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Report - - Fredriksberg Paper Mill - Sweden, September 2014 | European and International Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Fredriksberg Paper Mill - Sweden, September 2014

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The Stig

Urbex = Nosey Bastard
28DL Full Member
Visited on a rather warm and fun packed week with T-cake and Auntie Knickers. Thanks for the heads up from Tassader and Femaxer for the heads up on this site as well as the other sites in Sweden.

History....

The paper mill in Fredriksberg during its heyday, in the mid-20th century.During the 1930s and '40s the factories returned to private ownership and were transformed into a full scale paper mill. As a result of the Swedish neutrality in the second world war and the following lack of foreign competition and the Swedish economic boom during the 1940s and '50s the paper mill in Fredriksberg got a stronger economic position. This time could in many ways be described as Fredriksberg's industrial golden age. The town's population culminated during the epoch with about 2,000 inhabitants, and the economy was good.

Fredriksberg had already since 1875 a railway connection with Hörken on Bergslagsbanan (the so-called Säfsbanan), but came from 1931 (when a line to Hällefors was opened) to 1940 (when the line to Hörken was discontinued) to be the centre of the narrow gauge 802 mm (2 ft 7.6 in) railway network between Hällefors, Hörken and Neva on Inlandsbanan.

1957–1972[edit]1957 the Hellefors group was acquired by Billerud AB, and the paper mill in Fredriksberg became one of the company's smaller units. When the Swedish economy boom following the end of World War II started to come to an end in the beginning of the 1960s the competition got tougher and economies of scale made smaller units such as the one in Fredriksberg unprofitable as investment objects. The employment rate in the town decreased already in 1964, which made Fredriksberg a target for regional policies, in 1966 the Dalarna County council opened a laundry in the town.

The recession continued and by 1971–72 Billerud ceased their operations at the Fredriksberg paper mill. The railway to Hällefors had been replaced by truck transports by 1970 and the rails were lifted shortly after. The railway traffic westbound, towards Neva on Inlandsbanan had been discontinued already by the end of 1963. Fredriksberg were until 1970 the seat of the former Säfsnäs Municipality, which by 1971 merged with Grangärde Municipality and Ludvika town council to form the new Ludvika Municipality.

1972 and onwards Billerud sold the factory buildings to Lesjöfors AB already in 1968. Different sorts of replacement industries were created with help of state subsidies both by Lesjöfors and other companies during the decade after the closure of the paper mill, amongst other things wallpapers, wooden shelves and automotive springs were produced before Lesjöfors AB went bankrupt in 1985. The following year automotive springs were produced in a labour-owned industry, which didn't manage the competition either. This came to be the last operations in the former paper mill. Since 1994 the factory buildings lack legal owners.

During the 1980s the Billerud group came to be acquired by Stora Kopparberg, and as a result the forest management moved from Fredriksberg. The county-council-owned laundry were sold by 1998 to the Danish Berendsen group, and were closen in 2003 when the company chose to centralize its Swedish operations to Eskilstuna.

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AuntieKnickers

inquisitive historian
28DL Full Member
Re: Fredriksberg Paper Mill Sweden September 2014

There were stairs OT but a lot of them were either missing or were rusted badly or else we would have gone up.
Glad we got to see this place.
 

norfolkexplorer

Quite often seen exploring further than Norfolk
28DL Full Member
Re: Fredriksberg Paper Mill Sweden September 2014

Nice 1.. Those stairs look a little wonky :)
 

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