Eskilstunasteel Factories

Eskilstunasteel’s full legal name was Eskilstunasteel, Lindström & Co.

Eskilstunasteel was founded in the city of Eskilstuna, Sweden in 1936 by Gösta Pettersson.  Pettersson, who was 31 years old at the time, began manufacturing in a factory located at Kungsgatan 61 in Eskilstuna (see red mark on map below).

Below are several views of the building at Kungsgatan 61 in Eskilstuna in 2011. I believe that Pettersson’s factory occupied only a part of the building.

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Eskilstunasteel moved from Eskilstuna to the nearby town of Torshälla in 1942 due to market success and it’s need to expand. Torshälla is one of Sweden’s oldest towns. It is located north of the city of Eskilstuna and it also belongs to the Eskilstuna municipality. Torshälla is well known for steel manufacturing which revolved around its Nyby Bruk steel mill.

The new factory space was located at Eskilstunavägen 20 in Torshälla which was previously used by Fima Rostfritt between 1934 and 1942 for manufacturing stainless steel products (see red mark on map below).

 

Local documents indicate that Eskilstunasteel built an additional factory building on the property in 1948, again due to expansion. Below is a circa 1949 newspaper photo of the Eskilstunasteel manufacturing facility after all building had been completed.

 

Below are photos of what the factory buildings looked like in 2011. At this time the premises housed an automotive workshop. Many thanks to Max B of  Torshälla who sent me the location of the Eskilstuna factory below.

Here is a photo looking down at the factory buildings, also taken in 2001.

Eskilstunasteel never became a large manufacturing facility like E.A. Berg or Jernbolaget. Still, they made and sold popular steel and iron tools including  screwdrivers, chisels, wood carving chisels, plane blades, metal bench planes, leather knives, rubber knives, and linoleum knives.

Eskilstunasteel had three very recognizable  brands — “Eskilstunasteel Garanti”, “Esteel”, and “Gensco”. They appear to have had considerable success exporting their products to the Americas and to Africa.

Records in the Eskilstuna city archives indicate that Eskilstunasteel had a trade union that was active from 1944 until around 1959. (This makes sense, since BAHCO took over Eskilstunasteel around 1959.) At their peak, it appears that they employed around 40 people.

One other name that comes up from time-to-time is that of Eskilstunasteel General Manager Wivan Lindström. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any other information on him so far.

A check of 1959 Eskilstuna-Torshälla telephone listings shows that Gösta Petersson was still the owner of Eskilstunasteel when BAHCO took over Eskilstunasteel in 1959-1960.

 

The transfer of Eskilstunasteel to BAHCO does not appear to have been financially rewarding for Gösta Petersson. A search of bankruptcy records shows a 1960 entry for Gösta. I’m not sure if this was personal bankruptcy for Gösta or a business bankruptcy for Gösta and Eskilstunasteel.