Karl Nars (13 August 1874 – 21 January 1952) was a well-known industrialist in

Jakobstad Jakobstad (; fi, Pietarsaari) is a town and municipality in Ostrobothnia, Finland. The town has a population of () and covers a land area of . The population density is . Neighboring municipalities are Larsmo, Pedersöre, and Nykarleby. The ci ...

in the first half of the 20th century. As of 1934, Nars was the owner of the steampowered sawmill in Jakobstad ''(Swedish: Jakobstad ångsåg)''. Karl Nars and his sons founded and developed the Nars Industries ''(Swedish: Narska företagen)'' into a significant industrial group, mainly in the areas of timber and

wood processing Wood processing is an engineering discipline in the wood industry comprising the production of forest products, such as pulp and paper, construction materials, and tall oil. Paper engineering is a subfield of wood processing. The major wood pro ...

, as well as in

plastics Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their Plasticity (physics), plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be Injection moulding, moulded, Extrusion, e ...

manufacturing. His son

Walter Nars Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...

founded Nars Ab in 1943.

Oy Nars Ab

Having originally made their fortune with timber and forestry products, the Nars family became pioneers in Finnish plastics manufacturing. In 1948, they were first in Finland to manufacture calendered PVC foils, and soon expanded the product range into plastic hose, profiles and floor coverings at their rapidly expanding manufacturing facilities in

. After having been hit by an acute economic crisis in the early 1960s, Oy Nars Ab was taken over by the

Kansallis-Osake-Pankki Kansallis-Osake-Pankki (KOP) was a Finnish commercial bank operating from 1889 to 1995. It was created by the fennoman movement as a Finnish language alternative to the largely Swedish language bank, Suomen Yhdyspankki (''Swedish: Föreningsbank ...

bank, and subsequently sold to a competitor ''

Wiik & Höglund KWH Group Ltd (in Swedish KWH-koncernen Ab, in Finnish KWH-yhtymä Oy) is a Finnish family-owned company based in Ostrobothnia that manufactures and markets abrasives and plastic products ( water traps) and provides forwarding and logistics serv ...

'', who were also active in plastics manufacturing. The fusion of the two companies developed into today's KWH Plast, a subsidiary of

KWH Group KWH Group Ltd (in Swedish KWH-koncernen Ab, in Finnish KWH-yhtymä Oy) is a Finnish family-owned company based in Ostrobothnia that manufactures and markets abrasives and plastic products ( water traps) and provides forwarding and logistics serv ...

, one of Finlands leading companies in

abrasives An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away by friction. While finishing a material often means polishing it to gain a smooth, reflec ...

and

logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

services.

References

KWH Group web-site
1874 births 1952 deaths People from Pedersöre People from Vaasa Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Swedish-speaking Finns Finnish businesspeople {{finland-bio-stub