Gösta Larson retired as CEO and passed the baton onto his son, Jan Eric Larson. This also marked the start of further aggressive measures to establish Camfil as a full-service supplier of air filters worldwide.
Camfil remained innovative and unafraid of comparison. From this point forward, customers would be able to see Camfil filters perform live. In the laboratory in Trosa, it was possible to test competitive filters against Camfil filters.
Camfil received the opportunity to acquire Sofiltra in France from Saint Gobain. The number of employees increased from 600 to 1000 and the turnover from 400 to 750 MSEK, thus doubling the size of Camfil.
Camfil formed Camfil Component AB entirely devoted to constructing a fully-automated production line to manufacture filters for Philips. An analysis indicated the OEM market for small high-efficiency HEPA filters would grow very rapidly. The contract with Philips appeared to be the perfect springboard. However, the filters were very similar, but the type of business was totally unlike the rest of Camfil’s operation. Camfil learned an expensive lesson while at the same time enhancing its knowledge of flow-oriented and highly-automated manufacturing processes.
1999
The bottom line for the upcoming millennium: Camfil now had 12 production sites, 26 subsidiaries and 41 agents in 54 countries - strategically clever with continuous economic growth!
USA
