Orkla ASA

Orkla traces its origins to Norwegian mining, with roots at the Løkken mine, and the modern company was formally established in the early twentieth century as Orkla Grube-Aktiebolag before its first public listing on the Oslo exchange [5]. Over the following decades the group moved away from mining and industrial materials and reshaped itself into a branded consumer-goods company, a transition visible in a series of acquisitions and divestitures during the 2000s and 2010s.

A visible marker of the group's personal-care manufacturing is its factory in Falun, Sweden, operated through Orkla's home and personal-care arm. The company says the site employs 160 people and produces a range of household and personal-care brands including HTH, Lano, Bliw, Define, Dr. Greve, LdB and L300 [3].

Within beauty and personal care, Orkla owns several brands spanning sun protection, deodorants and antiperspirants, skin care and hair care. From its 2017 purchase of the Danish company Riemann it holds P20, a sun-protection line, and Perspirex, an antiperspirant brand [4]. Through its home and personal-care division it also owns Dr. Greve, Define, LdB, Lano, Bliw, HTH and L300, several of which are produced at the Falun factory [3]. The group's wider personal-care and care portfolio additionally includes SAWE Skin Science, PREPPd and Bats.

These beauty and personal-care labels sit alongside Orkla's much larger food, cleaning, supplement and beverage businesses, which fall outside the scope of a beauty encyclopedia.

Orkla's beauty and personal-care footprint has grown chiefly through acquisition. In 2017 Orkla Care acquired the Danish Riemann Holding A/S, owner of the P20 sun-protection and Perspirex antiperspirant brands, consolidating the business from 1 June 2017 [4]. In 2022 Orkla Health acquired 100 percent of the shares of Healthspan Group Limited, extending the group's health and consumer-goods reach [5].

The same acquisitive pattern is visible across the wider group, including moves outside personal care. Orkla acquired a controlling interest in the silicon and materials company Elkem in 2005 and sold it to China's BlueStar in 2011 [5]. In 2012 it listed and spun off the biorefinery company Borregaard on the Oslo Stock Exchange, and in 2018 it announced the acquisition of the Finnish Kotipizza Group [5]. Taken together, these transactions trace the group's shift from an industrial conglomerate toward a portfolio of branded consumer companies.

Orkla ASA is a public company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, trading under the ticker ORK with the ISIN NO0003733800 [5]. The group presents itself as an industrial investment company that holds and develops consumer-facing businesses rather than operating as a single-brand manufacturer [2].