Nordiska Kompaniet
AB Nordiska Kompaniet, short NK, is a department store chain in Sweden with offices in Stockholm and Gothenburg.
The house in Stockholm
The department store in Stockholm Hamngatan was opened in September 1915. The architect of the house, Ferdinand Boberg had to rely on one study trips in the U.S. and in Europe inspire the department stores Harrods in London (1894-1903), Galeries Lafayette ( 1893) in Paris and the KaDeWe (1905 ) in Berlin him as model were used. The design language shows clear influences of German Jugendstil. The floors are, as with its European models, arranged around a glass-covered courtyard, which has still preserved its interior with marble and brass. This is also Sweden's first mechanical escalator was installed. NK should be the modern department store in the high-end class and it was.
History and Organization
The company AB Nordiska Kompaniet was founded in 1902 by a merger of the retail company of K. M. Lundberg and Joseph Leja. Founder was Josef Sachs (1872 - 1949), who his father Simon Sachs was succeeded as head of the company Joseph Leya in 1893 and also from 1915 to 1937 as Director General of the Stockholm house had (his portrait bust is located on the ground floor ). Benjamin Leja, the maternal grandfather of Simon Sachs had come as a German - Jewish immigrants to Sweden.
NK's well-known logo was designed in 1902 by David Blomberg and has not changed since. During different periods of expansionary had stores in among other things, 1908 in St. Petersburg, 1913 in Moscow and 1920 in Buenos Aires. Also in Sweden, started new branches: 1960 in Farsta, 1963 in Malmö, Gothenburg 1971 and 1974 in Täby. But, as in Germany were the big department stores in Sweden economic difficulties. In 1976 the company merged with its strongest competitor Åhlén & Holm, later it became a subsidiary of the construction company NCC AB. As a result, all the stores were, with the exception of the head office in Stockholm and the store in Gothenburg, closed. In 1991 NK which was eventually rented to a pure real estate company under the logo of NK premises to various independent trading companies ( franchising).
The house in Stockholm is one of about twelve million visitors annually, the Gothenburg about three million. Both houses together have approximately 1,200 employees. • Annual peak are NK's Christmas window displays in Stockholm.
On 10 September 2003, the then Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh was in the NK Stockholm assassinated and died the next day.
NK Art and Design
From the early 1930s until about 1970, NK great importance for the Swedish art industry and Swedish designers. In NK -Bo ( residential) under Lena Larsson began the careers of several young talents, such as Stig Lindberg, Yngve Ekström and Bertil Vallien. For NK Textilkammare ( Textile Division) Astrid Sampe created numerous legendary fabric samples.