Jens Ekornes – Norwegian Designer of Stressless Furniture
Jens Ekornes was a Scandinavian furniture designer and innovator from the 1930’s on who founded several companies offering various lines of mattresses and furniture. He would become a Norweigan icon of business and created a business model that has stood the test of time. This article examines his successes in branding his company, Ekornes.
I’ve always been fascinated by Scandinavian furniture designs and back in the 1930’s there was an innovative man from Norway by the name of Jens Ekornes. He started from humble beginnings but would soon grow his small Norwegian shop that made steel spring components into several manufacturing facilities throughout Europe in fifty years time. This article examines the accomplishments of Jens Ekornes and his place in Norwegian furniture design.
Norway is located in what is known as Scandinavia which consists of Sweden,
Finland, Denmark and Norway. This region has a rich history that goes back to early Europe. The Scandinavian region was much sought after as both a strategic land area as well as the fishing and agricultural resources it offered. Many of us when we think of Norway may conjure up images of Norse gods or Viking explorers. Norwegians are just like us with their own colorful history and traditions and one of those traditions is in the crafting of quality furniture.
Jens Ekornes was born in 1908 and is considered a business legend in Norway. Many industrial professionals and business people during his time wanted badly to be associated with him due in part to his contacts both in manufacturing and retail and the success he himself had earned through his various endeavors. Jens Ekornes started out his industrial career building steel spring components for mattress manufacturers in the mid-30’s and become so involved in the process that he attended trade shows to better understand what he was building and how he himself could venture into manufacturing his own product. The Svane® Mattress was born.
He would travel to the United States in 1946 after the end of WW2 to learn more about the American manufacturing process and machinery used that allowed for higher quality and cost control. He would study the manufacturing process and purchased machinery that he would bring back to Norway to begin production of Svane® mattresses. His desire to take an existing product and make it better would soon become a benchmark for Jens Ekornes.
He would continue to move into other manufacturing fields and from around 1947 through 1959 he would begin building furniture components for other manufacturers. This was an important step in the company as it began to lay the foundation that Ekornes would need to move into designing and building home furnishings by having a manufacturing infrastructure in place to accommodate some of his new ideas for furniture. Towards the end of 1959 Jens Ekornes took an important step at J.E. Ekornes AS as he began to produce foamed plastic. This would become a very important part of creating the Ekornes® brand. In 1960, Leif Ekornes and Martin Ekornes became co-owners in a joint stock company that would become called J.E. Ekornes Fabrikker AS.
1966 marked an important date for Ekornes® with its introduction of lounger furniture. Ekornes led an aggressive campaign for its products throughout Norway by sending out information called the “Svane News” to every household in the country. This mailer in effect helped to establish the brand identity Ekornes® to its Norwegian consumers and would put in motion the purchasing of several companies to be brought in to further build on the manufacturing capabilities of Ekornes®.
Jens Ekornes was alive to see the introduction of what would be the most successful furniture product to come from his company and would reach unit sales in the millions across the world. The Ekornes Stressless chair would be introduced in 1971 and would soon become the best selling furniture product in the Ekornes® line. This introduction marks the beginning of the story of Ekornes Stressless chairs but sadly brings us to close of Jens Ekornes the man.
Jens Ekornes would pass away in 1976. His brother, Martin Ekornes would assume control of the company as CEO. It’s hard to say if Jens Ekornes was aware of the footprint he left on Scandinavian furniture and Norwegian craftsmanship. Time is often the true measure of our accomplishments and what type of impact they have on those around us. The legacy of Jens Ekornes continues today with the company that is his namesake. The business model and success that Jens Ekornes enjoyed will be studied for years to come in how to build a better product and find success through product innovation.
