance because having a single supplier able to offer different types of products simplified their work.

In the first edition of their information magazine Møbelavisa which was published in 1964, the companies stated that Møbelmagasinet in Stavanger had carried out a wide-ranging marketing campaign for the Stokke and Blindheim collection in August 1963. This furniture company presented Stokke/Blindheim products in three large advertisements in the newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad. At the same they displayed the photographed interior in their show

window. Those responsible for the campaign at the furniture company said; that relatively extensive marketing was expensive, but that such expenses were just as necessary as wages and transport expenses. Good sales are dependent on good marketing.15 These statements made by the retailer in Stavanger were probably also intended to have an “internal medicinal” effect on the management of Stokke and Blindheim. Audun Bondevik experienced that not everyone initially had the same understanding for the necessity of devoting such considerable resources to marketing. This attitude changed when the effects of such marketing campaigns became apparent.

In order to keep the retailers informed about all product news and to be able to include useful information from the market, the agents of Stokke and Blindheim and the managers of the companies met twice a year. The information magazine Møbelavisa was also used to provide the network of retailers with information for the duration of the Stokke and Blindheim joint venture. Audun Bondevik was the editor of Møbelavisa for a number of years.

Star chairs to the fore

Malvin Vegsund was one of the agents who worked for the two companies in Sunnmøre. In 1968 he took over the Møre and Romsdal sales region, in addition to Dombås, Otta and Vågå. The contract he signed when he began working, provides us with good insight into the working conditions of agents and the way in which the furniture companies organised their sales work at this time. Vegsund agreed to visit the furniture retailers regularly and at least 8–10 times a year. He was to submit regular reports to Stokke and Blindheim after customer visits so that the companies could be kept informed about developments in the market. Paragraph 8 of the contract was central. It stated that an agent could not enter into new agency agreements without the approval of the companies. The principals were worried that their sales efforts would suffer if their agents travelled around with too many catalogues in their suitcases. Malvin Vegsund had to terminate some of his contracts with other furniture manufacturers because their models were too similar to the products and lines of Blindheim and Stokke.

All the agents working for the two joint venture partners were self-employed, and their income varied according to the number of sales they made. Stokke paid Vegsund a 5 % commission, while Blindheim paid 4 %.16

Malvin Vegsund remembers well which Stokke models were easiest to sell in 1968 and in the following years. They were the reclining chairs in the Star family. Both Swing Star and Telstar were popular pieces of furniture which almost sold themselves, at least until the advent of Ekornes' Stressless recliner which started to take over more and more during the early 1970s. In Stokke's description of the Copenhagen furniture exhibition in May 1968 the retailers were mainly interested in tilting and reclining chairs. That year Stokke's collection contained 10 Star models which they claimed covered the whole range, from the most affordable models to the best and most expensive ones. Saga Star belonged to the latter category. This was a loose-cushioned chair that was launched in 1968, where nothing had been spared in order to ensure maximum comfort while sitting down.17 Stokke also supplied furniture that was in demand in public spaces. Malvin Vegsund mentions Kubus in particular. This model never sold as well as the Leika and Kro chairs, but several public buildings were furnished with pieces from the stylish Kubus range, including the City Hall in Ålesund.

Sunnmøre centre in Oslo

In the middle of the 1960s, Blindheim and Stokke were involved in a drive launched by the industry in Sunnmøre and aimed at the market in the central part of eastern Norway, which also served as the most important bridge to Norway's export markets. The idea behind what was to become Sunnmørssenteret (the Sunnmøre Centre) or Sunnmøre Varehus (the Sunnmøre Showroom), was that it should serve as a warehouse for industrial companies in Sunnmøre and as a centre for transporting goods to the Oslo region and returning consignments to Sunnmøre.18 According to Inge Langlo, the Centre was not a delegated transport centre, but after a number of start-up problems it began to perform an important function as an exhibition area for several furniture producers in Sunnmøre. “The Centre had huge problems in selling floor space. During a Board meeting of Westnofa Ltd. held at the Viking Fjordhotell in Ørsta, representatives from Sunnmøre Varehus were given the opportunity to present the project. The Board discussed the matter and decided that Westnofa and its shareholder companies should join forces and purchase an area of approximately 1,300 square metres for offices and for exhibition purposes. Westnofa was responsible for the interior design and used Gerhard Berg as a professional consultant. The companies' Oslo offices moved in, and thanks to their pleasant and functional exhibition area, they settled in well. Stokke and Blindheim were together, as were Åslid and P.I. Langlo in one division and Vestlandske and Møre Lenestolfabrikk in another.”19

