A company dating from the middle of 1800
Beijer Electronics started operations in 1981, as a unit within
G&L Beijer. The Beijer group dates back to 1866, when it was formed by
brothers Gottfried and Lorens Beijer, and later headed by another member of the
family, Hain. G&L Beijer traded cereals, coal and steel for many years, and
later, oil.
  In the 1950s, G&L Beijer extended operations
to include trading input goods for the foundry and steel industries. Its central
concept was to move beyond selling products and accumulate its own expertise,
which was novel for the Nordic market. Thus the corporation was able to provide
service and support in an entirely new way.
Concentration on
Electronics
G&L Beijer became firmly established in computer
consulting in the late-1970s. The Beijer Information Group was
incorporated, and soon became a leader in its business. The company was divested
to WM-Data in 1987.
In fact, G&L Beijer had started to probe the growing electronics business
in around 1980, with its initial idea being to develop a
programmable control system. However, these plans were shelved when G&L
Beijer appointed Göran Sigfridsson, Beijer Electronics' present Chief Executive
Officer, and shortly afterwards secured distribution rights from Mitsubishi
Electric of Japan.
In 1981, Beijer Electronics became a unit in parent company
G&L Beijer, its business built up around the Mitsubishi Electric agency. In
the very next year, Beijer Electronics established units in Norway and Finland,
with business transferred to a new subsidiary in 1986.
Although locally developed systems dominated the Swedish market in the early
1980s, Beijer Electronics opted for the novel concept of combining high-quality
agency products with proprietary development. Mitsubishi Electric's control
systems, whose compact, integrated units constituted a new market philosophy,
formed Beijer Electronics' foundation. The collaboration with this corporation
also meant Beijer Electronics undertaking a series of major development
assignments, which included the development of the MEDOC programming tool in the
mid-1980s, a product that, until recently, was used for the installation of all
Mitsubishi Electric's control systems worldwide.
- Volvo Personvagnar became a customer in 1988, and started to
use Beijer Electronics' agency products in their plant in Olofström.
- Saab Automobile
became a customer in 1991.
- In the 1990's, other customers have been added, also beside the manufacturing
industry.
The product program has been enlarged gradually with more agency products from other
suppliers.
Proprietary Product Development
Beijer
Electronics' concentration on proprietary development and the modification of
agency products meant the company being able to offer complete automation
systems, and also led to the development of proprietary
products. Beijer Electronics embarked on the development of its own
operator terminals in the late 1980s, marketing them more
actively in the early-1990s, through an in-house sales force in domestic markets
and by exporting through Mitsubishi Electric, which absorbed them into its
product range.
In the 1990s, operator terminals became the fastest-growing part of Beijer
Electronics' product range. In this period, the corporation committed
considerable resources to the development of operator terminals, thereby
completing a comprehensive product range. Beijer Electronics' latest operator
terminals can be connected to the majority of control systems available on the
market. They are sold worldwide.
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