1864 - 1884
Vestergade 505, Randers
In 1864 Carl Frederik Emil Hoff bought Søren Larsen
Sørensen's grocery shop and match stick factory and moved it to
his own merchant yard , which was just down the street in
Vestergade 505.
Fairly
quickly he called his factory of Randers Tændstikfabrik and
started out not only to manufacture the regular matches, but
also to manufacture safety matches by the Swedish method of
Jönköping .
After production steadily been increasing Hoff built in the
summer of 1868 a larger building in his backyard for production.
Although the factory established due to the fire regislations it
caused a number of fires , but furtunately this didnot have any
influence on the production.
In 1872 included Anders Sørensen and Hoff an agreement to
increase their prices.
In 1873 his son, Ernst Hoff took over the factory , while
the older Hoff concentrated on his grocery trade, but a
year after he made a trip to Sweden include
to see the factory in
Jönköping.
On the journey he bought a complete installation of machinery
which he was brought to Randers , but before the machines came
to be put into operation , Hoff died of rheumatic fever.
His son, Ernst Hoff made the necessary alterations after the
new matchstick law was introduced and continued to increase
production and at the same time he announced for its brands ,
Crown Prince Frederik 8th and Niels Ebbesen .
Ads by H. E.
Gosch took up the fight with the nearly identical ads for the
brands , King Frederik 7 and Tordenskjold .
A
fire broke out at Randers Match Factory the 22nd of
October 1881 , when the entire factory was laid in ruins.
Although Ernst Hoff had built a new and larger factory the fire
had apparently shaken him, why he began to be interested in
selling the plant .
On the 17th of
July 1884 Just Abildgaard, Peter Justesen and officer
Michaelsen bought Randers Tændstikfabrik , after which they
formed the company "Aktie Tændstikfabriken Merkur"