Per Natvig worked as an agent for Stokke and Blindheim with responsibility for sales in Hedmark and Oppland. He started working as an agent in 1971 and his base was Sunnmørssenteret at Alnabru. He remembers that Arne Austrheim was the manager and that many great exhibitions of furniture were held at Sunnmørssenteret. During the days when exhibitions were held at Sjølyst, customers were transported by bus from Sjølyst to Sunnmørssenteret where they were received in an exemplary manner by the companies' representatives.20

Interior architect Arnt Lande at the drawing board in 1966. As a furniture designer, Lande was loyal to the limitations imposed by industrial furniture, both financially and technically.

Here are two of Stokke's products from the 1960s: the Telstar and Kro chairs. Kro was a light and useful supplementary chair which was also suited to Blindheim's shelving and desk system.

Leika was a product designed for industrial production. This chair sold in large numbers, including to customers in northern Norway. Design: Arnt Lande.

Sunnmøre Varehus was completed at the beginning of 1969. This building, which was located close to the centre of Oslo, provided the Sunnmøre furniture industry with a functional exhibition arena. Together with the other Westnofa companies, Stokke was able to display its new models in the large exhibition area.

Kro as a stackable chair. Design: Arnt Lande. Blisto created so-called matrix material for its retailers who were then able to extract ready-made advertisements for the extensive collections supplied by Blindheim and Stokke. Stokke was also able to draw on Vågå Bruk's furniture.

At the same time that Stokke started using Sunnmørssenteret the company concluded its collaborative venture with its agent in eastern Norway, Johan Riise. This had been a successful venture and Riise received much credit for the excellent progress that Stokke had made throughout the 1960s. Their cooperation did not cease abruptly either, because several of Johan Riise's agents, including Arne Austrheim, were employed at Sunnmørssenteret and continued to sell Stokke and Blindheim's products.

Varying growth rates

As a result of the positive experience gained from their cooperative venture, Blindheim and Stokke decided in 1965 that they would like to extend it to include technical cooperation. An engineer, Kjell Wanvik, was employed to work on time and motion studies, the determination of piecework rates, production planning and other rationalisation measures.21 However, their cooperation proved to be most successful on the sales and marketing side. In 1966, the two companies produced a joint catalogue containing 56 pages of entirely new models.

In 1971 cooperation between the two companies was carried an important step further when it was decided that all Blindheim and Stokke products should be marketed under the name of Blisto Møbler. The intention behind this decision was that it should be more efficient and thus cheaper to carry out marketing and sales work. The companies would print just one catalogue and they would have joint advertisements, letterheads and logos, etc. The management of the two companies considered this to be the only way of realising the ambitious plans that they had been nurturing for some time, i.e. printing one expensive colour catalogue containing the companies' products which could be distributed to households throughout Norway. Their coordinated marketing efforts were also aimed at another important target designed to level out their production curve and ensure the utilisation of production capacity throughout the year. This was expressed by Stokke's owner, Kåre Stokke, when the newspaper Sunnmørsposten reported on the establishment of Blisto Møbler AS. Like most other Norwegian furniture companies producing furniture primarily for the domestic market, Stokke acknowledged that problems were caused by pressure on production prior to Christmas and a slump in the market during the spring.

