Silva Sweden: set for growth

After a twenty years absence, the original Silva compass is back on store shelves all over North America. 

  • "Now, when you walk into a store to buy a Silva compass that is exactly what you get," says Silva Sweden CEO Richard Jägrud, above.

  • Since 2018 the Silva products you see in stores in North America are from Silva Sweden AB. This hasn’t always been the case. For many years the Silva brand name was owned by JWA/Johnson Outdoors, which had acquired Silva Inc (USA) in 1973. In 1996, after Silva Production (Sweden) acquired Brunton, Inc. (a Wyoming based manufacturer of technical outdoor gear that eventually sold in 2009 to Fenix Outdoor AB, another Swedish outdoors company), it terminated its compass distribution agreement with Silva USA/JWA.

  • Photo courtesy of Silva of Sweden

  • The year after, JWA filed suit to retain exclusive rights to the Silva brand name in North America and a settlement was agreed upon. Compasses sold under the Silva name in America were henceforth made by unnamed manufacturers, none affiliated with the Swedish original.
    Just before the new Silva Sweden CEO started his new job in 2017, he and an owner’s representative left for a meeting with JWA, and the name changed to Johnson Outdoors. “On my quickest trip ever to New York City, and preceding my official start date with the company, I and a board member took off to approach the then-owners of the brand in North America,” says Silva CEO Richard Jägrud. “It was critical for the long-term development of the company to once again gain access to the brand name of the world’s largest outdoors market.”

  • After successful negotiations, in 2018 the original Silva compass was back on store shelves all over North America. “We have a new distribution agreement with Liberty Mountain and were received with open arms by the stores. Now, when you walk into a store to buy a Silva compass that is exactly what you get. We’re already on track to double our sales of compasses in North America while also introducing our line of world-class headlamps to the market. We can finally bring our full product range all over the globe.”
    For more info, see www.silva.se

  • Ulf Barslund Martensson/I>