Amalia Eriksson – Inventor of the Candy Cane, and Sweden's First Female Entrepreneur?

After a steep climb next to lake Vättern, I stop for a well-deserved lunch in Gränna, home of the candy cane. But first, I decide to investigate who actually invented it. I therefore turn to Marie Lundberg at Grenna Museum, to help me sort this out.

– Our museum is mostly about Andrée Expedition, but the Gränna inhabitants more or less demanded Amalia to have her own exhibition here at the museum.

The Amalia she refers to is Amalia Eriksson – inventor of the candy cane and perhaps Sweden’s first female entrepreneur.

– At least she was very early, but perhaps also the first one.

Amalia’s husband died in dysentery only four days after Amalia gave birth to twins. Only one of them survived. Amalia now had to provide for herself and her daughter Ida.

– During the 1800s, women were still excluded from the business sector, but could be allowed to be self-employed for social reasons. Amalia therefore applied to the register office to "pursue bakery handling of coarser and finer varieties, for instance the so-called ‘polkagris’”. Thankfully, this was a different time than today.

Polkagris is the Swedish word for candy cane, and directly translated it means “polka pig”.
– “Polka” comes from the at-the-time popular dance, and “gris” means “sweet treat”. This was something you gave your beloved one during a dance, hence the word. In the certificate, it says “polkagris” in citation marks, which indicates that the word did not really exist up until then. We believe she made the word up.Amalia began baking her sweet candy on demand, and the business started growing. For the money, she bought a house and had around 2 MSEK in today’s money on her bank account.– It was tough, being a widow at those times, but she actually made a fortune of her invention. And later on, her daughter Ida took over the business.

I tell Marie about the Google Doodle that was made in her honor on her 190th birthday, and that I was part of creating it.

– Oh, was that you? We were wondering where it came from. We posted it on our Facebook page. It is really fun whenever Amalia is acknowledged.

I explain I have to bike away but first I take the time to gear up with som polka pigs, of course.

Syllerstorpett – A Different Adventure

On a gravel road, 8 km outside of Ödeshög, and 62 km outside of Linköping, there is a place called Syllerstorp. Here, Barbro and Mats Erlandsson live and have made fun and games a living. I am roughly two hours late after losing my bike key and experiencing headwind the entire day. Regardless, I am welcomed with friendliness.

– Welcome! We were wondering what happened to you. The last group left an hour ago, it was a coupe of girls from Norrköping that really had a blast. Too bad you couldn’t experience that yourself.

Mats inherited the farm, and originally the barn was full of cows.

– We had cattle, but it was not enough to make living out of it.

When the couple decided to dig out a pond in the garden, things started changing.

– A colleague wondered if he could visit the pond and have a barbecue. Of course we said yes. But when he arrived, he asked if he could drive the tractor. Both Barbro and I are farmer’s kids, so we did not see the joy in that, but we did not see a reason to why we should say no either. Of course we said yes, again. 

This was the start of a new era: Out with the cows, in with games and motor vehicles, one stranger than the other.

– Since we started this, 20 years ago, we have gradually expanded. Today, we have three barns full with vehicles.

Mats shows me into the barn, and another, and yet another – filled with things such as three fire trucks,  a ”two-way drivable” car , an ”ass driven” motorcycle, or a ”seven man-controlled” bicycle. But these are only a few.

– I think we have somewhere between 70 and 80 activities to choose from. When a group comes, they choose three motor activities, and three muscle activities. The muscle activities can be everything from skeet shooting and canoe to team building activities and climbing.

After showing me each vehicle, Mats adds ”this is a little bit odd”. And he is very right. But people seem to appreciate the oddity, Syllerstorpett’s guests come from all over.

– In the beginning, most guests came from Östergötland. But nowadays it’s mostly Gothenburg and Stockholm. At times there are also guests from further away – a while ago we had a group of Japanese people here. They really loved it.

But housing an arsenal of motor vehicles is not just play.

– Many of the machines I use for other purposes in between the groups. With the excavator, I oftentimes dig roads, and the fire trucks are perfect for filling up swimming pools with water.

Syllerstorpett’s tagline is ”A different adventure”. And it really is. But I, myself, am in the midst of another different adventure. I thank Barbro and Mats for having me, and continue my trip.

Jörgen Wonisch – The Air Traffic Controller Who Went Green

After my meeting with Lina, I hurry in the pouring rain all the way out to Norrköping airport for my next meeting with Jörgen Wonisch, CEO and founder at Greenman. I enter through the back door – or rather the loading platform – but it serves it purpose and I can roll all the way in. Some employees are laughing, they seem to have a good time, and they show me the way to Jörgen’s office.

– Welcome, please have a seat. Coffee?

We breathe for a moment, and then Jörgen starts to tell his entire story. And it’s a good one. He grew up in Skåne with a Swedish mom and a dad from Czechoslovakia. After high school, he decided to become an air traffic controller, stationed in Norrland.

– I wanted to broaden my horizons and stayed in Norrland for three years. No one wanted to be there, neither did I. Since I had been loyal, I could choose where to move next. I was offered Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Karlsborg. But for different reasons I turned them down for Norrköping, and I’ve been here since.

In parallel to the work at the airport, Jörgen registered a firm.

– I didn’t really have a reason to it. I thought, ”If something turns up, it is at least nice to have the paperwork done”. That’s typical me, I am really structured. Sometimes, that can be a negative thing when it comes to my entrepreneurship.

Instantly, I see what he means. We get interrupted by one of his coworkers, who enters the door and asks a question that is high above my level of competence. Jörgen thinks for half a second, and then he answers with military precision, not wasting a word. Maybe it is his old job as an air traffic controller that has made him like this. He continues.