After the formation of Blisto Møbler AS in 1971, the joint venture between Stokke and Blindheim became so close that it gave rise to speculation about whether or not the next step would be a full merger between the two companies. Møbelavisa also raised this question with the company owners in 1972. At that time Einar Blindheim responded by saying that the companies were indeed planning to extend their cooperation, while Kåre Stokke stated categorically that the companies would continue to operate as independent entities. However, he added that they would be trying to maximise the production benefits of their cooperation and “ensure that none of their production process encroached on any areas that were naturally covered by others.”22

During the 1960s and 70s several Norwegian furniture companies attempted to engage in cooperative ventures similar to

The Upholstery Department at Stokke Fabrikker. In the middle of the 1960s this department was located on the fourth floor of the factory building in Spjelkavik. Harry Holte can be seen operating the staple gun. Holte later became the Foreman of the Upholstery Department. The Exhibition Room at Stokke Fabrikker during the early 1960s when the company was marketing itself as a design-orientated producer of furniture for ordinary consumers.

the Blindheim and Stokke model, but hardly any of these succeeded in pursuing cooperation to such an extent. It could be said that the two Sunnmøre companies were pioneers in their field. However, during the late 1970s some difficulties started to emerge. Initially Blindheim had been setting the trend and had been responsible for the most significant contribution in terms of turnover and growth rates thanks to the company's well-known brands, Ergo de luxe and the Ola desk. However, this position gradually started to change with the introduction of the Star recliner range. Furthermore, in 1967, Stokke entered into a very promising cooperative venture with the designer Peter Opsvik, which resulted in and included the launch of the Tripp Trapp chair for children in 1972. Blindheim failed to achieve any similar innovative advances in its furniture collection and after a while the widening gap between the two companies' furniture portfolios and their innovative abilities made it harder for them to cooperate.

The export organisation Westnofa Ltd.

40 years of exports

The motivation for establishing Westnofa was the same as the motivation behind the formation of Blisto. P.I. Langlos Fabrikker in Stranda, Møre Lenestolfabrikk in Ørsta, Vestlandske Møbelfabrikk in Sykkylven, Aaslids Møbelfabrikk in Volda and Stokke Fabrikker in Spjelkavik realised that by joining forces they could attain a far stronger profile abroad than they could achieve separately. The establishment of an export apparatus is demanding. It requires good logistics, expertise relating to the various markets and the resources to front new markets by displaying excellent quality at exhibitions and by adopting other measures. Successful cooperation was conditional on the various players complementing one another and on ensuring that members of the organisation did not step on the toes of any of the others involved in the cooperative venture. This was also a problem and a challenge which Westnofa's representatives abroad had to handle on a daily basis. Westnofa was forced to choose between different representatives and stores in the various countries. At the time it was not certain that these choices were the correct ones for all the factories involved. Inge Langelo, who followed Westnofa almost from the start as the Sales Manager of P.I. Langlo from 1957 and as the Sales Manager of

Møremøbler from 1970, touches on these circumstances in an article he has written about the organisation: “One of the problems was that because of the product groups which existed it was necessary to approach several different distributors. The market for furniture for private home use was served by other players than the office and contract furniture market. The market for special children's furniture, such as Tripp Trapp, has its own channels ... The factories wanted to develop and produce models which they were equipped to produce, and they expected Westnofa to obtain the orders. That could not always happen. Therefore, dissatisfaction arose, along with demands for unsold models to be freed up for sale through other channels than Westnofa.”23

Langlo intimates that it is difficult for such cooperative models to work in practice. Nevertheless, Westnofa kept things going for over 40 years, longer than any other export organisation in the furniture industry. The brand name Westnofa acheived a good reputation abroad. It was associated with top quality Norwegian furniture production. Sunnmøre furniture representatives were met with nods of approval at exhibitions when they said that they represented Westnofa.24

One of the reasons for this goodwill was Westnofa's ability to be innovative and bring forward young, talented designers. Gradually, a concept called Westnofa Workshop was developed. This was part of Westnofa's stand that was given over to designers with progressive ideas.

