Facit

Facit (Facit AB) was an industrial corporation and manufacturer of office products including furniture. It was based in Åtvidaberg, Sweden, and founded in 1922 as AB Åtvidabergs Industrier. Facit AB, a manufacturer of mechanical calculators, was incorporated into the corporation the same year. In 1932, the first ten-digit calculator was manufactured by Åtvidaberg Industries, it was named FACIT and became a great success. In the 1950s, Facit introduced a mascot character, a short, smiling man with a wizard's cap called "Facit Man". The character first appeared in the instruction manuals for Facit's calculators. The character lasted into the 1970s. By the early 1960s the corporation had a total of 8,000 employees with subsidiaries in over 100 countries, and the subsidiary Facit had come to dominate the business of the corporation. In 1965 the entire corporation changed its name to Facit AB. The following year, it acquired its competitor Addo, which was maintained as a separate subsidiary. Under the popular leadership of Gunnar Ericsson, Facit focused increasingly on its mechanical calculators, branding, marketing and global expansion. This strategy was referred to as "The New Deal". Throughout the 1960s Facit experienced an increased growth and a high profitability. While mechanical calculators were Facit's main product, they produced other office and early computing products like typewriters, paper tape punches, and floppy disk devices. However, electronic calculators were rapidly improving in performance and gained larger market shares over time. In 1965, 4,000 digital calculators were sold globally. The next year, the same figure had reached 25,000 and in 1967 they accounted for 15 percent of the market. Facit sought to handle this disruptive threat by collaborating with the Japanese firm Hayakawa (Sharp). The electronic calculators were manufactured in Japan and during 1965–67 Facit had exclusive rights to sell them through its global market organization...