 – I got in contact with an Englishman that lived in Södertälje. He sold office supplies, and I asked him if I could sell his products. And I could. Five weeks later, his company went out of business. I looked at the list of products, and got interested by one item: environmental friendly toners for printers. I guess you can say that Greenman sort of was founded there and then.

As his side business grew, Jörgen hired a few people and continued to work at the airport.

– I worked nights in the control tower and drove by the office on my way home in the morning. After that, I went home and invoiced all the business that had been faxed to me from the day before. Then I slept for a couple of hours, drove by the office on my way to the tower, and had another shift at the airport. And so it continued.

In 2005, Jörgen decided to start working with Greenman full-time. But he still worked a lot.

– After a while, I realized I had been working too lot. Well-being should not be compromised with. Let me show you a thing.

We walk outside the office, and Jörgen shows me a room with a massage chair, sauna, and Jacuzzi.

– Studies show that sitting in a massage chair for 15 minutes, three times a week, increases your well-being. That is important to us. We do other things for our employees as well, for instance we send all full-time employees to a self-leadership course for three days.

We continue the walking tour and Jörgen shows me the storage of toner cartridges. Today, Greenman is one of the largest companies in the industry. The business idea is to collect used cartridges, change some parts, refill them, and then sell them.

– Today we have a number of own brands, together with a recycling system. We collect around half a million used cartridges each year. We are very proud of this, and this is also one of the reasons to why we have achieved the Nordic ecolabel Svanen. This is a competitive business, and we always try to innovate ourselves. Later this fall, we will have a new release that we hope and believe will change the industry.

I ask, but I am not allowed to write too much about the new release, but I can tell you this: it sounds promising! I thank Jörgen for the meeting and get back in the saddle for my next adventure.

Lina Skandevall – Norrköping's Media Queen

After the first day’s 121 km with no food, 64 km from Nyköping to Norrköping was really nothing. Even though the weather gods tried to mess with me, I arrive at Tunnbindaregatan 8 in Norrköping, 7 minutes before my lunch meeting with Lina Skandevall, founder and owner of the company with her own name.

The company is situated in a beautiful old building called Tegelborgen, a historic brick house that now houses a creative collective. I park my bike beneath ornamented handrails and ceiling paintings and walk the stairs up to Lina’s office.

– Hi, oh you’re already here? Sorry, I almost forgot! I have a big deadline for The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise later today. Tonight, one of the largest banks in town has an opening party, that I have to sneak out from in order to catch my Iceland flight in Stockholm. And in between all of this I have an interview with Driva Eget and an external client meeting. And of course you. Come, let’s go grab some lunch.

As it seems, being Lina Skandevall is hectic. But she manages to squeeze a lunch with me into her schedule.

– People ask me if I am cloned five times, but somehow I can find the time of doing all the things I want. I am very efficient at what I do, and I think that is almost a prerequisite, being an entrepreneur.

Lina’s entrepreneurial journey started as a nineteen year-old in a small village outside of Växjö, Småland. She and a friend had forgotten to apply for summer jobs, but that did not stop them: The community center in the village was rarely used, so they decided to transform it into a summer café.

– The people in charge of the community center were just happy if something happened, so we just started it, without realizing what we did. For some reason we thought that the local newspaper Smålandsposten would be interested in our new café, and they were. They came the very first day, and we didn’t even have any guests. We had to bring our families, and we told them to act like customers and not tell the journalist their surnames. We were two blond girls who sang songs from Småland. It seems like it was somewhat of a hit, and we had the café for two summers.

After high school, Lina wanted to move away from the little village. She ended up in Norrköping, studying environmental technology.

– To be honest, I wanted to become a landscape architect, but I didn’t fulfill the requirements. Environmental technology was close enough.

During her studies, she realized that she had a talent for writing.

– I don’t know if you remember Lunarstorm, but I used to have a blog back then. When I started studying, I decided to stop writing, and I posted something like “I’m through with this” on the blog. Random people then contacted me and begged me to continue. This was before the likes were invented, so I hadn’t even realized that I had readers, and even less that people thought it was that good.

This made Lina think, and she sent a chronicle about gynecologists to the local newspaper. And they loved it. She immediately started to work as a entertainment journalist, in parallel to her studies.

– I was twenty-five and had really fun. I interviewed celebrities and went to parties all the time. The following years I worked with print, TV, radio – you name it!

After having worked with virtually all media in town, and also a short period with environmental technology, she was recommended to start her own firm.

– People around me saw how I worked and realized that “hey, you should become your own”. And so I did.

Today, 11 years later, it seems like Lina is still having a blast at work. Among other things, she is in editor-in-chief of the interactive traveling magazine GoTraveling.

– It is an awesome job, because I love traveling. This year, I have been on eleven press trips. My colleagues and I are very good friends, so we have the privilege of traveling together as a job – how great isn’t that? My old friend, the one I founded the café with, recently reminded me of what I said when we went to Gran Canaria for the money we earned from the café. Apparently I said something like “what if you could travel as a job”, and here I am today!

The phone rings, and Lina realizes she had forgotten the interview. She excuses herself and asks the journalist to wait for another five minutes. We’re finishing up our coffee, as Lina greets the fourth person during this lunch. It seems like she knows them all very well.

– Well, it has been my job to meet people for more than 10 years, and I have become something of a local celebrity. This year, I will make the New Year’s speech for 20 000 people. It’s fun, but I am already now nervous.

It doesn’t seem like Lina Skandevall is nervous. But after all, she has been in the business for quite some time and seems to be something of Norrköping's own media queen. I thank her for the lunch, and hangs around in the office for another half an hour, when Lina is rushing to her next meeting.

My next meeting is in an hour.

In today's UNT

Upsala Nya Tidning wrote a piece about my journey. Read it in Swedish below.