Membership of Westnofa was unlikely to have been experienced as a problem for those companies which experienced that the organisation met their expectations as regards marketing and selling their products abroad. The cooperation agreement was formulated such that Westnofa was to be built up as a legally independent unit with offices in Ørsta, with responsibility for the exports of all its member companies. Westnofa was also to invoice customers and pay the manufacturers. Any profits after the export organisation's administration and marketing expenses had been deducted were channelled back to the member companies to help with their product development.25 However, although the contract was supposed to benefit all the parties involved, dissatisfaction gradually arose in the organisation, and accusations were made about some companies and products being given priority over others.

A split organisation

In 1965 Vestlandske's Siesta chair was presented for the first time at Westnofa's exhibition in Stavanger. It attracted considerable attention right from the start and was responsible for a substantial growth in turnover and an improved financial position for Westnofa – which in turn also benefited the other member companies. Nevertheless, there were mutterings about Siesta being given too much space and pushing aside products that were then unable to exploit their own potential. This created an imbalance within the organisation, and at Stokke in particular there was growing dissatisfaction with Westnofa's contribution to sales work. For the first few years the percentage of Stokke's turnover that was channelled via Westnofa amounted to approximately 10–15 %. Several of the other companies had a considerably higher export percentage. Stokke's management started to feel that some of the

Raten Sie die Preisen?

In connection with the presentation of the member companies' products at exhibitions, product manuals and price lists were also prepared. Since there were five companies, all of which had relatively broad product ranges, their stand representatives had to deal with a thick wad of information. Kåre Stokke and Inge Langlo attended several foreign exhibitions abroad together, and they did their best to present relevant and precise information to everyone who wanted it. Inge Langlo remembers his first export exhibition in Helsinki in 1958 when they had problems handling all this information. Leafing through and finding the correct product and price in response to a query could take a long time. One German customer became so impatient that he commented “Raten Sie de Preisen?” (Are you guessing the price?)

company's products were not considered to be of interest to the retailer network that Westnofa had developed, especially the reclining chairs which had been top earners for Stokke during the 1960s.

One measure which received considerable support in the Westnofa organisation was participation in Sunnmørssenteret in

The Gjende lounge group was simple, with pure lines. In addition to having the right expression for the times, it was designed so that it could be manufactured efficiently by Stokke's machinery.

The Swing Star (1965) provided users with even greater options for variation than previous reclining chair models in the Star range. This range thus precluded Stokke's subsequent motto: Furniture for movement and variation.

In 1964, Stokke entered into a contract with Ring Møbelfabrikk in Moelv for the take-over of their collection of movable office chairs. These chairs complemented Stokke's former collection of office furniture. In 1966 the Advokat executive chair was launched. This was the successor to the President executive chair.

Stokke Fabrikker after the extension was built in 1967.

Oslo. The companies had their own arrangements concerning the exhibition area and offices, but they had a common reception and switchboard. Westnofa invited customers here, including customers from Denmark and Sweden.

Around 1970 Stokke and the management of Westnofa started to disagree about sales to Sweden. Westnofa wanted to handle all foreign sales for member companies, including those made to Sweden. In 1969 Stokke established a division in Tranås in Sweden which was initially intended to be an assembly and sales company for pine furniture going to Vågå Bruk, but which was relatively quickly developed as Stokke's sales organisation in Sweden. Stokke's presence in Sweden proved to be successful, and it almost certainly helped Stokke to extricate itself from its joint export venture with Westnofa, with Westnofa's approval. Stokke thought that Westnofa was a useful partner while the company was standing on the threshold of the big wide world, but after a while it realised that solutions that had been appropriate during the 1950s were not necessarily the right ones twenty years later.

Building expansion at Moa

Stokke's plans to undertake building extensions in the early 1960s clearly reflected the company's increased activities and improved profits. The last extension had occurred in 1956, when one floor was added to the original 1948 factory building. Early in the 1960s production capacity in the carpentry shop was fully exploited, although Stokke managed to handle most of its woodwork itself. A list drawn up in 1962 shows that Stokke Fabrikker received woodwork from a subcontractor for approximately 300 chairs and 150 sofas, which equated to approximately 8–10 % of its wood processing operations and was used for models which were made in small batches.26

In 1963, Stokke Fabrikker contacted the Rationalisation Office of the Federation of Norwegian Industries, IRAS, to obtain help in forming a general plan for a new factory facility in order to aid the company double production. There was a great need for increased capacity because sometimes Stokke operated with relatively long delivery periods. They also wanted to provide better conditions for the employees in the Administration Department. A new canteen and exhibition premises were included in the plans.

