Silva compass

Silva compass, or Silva of Sweden, aka Silva Sweden AB is an outdoors products company, most known for their high-grade compasses and other navigational equipment including GPS tools, mapping software, and altimeters for aircraft. They also offer a marine range. The company's founders invented the hugely popular orienteering or protractor compass used around the world for outdoors navigation.

Silva Sweden AB is a company created and based in Sweden that exports worldwide, and operates in numerous countries. They have marketing companies in Sollentuna, Sweden, Mantes-la-Ville, France, Friedrichsdorf, Germany, and Livingston, Scotland. In 2006, Silva was acquired by the Finnish Fiskars Group. Silva and Gerber are Fiskars' main outdoors brands.

Because Johnson Outdoors Inc. owns the Silva brand name in North America, Silva Sweden AB compasses and other products are sold under the Brunton, and Nexus labels in that market. The aim of Silva Sweden AB is to "Design, develop, produce and market world-class quality products on a global basis for users within the Land and Marine markets".

History

Silva Voyager compass (Brunton 9020)

Silva Sweden AB created their first compass in 1928, and established their company in 1933.
Below is a Chronological timeline of important dates in the history of Silva Sweden AB:

• 1928 Gunnar Tillander invents the first orienteering (protractor) compass.
• 1932 The Silva company is established in December 1932.
• 1946 Björn Kjellström begins Silva U.S.A. operations as The Silva Company (later Silva, Inc.). Compass assembly factory established in La Porte, Indiana. Silva Orienteering Services established to support the sport of Orienteering in North America.
• 1948 Kjellström founds Silva Ltd. of Canada.
• 1958 Silva Production AB expands with new plastics manufacturing operations
• 1960 Silva Production AB expands with new tooling and manufacturing operations
• 1964 Silva Type 15 (aka Ranger) deluxe model compass introduced, with mirror sighting system, adjustable declination, and liquid-damped needle.
• 1973 New manufacturing plant, Instrumentverken in Sollentuna. Johnson Wax Associates (JWA) acquires Silva, Inc. (Silva USA).
• 1979 Silva USA compass manufacturing facility in La Porte, Indiana is closed.
• 1980 New Office building for Silva Production AB. Silva USA, now owned by JWA, moves its headquarters to Binghamton, New York.
• 1981 Silva Production AB launches its first electronic instrument design
• 1981 Acquisition of different lines of sporting goods for Swedish sport market by Silva Production AB.
• 1982 Production of first electronic instruments by Silva Production AB.
• 1985 Johnson Worldwide Associates (JWA) purchases Silva Ltd. of Canada.
• 1984 New Warehouse.
• 1986 Enlargement of Silva Production AB manufacturing plant.
• 1986 New showroom for Silva Group products.
• 1989 Launching of largest investment program ever for The Silva Group. Market - production - research & development.
• 1990 Inauguration new premises Silva France
  • 25 million compasses produced
  • New subsidiary Silva US Marine
  • New manufacturing plant in Livingston, Scotland
  • Acquisition of precision instrument producer Sisteco Finland
• 1992 Silva Group launches its first satellite navigator
• 1995 Björn Kjellström dies. The Silva factory in Haninge reinaugurates
• 1996 Silva Production AB acquires Brunton, Inc., resulting in the largest compass manufacturing concern in the USA, and terminates its compass distribution agreement with Silva USA/JWA.
• 1997 JWA (later Johnson Outdoors, Inc.) files suit to retain exclusive rights to the Silva brand name in North America.
• 1998 As part of a new marketing plan, Silva Production AB of Sweden distributes its original Swedish-made compasses under the Brunton and Nexus labels in North America. In turn, Brunton-designed compasses such as the Brunton 9020, 8040, and Eclipse are labeled with the Silva or Silva Voyager brand for sale in areas outside North America.

Timeline of introduction of models

• Ca. 1955: The Ranger - Type 15T

North American Trademark Dispute

After the founding of Silva USA in 1946 and Silva Ltd. in Canada two years later, both affiliates were later acquired by Johnson Wax Associates, later Johnson Camping, Inc., and by 1985, Johnson Worldwide Associates (JWA). From 1980, JWA had imported Swedish-made compasses manufactured by Silva Production AB for sale in North America.

In 1996, a decision by Silva Production AB to end sole distribution of its Swedish-made Silva-brand compasses by Silva USA led to a court battle the following year between JWA and Silva Production AB (Silva Sweden AB).

In 1998, JWA and Silva Production AB of Sweden reached a settlement whereby JWA retained the exclusive right to sell compasses under its Silva trademark in North America, made by unnamed manufacturers. JWA also retained the North American rights to some product names such as Ranger, Polaris, 1, 2, 3 and others commonly used and recognized in the U.S. and Canadian markets and made popular during the time Silva Production AB was manufacturing Swedish-made Silva compasses for JWA in North America. JWA was eventually renamed Johnson Outdoors, Inc.

For its part, Silva Production AB/Silva Group retained the right to manufacture and sell compasses under its Silva trademark outside the United States and Canada, as well as market its Swedish-made compasses in North America under the Brunton and Nexus brands. The Swedish firm also retained the right to state on Nexus packaging and in the Nexus catalog that Nexus compasses are made by Silva Production AB, but did not retain the right to advertise this fact.

Current activity

Today, The Silva Group consists of the parent company, now called Silva Sweden AB, together with its subsidiaries Silva Ltd. in the United Kingdom, Silva France, Silva Deutschland, Silva Far East, and The Brunton Company (Brunton, Inc.) in the USA and Canada. The core activities of the Silva Group consist of design, development, manufacture of compasses for land and sea and sales of compasses, GPS and outdoor instruments, headlamps, binoculars and other electronic navigation equipment.

Silva range

Silva Expedition 4 compass

At its facility in Haninge, Sweden, Silva manufactures a wide variety of portable compasses for recreational, hiking, scientific, and marine uses. The company produces a range of models, from simple protractor or baseplate compasses like the Expedition 3 and Expedition 4 to more advanced models such as the Expedition 15TDCL, as well as sophisticated sighting compasses including the Expedition 54 (in North America, the Brunton 54LU) and the Silva SightMaster line. Some models, such as the Silva Ranger Pro 25TDCLE, have been equipped with built-in battery-operated lighting for use at night or in poor light. In keeping with its origins as a company, Silva also offers its Orienteering Series of Jet, Spectra, and NORCOMPASS models optimized for orienteering and adventure racing competition.

Silva Group has a long history of supplying variants of their general-use compasses to various military forces of the world, including the defence forces of Great Britain, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden. In particular, the Silva 3 Militaire 6400/360 and 4b Militaire NATO 6400/360 baseplate compasses, the Model 54/6400b (aka 4/54) prismatic compass, and the 15T Militaire 6400/360 mirror/optical-sight compass are in wide use. All standard models have luminous lighting; models with a 'b' (beta) suffix are fitted with self-illuminating tritium lighting.

Besides compasses, Silva manufactures several other types of outdoor and navigational equipment. The range includes GPS receivers, wind meters, headlamps, binoculars and other accessories.

See also

• Brunton, Inc.
• Navigation
• Johnson Outdoors, Inc./Silva USA
• Suunto

External links

• Silva Sweden