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Grästorp, located approximate an hour northwest of Gothenburg, is the location where Gelia was founded 1975. The company’s objective at that time was to become a regional distributor of building connected electrical products, where the price was the main weapon against the dominating and well-established wholesalers.
In the end of the 70- ties the Gelia Company had grown to a size big enough to take the next step into the future. At that time a well-known and foresighted customer had since some time, claimed that the future would demand a much better and consumer friendly product exposure. This was the start for the launch of Self-service packaging combined with consumer information that became and still is the key to the successful Gelia D.I.Y.- concept.
Gelia supplies today the Swedish consumer market within the sectors of building- hardware- electrical appliance- and everyday commodity market, with products for Electrical and SHP (sanitary, heating and plumbing) usage. Mainly directed to the end-user but also sold and promoted to the professional market.
A couple of important milestones in the company’s history, are first of all 1985 when an agreement was signed between at that time the dominating hardware dealer, the Järnia chain, and Gelia. The co-operation became a success and during the next three years the turnover more than doubled.
In 1992 Gelia acquired one of it’s competitors, Critex / Electropop. One consequence of this acquisition was a change of the Gelia market strategy. Instead of promoting one brand, Gelia from then on went to the market promoting three different brands. Gelia for the building and hardware-market, El-toppen for the everyday commodity market and Elektropop for the electrical appliance-market.
In 1996 the Ahlsell group acquired Gelia Industri AB, which amongst many other positive effects gave Gelia the possibility to add on another product group, SHP. A very strong and important addition to the running Electrical product segment. In September 1997 the new product-line was launched successfully and has since then developed very positively.
By its long experience, dedicated employers as well as strong owners, Gelia have by far become the market leader in the Swedish market. An achievement that we estimate will continue into the future.
Parallel to the acquisition of Gelia, the Ahlsell group has since 1996 acquired other DIY companies in the Nordic countries. This in line with the group strategy, a Nordic-based home market. The Ahlsell group has four separate Business areas where SHP is the main one. Other Business areas beside the DIY are Electric and Refrigeration.
The Ahlsell DIY operations includes today beside Gelia in Sweden and Norway, VVS Trading in Denmark and Gelia in Finland.
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