During the post-war period, both the IRAS and the National Institute of Technology were key advisers to industrialists hoping to achieve rational and expansive modes of operation, and Stokke Fabrikker definitely belonged to this group. The new building was planned in accordance with modern guidelines. The aim was to achieve optimum flow between the various production divisions. The report produced by the IRAS is characterised by 1960s industrially rational logic and language. The work stations in the new machine carpentry shop were described thus: “Work stations and machinery respectively, shall be placed with regard to standardised work station arrangements, i.e. the location of pallets and equipment that is contingent on movement patterns for handling operations should generally be uniform at the various work stations the location of machinery, with light coming in from the side, shall be favourable with regard to work physiology, likewise pallets shall be positioned alongside the transport corridor in order to minimise transport distances”27 Production equipment was arranged in order to minimise transport and materials handling. The technical arrangements were then followed up by time and motion studies of work operations that were designed to ensure that workers made the most effective use of their time and to keep production costs as low as possible.

For this extension, Stokke used the new methods being used for constructing production buildings, i.e. a one-storey building. Transporting semi-finished goods and raw materials between various floors was not compatible with modern requirements for industrial operations.

There was some internal discussion within the management group about which part of the extension should be done first, the administration wing or the production premises. Møbelavisa reported that a lack of space was “critical both as regards the offices and several of the production divisions.”28 According to Arne Seljeflot, it was Georg Stokke who made the decisive point with the following retort: “Remember, boys, there should also be a face, not just a large stomach!”29

The first building phase thus consisted of offices, a welfare room and an exhibition hall covering an area of 725 m2 . 30 It was completed in 1964. In the following May, Sunnmørsposten was able to publish a photo of the inside of the new building. The photographer had captured the new, airy exhibition hall where two women were displaying a variety of small chairs, reclining chairs, sofas and tables. The tables were produced by Blindheim Møbelfabrikk.31

The facilities at Moa continued to expand during the following

Stokke used sports celebrities in the marketing of its furniture. At the end of the 1960s, Ole Ellefsæter was one of Norway's most popular athletes, and people noticed when he recommended Stokke's Combi Star recliner. The Ministar recliner was launched in 1968. It was one of ten models in the Star range which was Stokke's most profitable furniturecollection during the 1960s. This picture shows speed skater Magne Thomassen reclining in the chair.

years. During the three years prior to 1968 the factory building was extended by a further 3,000 square meters, with most space being devoted to a 1,800 square meter production hall. This provided an opportunity to extend the company's stitching division, etc. During this period ready-made upholstered furniture underwent reorganisation when the company switched over to models with loose seat and back cushions. The loose cushion models required far more stitching than previously. There was also a great need to expand capacity in the factory's packing and dispatch division. Production Manager Arne Seljeflot told Møbelavisa that the company was hoping that the new extension would help to reduce Stokke's 6–8 week delivery period by up to two weeks.32

During this period the Molde architect Knut P. Bugge was responsible for designing Stokke's new production premises in Ålesund, Rauma and Vågå. Bugge was a reputable architect who had also produced the drawings for Turid and Kåre's new house in Spjelkavik in 1964.

