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Nilfisk

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Nilfisk Group
Company typePrivate
IndustryManufacturing industry
Founded1906
HeadquartersBrøndby, Denmark
Key people
Jonas Persson (President & Chief Executive Officer)
ProductsCleaning equipment and full cleaning systems
RevenueEUR 918 million (2014)
Number of employees
5,500
ParentNKT Holding
Websitehttps://www.nilfisk.com/
The Nilfisk factory in Frederiksberg, Denmark (1954).
One of the early Nilfisk-models (English commercial from the 1930s).

Nilfisk is a supplier of professional cleaning equipment in both industrial, commercial and consumer markets.[1] The company is headquartered in Brøndby, Denmark, with sales entities in 45 countries and dealers in more than 70 countries. Nilfisk has manufacturing facilities in Hungary, Italy, Germany, Denmark, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and China. It has approximately 5,500 employees worldwide. The company's core businesses are the supply of industrial and commercial cleaning machines and professional high-pressure cleaning equipment. Nilfisk-Advance also markets vacuum cleaners and high-pressure cleaners to consumers. The Nilfisk-Advance Group's main global brands are Nilfisk, Nilfisk-ALTO,[2] and Viper. The largest regional brands are Advance and Clarke. The company is owned by NKT Holding.[3] Nilfisk is a part of the United Nations Global Compact.[4]

History

Nilfisk was founded in Denmark in 1906 by Peder Andersen Fisker (1875–1975) and Hans Marius Nielsen (1870–1954) as Fisker & Nielsen. Originally the company produced electrical engines as the basic component in ventilators, kitchen elevators, drilling machines and, later on, the Nimbus motorcycle. The Nilfisk vacuum cleaner of 1910, weighed 17.5 kilos. Fisker took out a patent on this invention and later bought out Nielsen. The vacuum cleaner outsold the other products, and the other engine products were gradually phased out. By 1954, the company had sold 1 million vacuum cleaners.

In 1989 NKT Holding, listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, bought Fisker & Nielsen. In 1994 Nilfisk A/S acquires Advance Machine Company and in 1998 Nilfisk A/S is renamed Nilfisk-Advance. In 1998 Nilfisk-Advance merged with Euroclean/Kent[5] and between 2000 and 2011, Nilfisk-Advance acquired CFM, ALTO, Ecologica, United States Products, Viper, Hydramaster, Egholm, Plataforma and Jungo making Nilfisk-Advance one of the largest suppliers of professional cleaning equipment worldwide.[6] In 2015, Nilfisk-Advance changed name to Nilfisk [7] in order to create alignment with the company's global product brand, Nilfisk.

Cultural references

Nilfisk is featured in a famous song from the Belgian singer Daan. The song 'Swedish Designer Drugs' opens with the sentence "I'm shot in the back by Nilfisk addicted cowboys". The clip shows the iconic Nilfisk vacuum cleaners.

References