Eldon Heritage
Initially building electrical installation equipment and selling the latest invention, the radio, to the people of their hometown in Nässjö, Sweden, a young married couple called Karin and Josef Johansson (later changed to Randholm) set up their business in 1922.
The original company was called Elekto Ljus & Kraft, name that was changed to AB Eldon-Verken in 1948. Eldon literally means “devices for electricity”, which seems an appropriate name for a company manufacturing enclosures to protect highly sensitive electrical, electronic and data & telecommunications components.
Although the first products were very different from today’s range, Josef began manufacturing a junction box that he designed for use with electric ovens. More and more products were added every year, with the company constantly concentrating on innovation.
The company continued to expand steadily, and quickly outgrew its original production plant. The workforce was mainly made up of local people, so the new factory was built close by.
In 1963 the first acquisition was made with the take over of their biggest competitor, Elektriska Osterman AB. Four years later the Eldon-Osterman companies have fused under the common name of Eldon AB.
In 1967, after totally dominating the local market, Josef and Karin’s son, Gunnar Randholm, started to expand the company abroad, by opening sales offices in a number of European Countries, starting with the UK and Belgium.
The first factory to be built outside of Sweden was opened in 1970 in the North of Holland. The modern city of Drachten was chosen as the centre for large enclosures. Production levels quickly grew, and a new factory was opened in 1977.
The North of England was chosen for the site of the next factory, which opened in Rotherham during 1985, followed by Martos in the South of Spain in 1990.
In 1999 Eldon AB was sold to EQT Partners, who embarked on an ambitious expansion plan of modernising the manufacturing units, by investing heavily in new technology and automating the production process.
EQT also completely overhauled the organizational structure and introduced a new system of “Functional Management”, to help speed up decision-making and reduce the amount of bureaucracy.
In 2006 the new management team acquired the majority shareholding from EQT, and started building the latest factory in Romania.
With over 80 years of experience building enclosures, Eldon has come a long way from junction boxes for ovens. Although none of the original family is involved any longer, Eldon maintains the family firm feeling, and many employees have been working for the company for over 30 years.
Eldon may have changed, and will probably change again, but we think Karin and Josef would be very proud of today’s Eldon, and would be really contented with the job they started in 1922.
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