Full speed ahead for piecework

So what was the working environment like in this modern furniture factory? Kristian Røvreit came to Stokke as a 27-year-old in 1962. He came with previous experience from several workplaces in the district, including Løndals Møbelfabrikk, which had been supplying wood to Møller and Stokke ever since the 1930s, as well as the building industry. In retrospect he describes the working environment at Stokke Fabrikker during the 1960s as being a good one. During his first few years at Stokke, Georg was the manager. Kristian Røvreit had been engaged in union work at his former workplaces and became involved relatively quickly as an employee's representative at Stokke. He experienced Georg as being a firm, but organised leader. Like most of the Sunnmøre founders he was not particularly fond of the trade unions. He thought that the company could manage perfectly well without the interference of external organisations. However, in his capacity as employee's representative he sometimes felt that it was necessary to have assistance from representatives from the furniture workers' own trade union, the Norwegian Union of Woodworkers in Oslo. One example was when the employees were calling for the abolition of the Møretariff (the Møre tariff) which was introduced in 1939 to compensate for the extra costs incurred by Sunnmøre producers in getting their goods to the markets. Georg Stokke was one of the spokesmen for this scheme which involved furniture workers in Sunnmøre receiving a slightly lower hourly rate than their colleagues in western and eastern Norway. The Møretariff was abolished after the entire furniture industry went out on strike in 1949.

Subsequent to this, events were less dramatic and Røvreit can only remember one disagreement about minor pay adjustments. Matters never progressed to the stage where questions were asked about trade union membership rights at Stokke, something that did occur at other furniture companies in Sunnmøre. When Kristian Røvreit started in 1962 there was already a well developed system for employees' representatives at the company and the tone of the negotiations conducted between the parties at the company was generally good. This spirit of cooperation certainly did not deteriorate after Kåre took over as owner and became responsible for contact with the employees' organisations. “Kåre Stokke was easy to talk to. He spent a lot of time on the factory floor and talked to people. There were not many closed doors there,” says Kristian Røvreit, who was the chief shop steward at the Stokke group for a number of years.33

As regards the payment of employees in the Production Department, piecework had always been used at Stokke. It was also the preferred method of payment at other furniture companies

Sales representative Bjørn Olsen from Johan Riise AS, interior architect Arnt Lande and Kåre Stokke on an outing in connection with an exhibition trip to Denmark. Stokke was quick to see the possibilities offered by plastic materials. The Element chair (launched in 1968) attracted considerable attention when it was displayed at the Copenhagen Exhibition in 1968. It was the first Norwegian chair to make use of plexiglass and foam rubber upholstery. Design: Asbjørn Synnes. Georg and Kåre Stokke believed that plastic represented the future for the furniture industry, and this view was significant in their decision to participate in the formation of Westnofa Industrier in 1969.

in Sunnmøre, something which was related to the way in which the whole industry had been organised in Sunnmøre right from the start. This industry filled an empty space when a market for reasonably priced, ready-made furniture emerged in the cities during the first part of the last century. In Sunnmøre, furniture production was organised as series-based piecework carried out by young, unskilled labourers who were quickly given specialized tasks. After World War II, the producers in Sunnmøre swept away the traditional craft companies in the cities. It was then competition from efficient foreign producers that served as the motivating force for continuing to make production as rational and cost-effective as possible. Piecework and continuous production rationalisation were two of the measures that were used.

The situation for piecework was good at Stokke Fabrikker both in the 1960s and the 1970s. The company had furniture which was produced in long series, such as small chairs for the contract market and reclining chairs in the Star series. They could make up to 1000 units in one series. The production workers at the plant at Moa were skilled and efficient in their specialized role in the company's production operations. Kristian Røvreit operated the router permanently, day after day, year after year. Other workers had their permanent machines. And they preferred it like that. They gradually became completely familiar with both the models and the machines. They quickly gained dexterity and were able to earn very good wages. If they had alternated between different machines and work tasks, they would have had to have undergone training and trial periods and it would have been difficult for them to maintain the high tempo acquired when working on one fixed task. During the annual national collective wage negotiations, the emphasis was on fixed pay scales. This showed that the furniture industry was a low-wage industry by national standards, although drawing up such statistics always presents problems. A worker on just a fixed wage at Stokke in 1962/63 could have an hourly wage of between NOK 2 and NOK 3. Hardly anyone was earning just a fixed wage. The piecework earnings of a normal fast worker could easily amount to between NOK 5 and 6 per hour. This applied to Kristian Røvreit when he was employed as a builder in Ålesund in 1961/62. The building trade was regarded as being a leader in setting wage standards in the region. When Kristian Røvreit started working for Stokke he earned more as a pieceworker than as a building worker.

