Step by step..
In the small community of Agunnaryd, in the middle of the Småland forests, furniture manufacturing and carpentry have a very long history. This also applies to staircase manufacturing at ATAB-Trappan AB.
The foundations were laid as long ago as 1924, when Karl Magnusson and his family moved into the district.
Karl Magnusson was an experienced carpenter who came to build several houses around the village and also managed to help the farmers around with various types of carpentry, including stairs. Sometime in the early 1950s, Karl Magnusson bought the Liljeholm property and built a carpentry workshop there. The main production became stairs, windows and doors. The site is the same as where ATAB’s modern production is located today.
In 1954, his son Gösta takes over the business from his father. He has 3 employees to begin with and primarily manufactures kitchen fittings. After 1962, more and more stairs were made, and the business was named “Magnussons Trappsnickeri”.
The business was taken over in 1972 by Frid Lidfors, and the company name was changed to “Agunnaryds Trappfabrik AB” The first years up to 1980 were characterized by a boom in the industry and new staircase factories were built throughout the country. However, house building stagnated and many of the approx. 240 staircase manufacturing companies in Sweden had to look for other production. Agunnaryds Trappfabrik looked abroad and took its first tentative steps into the notoriously difficult German market in 1982. Thanks to high quality, responsiveness and competitive prices, the company succeeded better than many others in establishing itself in Germany, and by the early 1990s as many as 80 custom-made stairs per week were being sent to our southern neighbor. At the same time as the German market began to slow down, work began on establishing contacts in several new markets in addition to Sweden.
In 2002, ATAB-Trappan AB, which was now the name, was taken over by four of the employees. ATAB-Trappan AB was now established and successful not only in Sweden and Germany, but also in Denmark, England, Austria, Russia and Japan. The recipe for success was the same as once in Germany, i.e. quality, responsiveness, but one could now also add ‘design and personality’ to the recipe for success. An individually designed piece of staircase furniture finds its buyer, whatever the market.
ATAB-Trappan AB looks forward with confidence, joy and excitement to another 80 years of development and success, where the legacy of Karl Magnusson’s furniture craftsmanship can be carefully passed on.