DAMPA_75_years_of_quiet_design_ENG - Flipbook - Page 27
Det Fyenske Trælastkompagni had itself been formed in
1929 from the merger of two existing timber supply companies. The longest-established of these was C.T. & P. Jensen’s
Trælastforretning, which had been founded in 1858. The
other was Wilh. R. Maegaards Trælastforretning, which was
a subsidiary of the larger Odense business of Wilh. R. Maegaard, otherwise participating in a variety of diverse wholesaling activities, mainly in the agricultural sector. It had
entered the timber trade in 1915 when it took over a small
local sawmill to increase its portfolio of activities.
Wilh. R. Maegaard was an offshoot of the very large Elias B.
Muus wholesaling conglomerate, founded in 1829 in Kerteminde and initially involved in the supply of corn animal feed.
By the early twentieth century, it owned subsidiary businesses located across a wide span of Danish territory and
beyond.
It was Elias B. Muus’s eldest son, Thorbjørn, who engineered the merger of C.T. & P. Jensen and Wilh. R. Maegaards Trælastforretning. This was followed by a further
merger in 1923 involving the absorption of the biggest competitor, A/S Odense Savværk (Odense Sawmill).
Muus’s growing involvement in timber supply from 1915
onwards was opportune because Odense was rapidly
industrialising; in 1917 the Copenhagen shipowner A. P.
Møller – who subsequently founded the famous Mærsk Line
– established the Odense Steel Shipyard there to build cargo ships for his and other shipping companies. Although
steel was the prime material used, shipbuilding also involved
using a great deal of wood for decks, parts of superstructures and interior fixtures, fittings and furniture.
Moreover, around Odense, there were numerous small
industries making furniture and other skilfully-crafted timber
products. The timber trade was only one aspect of the construction supply industry in which Muus invested at that
time; others were Odense Kalkværk (Odense Limeworks),
which was purchased in 1917, and Odense Cement, Rør og
Tangstensfabrik (Odense Cement, Pipe and Tungsten Factory), which was acquired in 1924, following which the two
were combined. When, six years later, Det Fyenske Trælastkompagni was formed, Muus retained two-thirds of the
shares, and therefore a controlling interest, in the combined
business.
The Muus family remained as its owner when the production
of Dæmpa acoustic panels began and for 19 years thereafter.
27