In order to determine correct piecework rates, it was necessary to carry out time and motion studies. These studies were not very well received by the company's production workers who did not appreciate having someone standing behind their backs and recording the time they spent on their various tasks. They felt that they were being watched. Kåre Stokke relates that the management at the Norwegian Union of Woodworkers was a useful ally in encouraging the company's employees to understand the value of these time and motion studies. He says, “We received a visit from Olaf Axelsen who was a member of the management of the Norwegian Union of Woodworkers (Deputy Managing Director from 1954–1973, Managing Director from 1973–1983. Ed.). He told our workers about the tough international competition being faced by the furniture industry and explained that the time and motion studies formed part of the rationalisation process which the Norwegian furniture industry needed to undertake in order to survive the competition it faced. He said that this would help to secure jobs at both Stokke and elsewhere. They were very understanding at the Union office.”

The disadvantage of the piecework used by Stokke and other expansive furniture companies at that time was that it could lead to repetitive and monotonous working days. However, good earnings went a long way towards compensating for this and probably also enabled Stokke to implement a number of measures designed to promote the welfare of its workers.

Georg and Johanne Stokke lived next door to Kåre and Turid and the grandparents loved spending time with their grandchildren. This picture was taken at the christening of the youngest, Kristin, in 1969.

Company policy

Bodil Torset and Ingebjørg Nedregård, who started working at Stokke in 1949 and 1960 respectively, relate that Friday was payday, and in those days they also served meatballs in the canteen. For a while the men paid full price for their lunch, while the ladies received a 2 kroner discount. This was because the ladies earned less, and, it was claimed, because they ate less.34

When IRAS was drawing up plans for a new factory in 1962, it was mentioned that the workers at Stokke Fabrikker that year had a 1-hour lunch break every day between 12:30 and 1:30 pm. The consultancy company anticipated a reduction in this break in the near future, and indicated that the need for a modern canteen would then increase. This was probably a correct observation. After the length of the working week was reduced to 45 hours in 1958, several industries joined the trend of reducing lunch breaks. With shorter working days it was no longer necessary to have such long breaks. There was a widespread desire to finish the working day earlier than before, and especially to stop working on Saturdays so that workers could devote more time to their families and leisure activities. In 1998 former Production Manager Arne Seljeflot recalls this reduction in working hours: “Up until then, we had the famous 8½-hour day, plus 5½ hours every Saturday. The reduction was first arranged by having every other Saturday off. Later on we worked a 9-hour day with a ½-hour lunch break and every Saturday off.”35

Sometimes the employees also met outside working hours, either in connection with company events or at their own initiative. Torset and Nedregård recall hobby evenings, plays and parties. Every Christmas there was a Christmas party at the factory when the employees and management danced round the Christmas tree together and sang well-known and much-loved Christmas carols.

Bodil Torset recalls that Stokke had a company chaplain during the 1950s. His name was Bjørn Siem and he was also qualified as a carpenter. He turned up on one Saturday every month to hold a service, something that helped to put the company's employees in the right mood for the weekend.

Rune (born in 1961), a third generation member of the Stokke family, started wandering around the factory when he was a young boy. He remembers the easy, direct atmosphere that existed between the employees, and between the employees and management. Some of the employees were possibly more goodhumoured and playful than others, helping to add fun and variety to days that might otherwise have been dulled by monotonous, repetitive industrial work.

Children in the boat at the family holiday cottage in Lesja. The family took advantage of every opportunity to visit the cottage after it was built in 1964. It was a place where the children could develop in natural surroundings, something they greatly appreciated. July 1968. From the left: Nils Liaaen, Knut Stokke, Halvor Liaaen, Geir Stokke and Rune Stokke

Geir's first day at school. Good to have mother's hand to hold.