Jøtul was founded by
Oluf Onsum as
Kværner Jernstøberi (
Kværner Foundry) in the outskirts of Christiania (now
Oslo) in 1853. While stoves initially were the main products, the company had diversified by the beginning of the 20th century, when it produced
turbines and lumber equipment. As the heating appliance manufacture decreased in importance, the production was spun off in 1916 and sold to Herman Anker, one of Kværner's managers. He founded Jøtul AS in 1920 as a sales organization for its products. The sales stagnated during the
depression in the 1920s, and 36-year-old Herman Anker died in 1927, leaving it to his successor, 34-year-old Johannes Gahr to modernize and eventually salvage the company. By 1935, the turnaround had succeeded, and the firm acquired its modern name. By the 1960s, stoves using liquid fuels, especially
kerosene had supplanted wood-burning appliances, a trend that was only reversed in the 1970s, partly due to the
1973 oil crisis. Jøtul used this opportunity to gain a strong international foothold and drastically increased its exports to continental
Europe and
North America. The Gahr family sold the business to
Norcem in 1977, and a period of international expansion began, as Jøtul acquired a number of foundries and importers abroad. This period lasted for approximately ten years, but came to an end during the recession in the late 1980s, when Jøtul once again focussed on the domestic market. However, it has resumed its international diversification in the 21st century, and today its products are sold worldwide. In March 2018, Jøtul was acquired by the global private equity firm
OpenGate Capital. Along with management, OpenGate has crafted a plan to boost performance and eliminate inefficiencies in Jøtul's operations. In addition, OpenGate Capital is actively searching for add-on targets to further drive Jøtul's growth. In November 2018, OpenGate and Jøtul completed the add-on acquisition of AICO, an Italian and French based pellet-burning stove leader. ==Products and markets==