- Fred. Olsen & Co.
Infobox Company
company_name = Fred. Olsen & Co.
company_
company_type = Private
foundation = 1848
location =Oslo ,Norway
key_people =Anette S. Olsen (CEO)
area_served =
industry =Holding company
products =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees =
parent =
subsid =
homepage = http://www.fredolsen.no
footnotes =Fred. Olsen & Co. is a large shipping company based in
Oslo ,Norway .The company was founded by Petter Olsen in 1848. Today it is the holding company that controls the Olsen family's interest throughBonheur and Ganger Rolf.History
The company was founded by Petter Olsen (1821-1899) in 1848 and, by his death, the company had 16 ships with offices in
Hvitsten . Petter's son Thomas Fredrik "Fred" Olsen (1857-1933) or Fred. Olsen, whom the company is named after, took the company from a small business with a fewboat s into a powerful multinational shipping andship building business. He had a vision of providing high quality service on a network of lines, at first domestically and, afterwards, internationally. To do this requiredsteam ship s, of which the first was acquired in 1897. By 1914 the firstmotor ship was put in use on theSouth America line. During theFirst World War 23 of the companies 44 ships sank.After the first Fred. Olsen's death, his sons
Rudolf Olsen andThomas Olsen took over the company. During their leadership, the company expanded, even entering theaviation business with its own airlineFred. Olsen Flyselskap in addition to later partial ownerships ofDet norske luftfartsselskap ,Scandinavian Airline Systems ,Widerøe andSterling Airlines . During thesecond world war the company's ships were in Allied service, though 28 were lost – about half the fleet. Rudolf died in 1951 and Thomas suffered ill-health from 1955, eventually dying in 1969.Thomas's son, also named Fred. Olsen (bornJanuary 1 ,1929 ), is now in control of the company, after becoming director in 1955. In the early 1970s Fred. Olsen entered the offshore business, with Dolphindrilling rig s and part ofSaga Petroleum . The Saga shares were sold in 1991 while Dolphin is now part ofFred. Olsen Energy . Fred. Olsen also had a major share in theconstruction andengineering company Aker and currently ownsTimex Corporation .The company has also periodically entered the tanking business, operating a total of 40 ships since 1920. In 1973 it sold its tanking interests but reentered the industry again in 1986, creating the publicly listed company
First Olsen Tankers in 1993 that was repurchased in 1999.Fred. Olsen Renewables has been involved inwind power since 1997 with wind farms inNorway ,Sweden ,Ireland and theUnited Kingdom . In 1980, it was involved inNimslo , a company making 3D cameras, which later went bankrupt.Fred. Olsen is today owned by
Anette S. Olsen , the fifth generation of the family and daughter of Fred. Olsen. She took over ownership of Fred. Olsen & Co. in 1995 and has since been CEO, though Fred. Olsen has remained Chairman.Companies in the Fred. Olsen Group
*
Bonheur
*Comarit
*First Olsen Tankers
*Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines
*Fred. Olsen Energy
*Fred. Olsen Express
*Fred. Olsen Lines (defunct)
* Fred. Olsen Production
*Fred. Olsen Renewables
* Ganger Rolf
*IT Fornebu (minority ownership)
*Norges Handels og Sjøfartstidende (minority ownership)
*Tusenfryd
*Timex External links
* [http://www.fredolsen.co.uk/ FredOlsen.co.uk] in English
* [http://www.skundberg.no/oystein/ymist/tvillinger/ Olsen and Burns look alike?]
* [http://www.fredolsen.es/ Olsen Spanish interests]
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