Contura Steel AB – Tradition in development since 1735
Contura Steel AB, with it’s roots going back to 1735, has since 2015 been a family-owned company operating in Mörrum, Blekinge. We develop, produce and sell our own stainless steel products and also do contract manufacturing, OEM. Our main products are kitchen sinks, which we have manufactured since 1927, washbasins, water locks and outdoor kitchens. All are sold under the Contura and Olofström brands. What we offer you is:
Customer Service — Here you will meet our experts with over 30 years of experience. They will help you find the right product and quickly and flexibly handle changed requests.
Made in Sweden — All production, from the metal we buy to the production of our products, is in Sweden. Good for the environment, the local community and our well known flexibility
Quality— Primarily using local suppliers gives us full control over the manufacturing process. We are ISO 9001 certified.
Professionalism — We keep our promises: high integrity, ethics and moral is in the company’s DNA and we of course follow applicable laws and regulations.
Social responsibility — You buy a locally manufactured and environmentally sustainable product where we take responsibility for the environment and society in which we live. We are ISO14001 certified.
Knowledge — Customization and flexibility through our experienced and committed employees that have great professional expertise and versatility.
Working at Contura
Want to try something new and continue your development? Contura Steel has the perfect mix of the small family business’s familiarity and flexibility with short decision paths combined with a larger company’s structure and routines. At Contura you work broadly with many different tasks, but you also have the option to become an expert in some of the areas we work with. To enjoy working with us you need to appreciate to work in teams and like to learn new things and to challenge yourself a little.
We have noticed the very big challenge in supplying the manufacturing industry with the right competence, especially in our region. To inspire more students to consider manufacturing industry as a future employer our contribution is to offer students an insight into what it can be like to work in the manufacturing industry. We do this by offering summer internships, if we have enough work during the summer period. Our ambition is that you, as a summer intern, will be able to try different jobs in our production, not only to clean the warehouse and paint lines. We want to give this opportunity to as many as possible and therefore it may happen that, if there are many applicants, we offer somewhat shorter summer job periods to each individual.
If you would like to see what it could be like to work with us, you can follow some of our summer interns thoughts when they (uncensored) blogg about their job experiences in our blog; summer blog (in Swedish).
Interested in working at Contura Steel? Even if there are no jobs announced, we encourage spontaneous applications. Email your application with a personal letter and CV to patrik.jarlhage@conturasteel.se.
Sponsorship
Since we operate in a small region, it is of extra importance for us to support the local community and the local environment as far as possible. In addition to choosing local suppliers as much as possible, we primarily sponsor initiatives that benefit the local community and the local environment. The activities that are supported must be non-profit and have high ethics and morals, for example:
Broad and non-exclusive youth activities that benefit young people’s development and future opportunities.
Activities aimed at protecting the environment, primarily locally.
Activities that support socially vulnerable or otherwise disadvantaged individuals.
Local initives that favor the development of the region in which Contura Steel operates.
The Contura Steel story
Our story begins with the establishment of an iron mill, Olofströms Bruk in the vicinity of Olofström, in 1735, and it continues via stainless-steel kitchen sink production in 1927 to the relocation of the sink operations to its current location in Mörrum in 1962. The sinks were sold under the well-known brand Olofström until the early 1990s when it was replaced by the also familiar Ifö brand. Throughout history, our operations have been part of many well-known companies such as Olofströms Bruk, Svenska Stålpressnings AB, Separator, Alfa Laval, Volvo and Ifö to name a few. Since 2015, we have been on our own as a family owned company and aim to develop our historical heritage in the best way possible.
1735 Blekinge’s first industrial ironwork was built at Holje creek, initially based on the extraction of marsh and sea ore in the area. In September 24, Olofströms Bruk’s letter of privilege was signed and the business in Olofström won official status.
1759 Olof Ohlsson took over the entire operation, which resulted in a great boost. He ran the ironworks for about 20 years and it is this entrepreneur who gave the name to Olofström’s Bruk and eventually the community, Olofström, that grew up around it.
1870 enameled vessels began to be manufactured following the company’s efforts during about 100 years to produce different products.
1885 the trademark Olofström was registered at the Royal Swedish Patent and Registration Office. The brand is one of the oldest in the country still in use.
1887 Olofströms Bruk was taken over by Svenska Stålpressnings AB, a subsidiary of Gustaf de Lavals AB Separator. Production of separators started.
1926 the company began manufacturing parts for the newly started company Volvo’s first car project “Jakob”. It was the start of a long collaboration.
1927 the production of stainless steel sinks and cookware started, and it was probably the first production of stainless steel sinks in Northern Europe. At the same time, the first series-production of Volvo parts started.
1930 the name Olofström became nationally known when the Stockholm exhibitions exclusive apartments were equipped with sinks from Olofström.
1960 production of parts to the Volvo Duett was moved to the newly built factory in Mörrum. At the same time, kitchen products began to be produced in Mörrum.
1962 the production of sinks and bathtubs was moved to Mörrum as all resources in Olofström were needed for Volvo. The Mörrum factory was then one of the world’s largest producer of kitchen sinks.
1969 Volvo Cars acquired the site in Olofström from Alfa Laval and the name was changed to Volvo Olofströmsverken. The same year, the Mörrum factory was purchased by Euroc, who also owned Ifö-verken.
1972 Ifö aquired Motala sink production and moved it to Mörrum. The volume in Mörrum was doubled to 400,000 sinks/year
90’s Ifö ceased using the Olofström brand for the kitchen sinks and replaced it with Ifö
2013 Contura Steel AB was formed and was responsible for the development and manufacture of all Ifö’s stainless steel products in Mörrum
2015 Contura Steel AB was aquired by the family owned company Småris Holding AB
2016 the Scandinavia counter top sinks were introduced, the first major kitchen sink introduktion in twenty years
2017 the classic Olofström countertop sink was introduced, revitalising the brandname after 30 year
2019 Introduction of our own brand name “Contura” on all of our products. The Ifö brand is no longer used
Social Engagement
High ethics, moral and integrity and to take care of the society in which we operate is a natural and obvious choice for us at Contura Steel. That is why we try to choose local suppliers when we cannot do something ourselves, even if it is not always the cheapest way. We want as much as possible of what we purchase to be Made-in-Sweden. This also facilitates for us to have control of the entire production chain, we minimize our environmental impact and contribute with jobs in a region that needs it.
The Environment
We work actively to minimize our environmental impact and even though the stainless steel, which is included in almost all of our products, is a finite resource with a relatively high effect on the environment, the total environmental impact is low if we look at the entire life cycle of our products. Let’s follow the life cycle of our main product, a countertop kitchen sink sold and used in Sweden: