History
ELE’s history – then and now
ELE stands for Ewald Larsson Efterträdare (Ewald Larsson’s successors) and is a family company operating within the forestry and timber industry. The company originally started life as a forestry and sawmill business set up by Ewald Larsson in 1909.
In 1910, Ewald became part-owner of Kilafors sawmill, which he took over in 1920 and continued to run until 1946. The sawmill was then sold to Ljusne-Woxna AB, which continued to run the business with Ewald Larsson as MD until 1951, when it closed down. Ewald then began planning the construction of a new, modern frame sawmill. He passed away in 1956, but his plans came to fruition and the business was run by the second generation of his heirs up until 1974, when the mill was sold. In 1981, construction began, by third generation, on a specialist sawmill for short lengths, ELE Trävaru AB, which still operates in Kilafors.
In 2018, ELE purchased Aven Forsa AB in Forsa, just outside Hudiksvall. Back in 1945 Forsaträ AB set up a circular sawmill offering splitting and edging in Tövsätter, Forsa. The business evolved, and in the early 1960s they began manufacturing wood packaging. This started with simple fish boxes, but soon developed to include specially constructed pallets for nearby Iggesunds Bruk. Today Iggesunds Bruk remains one of the company’s most important packaging customers. Forsaträ AB was bought up by AVEN AS of Norway in 2006 and changed its name to Aven Forsa AB.
As a result of the more recent change of ownership, the company name was changed to ELE Forsa AB in 2020.
Today ELE Forsa AB is a flexible pallet and packaging manufacturer of both standard and specialist pallets and packaging. It also has capacity for producing other wood items, such as wall units for buildings and components for the construction industry.
The ELE Group can now offer a complete value chain from forestry to further processing of timber, all based in Hälsingland. Our forest holdings, all located in the province of Hälsingland, currently amount to just over 11,300 hectares, with active forestry operations on 9,300 hectares. The remaining area (2,000 hectares) is non-productive or set aside for nature conservation. The ELE Group currently consists of Ewald Larssons Eftr. (forests), ELE Trävaru AB, ELE Fastigheter AB, ELE Skog AB and ELE Forsa AB.