1914 - 1954
Havnegade 41, Copenhagen
Frantz Nehammer was really a wholesaler and should as such have
been placed under wholesalers here on the website , but when his
companies had a great influence on the development of the large
factories at home and were trading center for these , we have
chosen to include him in the factory section .
As Jonkopings main dealer in Denmark , L. Baagøe went bankrupt
in 1914 and Nehammer took over the representation of
Jonkoping and Vulcan Tändstickfabrik .
Baagøe had previously tried to make a price agreement with HE
Gosch & Co, without success , but in 1915 the two companies
entered into a price agreement without adjustment of production
volumes .
Nehammer was also general agent for Förenade Svenska
Tändstickfabrikker in 1916 and negotiated all the brands that at
this time was included in this group .
As imports of Swedish matches to Denmark increased rapidly in
the first years of the
World War I and since the Swedish matches quickly was resold
across the border , Gosch complained in 1917 to the Industry
Council about unfair competition , which , unlike the Danish
factories had restrictions to exports and at the same time
Gosch pointed out that the English could well believe that
it was
the Danes who broke the blockade .
Gosch laid the same year filed suit against Nehammer for breach
of contract ( we know not more so) in which he denounced the
cooperation agreement with Gosch .
During May 1917 it turned out later that the Swedish
district-chief R. Häggløf had bought for 10,000 kroner shares in
Gosch and in the months following additional shares for the
forthcoming Swedish match king, Ivar Kreuger .
Almost simultaneously illuminated Jonkoping to Gosch 's director
, Folmer Preisler that they had transferred all operations to
Nehammer and Godthaab former director Oscar West announced
Preisler , that the Swedes now had a majority stake in Glødefri
and Hellerup and intended to make similar raids against Gosch ,
as
they
had already bought a large stake .
In the summer of 1918 limited company Tændstikkompagniet
was formed, which aimed to fabricate and act with matches and
recording collaboration with similar companies.
In the board sat Nehammers former lawyer, Carl Vilhelm Skovgaard
Ostenfeld and Hellerup Tændstikfabriks president , Rudolph Peter
Nielsen, which of course had already been taken over by the
Swedes.
The share capital was 1 ½ million dollars with the possibility
of increasing to 4 ½ million .
And the summer of 1918 was hectic , with Tændstikkompagniet
contacting Gosch with the desire to take over the ENTIRE Gosch
's production, which Gosch flatly rejected because it would not
be cut off from the switch to its more than 3000 customers.
Since it was also aware that Tændstikkompagniet had acquired
another large stake of 1 ½ million kroner in Gosch ,
Preisler contacted Ivar Kreuger to guarantee that the Swedes
were not behind Tændstikkompagniet.
Kreuger denied , although he announced that they had 10-year
contracts with the company .
During the next 3 months parties fought almost constantly and
Tændstikkompagniet put a lot of pressure on Gosch on takeover ,
at least of their EXPORT as well as a price and production
agreement for the rest of the trade. Tændstikkompagniet
threatened to extend Glødefri and Hellerup and build a new and
larger factory .
Preisler had several meetings with Ivar Kreuger , who claimed
that the Swedes did not have a majority stake in
Tændstikkompagniet and he acted as if he was a mediator between
the parties.
But then Kreugers
tru side came up.
In a 7 pages long and strong letter , he outlined the situation
on the world market and then went to task Gosch and especially
Preisler , which he believed had driven a very Swedish hostile
propaganda in the press.
Then Kreuger went in due course of the Danish export
opportunities and the Danish inflexibility because he believed
that the Danes were unable to export, without cooperation with
the Swedes. In
the letter Kreuger concluded that " If the Danish
companies do not come to an understanding before the 1st of
January next year, the Swedish factories would have fully
free hand in both the Danish home market and the export market
and act like best is." .
Pushed by Kreuger Preisler tried to reopen negotiations with
Tændstikkompagniet, but they were resistant and instead
communicated the fact that they now had a large shareholding ,
they may request an extraordinary general meeting , where they
would have a number of significant changes in the law and at the
same time
have 3 seats in Gosch 's board at the expense of 3 from Gosch .
The fight went back and forth and the final result was that the
Board would consist of 7 members , 4 of which were from the
previous board.
At the same time they made agreements on prices and output.
In April 1919 Gosch and Tændstikkompagniet made an agreements
implying that Gosch got access to use the technical improvements
and special machines , the Swedes may have, as well as similar
access to raw materials .
For this Gosch had to pay 30% of the net profit while they
accepted not to sell to the other Nordic countries.
Less than a year after Tændstikkompagniet changed the name to
Handelskompagniet Hafnia , still with Nehammer as president and
now with a capital of 3 million.
What no one knew at that time was that all shares , with a few
exceptions belonged to the Kreuger controlled Svenska Tändstick
Aktiebolaget , also called STAB .
The two stocks that did not belong to STAB was listed to Ivar
Kreuger and his closest associate, Littorin .
It was now obvious STAB , who controlled and it was agreed that
all Swedish matchstick factories could produce 4.2 billion
boxes, while Gosch had to fabricate 150 million boxes .
That Gosch now was a part of Kreugers spider web, could be seen
in that if Gosch received acceptance to produce more , the Dutch
factories should have the same gain.
In October 1920 Nehammer had to leave the president seat
as Ostenfeld and Rudolph Nielsen could not accept his autocratic
practices , where he had taken a number of economic freedoms
with regard to that it was in agreement with Kreuger , but this
turned out not to be true .
Instead Alfred Jørgensen occurred as the new president and
at the same time set up a sub- ompany , Tændstikfabrikkernes
Salgscentral.
In 1924 the tabloid paper Ekstra Bladet had, an article
which raised the issue of the Danish matchstick factories were
owned by the Swedish match-trust , but the article was never
followed up and the theme disappeared for a time.
But in 1928 , 10 years after it actually happened , it finally
emerged that the Swedish world group with Ivar Kreuger in the
lead had been co-owners of Gosch & Co. , as Preisler had come in
Hafnias Board and Kreugers right hand, Krister Littorin and
Hafnias president, Alfred
Jorgensen had come in Gosch 's board.
The next year the main competitors, were the Russian factories,
who flocked the market with their dumped products .
In 1932 Ivar Kreuger died on the way home from the U.S. and this
resulted in a turmoil in the financial world .
The ensuing battle for the takeover of Kreugers world empire
came to stand between the American Morgan family and the Swedish
Wallenberg group.
For a long time were negotiated with the U.S. International
Match Coorporation (IMCO ) on the acquisition of Hafnia and thus
the more than 1.6 million large shareholding , as they had in
Gosch .
The negotiations came as the American Hamilton Biggar Bole IMCO
was elected to the board at Gosch at the general meeting in
1934.
But shortly after it was announced that the Swedish STAB group,
which is now owned by the Wallenberg group had bought shares in
both Hafnia as Gosch and the other Danish matchstick factories.
Gosch then took over Hafnia and the company Tændstikfabrikkernes
Salgscentral , which was moved to the factory at Islands Brygge.
Hafnia continued in the small trade in other goods and closed
completely when Gosch & Co.
and Hellerup &
Glødefri was merged physically in 1960.
