HISTORY

North Trade was founded in 1990 by John Wallmark as a specialist company within the meat industry. The product range in the first few years comprised cuts of beef, lamb and pork. Poultry, veal, venison and horse meat were added later.

The company employed 4–6 people in the first years.

Sweden’s entry into the EU in 1995 brought stability to agricultural policy, creating the conditions needed for long-term ventures in importation of quality meat. North Trade capitalised on this, always in close cooperation with customers.

Imports from New Zealand, Australia and Poland dominated in the first few years. Today, beef from Uruguay and Brazil, chicken from Thailand and Brazil, and lamb from New Zealand, account for the majority of imports from outside the EU. North Trade also has a significant proportion of imports from within the EU, mainly from Germany and Ireland.

Naturkött® was launched in 1996 and has become a successful brand concept, well known and appreciated by the industry, but also by a growing number of consumers. Naturkött® offers beef from South America and lamb from New Zealand.

In 2003, the distribution concept North Trade Direct® was launched, for cost-effective direct purchasing from Europe. This enables North Trade to offer its larger customers quality-assured direct delivery of whole pallets of basic products, at significantly reduced prices.

With the launch of the brand Happy Chef®, North Trade took a step forward in the area of processing. In 2006, a range of processed and pre-prepared meat products was launched under the brand, onto a market with rapidly increasing demand for these products.

In 2008, we became the clear name behind all of our products. Later, we also grouped our products of European origin under the brand John's Selection®. What could be better than naming our quality products after our founder?

Cooperation agreement was signed in 2010 with the Norwegian meat importer KonTiki Foods AS. The agreement applies from 1 January 2010. With this agreement NATURKÕTT ® - beef,lamb and venison products from South America and New Zealand – will now also be offered to consumers in Norway. North Trade bought 20% of the shares  in KonTikiFoods AS. 2011-01-01.

The first employee on Finnish soil was located there in 2001, and in 2007 we opened an office in our sister country. Now we have six Finnish employees in attractive premises in Vantaa, outside Helsinki.

To strengthen our position and ensure that our customers' requirements are met by our suppliers, we opened a purchasing office in São Paolo, Brazil, in 2007. It currently has three employees, working with purchasing, product development and quality control.

The Stockholm office was for a long time located in the abattoir area of Johanneshov, but in 2007 we grew out of the premises and moved to a new spacious office in Sickla, on the eastern side of Stockholm.

The majority share in North Trade is now owned by Procuritas Capital Investors III, which bought founder John Wallmark’s shares in North Trade AB in autumn 2006. Together with its owners, North Trade is working to a long-term growth plan to become an even better partner with the resources to manage the entire chain, from procurement of raw materials to the development of products tailored to industry, caterers and consumers. This is repeated in the section ‘About North Trade’, under North Trade’s business idea.

Institutions, retail trade and industry have always been our target customer groups. North Trade sells and distributes its products through wholesalers and wholesale trading systems. Each year, North Trade delivers over 13 million kilograms of meat to customers in Sweden and Finland. As a result, the company's turnover are about 70 million Euro.