ABOUT SVA

THE TRAIN, which usually went straight through the small village of Tyringe, stopped one day in the beginning of the 1890s, and out stepped a manufacturer by the name of August Bergman, from Helsingborg. By this time Bergman, born on 14 October 1849 and originating from Ljungby in Småland, was an experienced man.
  In 1876, the 27 year old Smålander had started a foundry and mechanical workshop in Helsingborg, and later a machinery firm, A. Bergman & C:o, which imported tools and machines. Already at this time, Bergman considered it to be wrong that Swedes needed to import both tools and machines at a time when Sweden had ample deposits of both ore and iron in the country.
  Following his doctor's advice, Bergman had for several years been staying periodically in Tyringe, together with his family, in order to regain his health in the pure tall forest air.
  He very much enjoyed staying in Tyringe and in 1894 he bought Tyringemölla farm, which he cultivated himself for a few years. Here, he ragained his health, his strenght as weil as renewed energy, but he had no desire to return to Helsingborg.
  Tyringemölla had water power and good conditions upon which to build a factory and, during his years in Helsingborg, Bergman had acquired good experience of manufacturing, selling and importing machines and work tools.
  During 1896, he effected the idea to establish Sweden's first tool industry in Tyringe.

 

The first factory building, 1896

  August Bergman was appointed general manager, and a previous employee of Bergman's firm in Helsingborg,skilled mechanic Nils Anderson, who had spent several years in America, was brought in to be foreman. In America, Nils Anderson had spent eight years working at tool industries. At this time, there was no tool industry in Sweden, all tools were imported from abroad. Foreman Anderson arrived in Tyringe on 5 December 1896.
  During 1896, the first factory building which was 100 feet long and 30 feet wide was constructed.Foreman Anderson purchased the first machines in America. While he was there he also persuaded his for-mer working colleague, Carl E. Björk, to return to Sweden and to take up residence in Tyringe. On 18 October 1897, Carl E. Björk returned from America to Sweden and to Tyringe.
  The factory's first decade in operation was plauged by a number of large problems. It was difficult to gain access into the home market and people were a little suspicious of Swedish tools.
  It was not just a factory which was being built up, but rather an entirely new personnel which had to be reeducated in factory work methods. The seeds of an entirely new society were being sewn. New houses were built and roads were laid for the community which was taking shape.
  SVA has, throughout the course of the years, been reconstructed and operated under different proprietorships. The present corporate strategy with emphasis on highly specialised cutting tools was introduced in 1984, and has been further developed into the well known, modern tool industry which is SVA Tyringe AB.

Source: Tyringebladet   

The first catalogue, 1897