Mårdskog & Lindkvist wasportat founded by Tage Mårdskog and Fredrik Lindkvist in Huskvarna, Sweden, in 1961. Before founding the business, Tage and his wife sold sausage at a kiosk, whereas Fredrik was working in the wholesale sector for baking products. In that period, Sweden was in great need of wholesalers, as there were only three major wholesalers in the whole country.
One of the wholesalers was from the region and invited Tage and Fredrik to start a new wholesale business to cover the increasing demands of the market. The two founders saw great growth potential from this opportunity and thus decided to accept the invitation and start their own business named after their respective family names. The two founders complemented each other well. Tage was a natural salesperson, while Fredrik was good at finance and accounting. Under their collaboration, they have grown their businesses rapidly from first using Tage’s house as the warehouse to later building warehouses in Jönköping and Norrköping. The revenue has also grown from around six million SEK to approximately 700 million SEK today.
The business delivers various produce and products to their customers, mostly restaurants, in the southeastern part of Sweden, including Jönköping, Linköping, Norrköping, and Kalmar. Although it is challenging to enter larger cities such as Stockholm, Göteborg, and Malmö, where major wholesalers (with revenue of more than 60 billion SEK) dominate, Mårdskog & Lindkvist has a strong foothold in the southeastern area where the founding family has strong and long-lasting relationships with their customers. The firm has today around 150 employees (during the high season).
The business is now completely owned and managed by the Mårdskog family after Fredrik retired in 1976 and Tage bought out his shares, around one-third of the company shares. Meanwhile, Tage has started engaging his two sons, Reine and Thommy, into the business. Reine entered the business earlier than Thommy by working as a driver. Thommy entered the business after graduating from university and having worked outside the family business for a few years. As Thommy was more interested in taking over the leadership position than his brother, their parents decided to give Thommy more shares than Reine when they transferred the business to their children.
Later, when Reine retired, he split his shares with his two sons, Thomas and Andreas, both of whom are currently working in the business. Thommy has also engaged his son, Marcus, into the business. In March 2024, Thommy, the largest shareholder, transferred the CEO position to his nephew, Thomas, the second largest shareholder, while continuing to work as a senior manager in the firm. Andreas has only a minority share and works in a non-managerial position in the firm. Marcus does not have any shares yet, but he holds managerial responsibility in the firm.
