The company was founded in 1984 by Stefan Borgström and Sven Fagerlund, both of whom had previously worked in the industry. The original business concept remains the same to this day: meeting the need for a total supplier of industrial electronics solutions and products, both in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe, and marketing the company’s own services and products. We began with a number of customers who wanted to keep working with us in our new venture – Tetra Pak and Värmebaronen in particular.
Tetra Pak asked us to quote on a number of products which at the time were made by other suppliers. We were also given the opportunity to help develop new products. Värmebaronen entrusted us with developing products to be included in their new boilers. Today, we produce all the printed circuit cards used in their products. While working with these customers, we also aimed to establish ourselves on Malmö’s industrial scene, i.e. reaching users of electronics, primarily in the surrounding region.
In 1982, we were involved in setting up a business group, Elektronik i Söder (originally known as Scania Elektronik), together with 17 other local electronics companies. This association continued until 2009.
In 1986, we moved our development, finance and marketing functions from Docentgatan to our production site on Musketörsgatan. At that time, we had around 15 employees. We also broke into the market for frequency converters, i.e. electronic speed control for asynchronous motors, via a customer who required specialist control systems for their products (checkout conveyor belts). This led us to develop a range of products which we sold via retailers in Sweden and Norway. The early 1990s were tough years for ONROX, just as they were for all other Swedish businesses. However, we managed to survive without having to lay off any staff.
We moved premises once again, this time to Krusegränd 42, behind the offices of the Sydsvenskan newspaper. By now, we had around 17 employees. We started working towards ISO 9001 certification in 1993. Everyone in our organisation was involved in the process, with staff writing draft versions of their own procedures. We achieved ISO 9001 certification in 1996. We also developed our own materials production control system (MPS), since none of the systems on the market met our needs. We didn’t want to change all our procedures to suit an off-the-shelf system, so we developed our own system to suit our procedures.
We started to use surface-mount technology, investing in a pick and place (surface mount) machine. This brought us new customers and the opportunity to adapt many of our products in line with more modern technology. In 1997 we bought a property on Jägersrovägen – we had outgrown our existing premises and had been looking for a suitable property for around two years. We spent six months renovating our new premises, finally moving in at Easter 1998. The premises cover a total area of 4,250 m², but we only used 2,500 m² of this (1,750 m² of which was used for warehousing and production). This area is ESD secured, i.e. fitted with static electricity and electrostatic discharge diverting floors. By this stage, we had around 25 employees.
We now had the opportunity to expand: our premises were large enough, and the market was growing. We also invested in a new fully-integrated business system, Concorde XAL, with built-in MPS functionality. This made purchasing materials, administration and production planning in particular considerably easier. In 1998, the year in which we celebrated our 15th anniversary, we were named Malmö Enterprise of the Year by local business groups and the Swedish Association of Free Entrepreneurs. The move to Jägersovägen brought industry recognition for ONROX, and our growth really started to gather momentum.
We took on one person a month for four years – roughly 50 new employees in total. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, we had a total of 75 employees. By spring 2002, our production area had become too small, so we brought the rest of the property into use. Our total production area now occupied 3,500 m². We also invested in two new assembly machines, a test system, a new screen printer for solder paste, a new soldering furnace for surface-mounted circuit cards, a new soldering machine, a new switchboard, etc. We have invested a huge amount of resources in rationalising and streamlining our production. We are now established as one of Sweden’s leading electronics producers, and have become a respected name within the industry.
This places great demands on us in terms of streamlining our production, as well as taking a professional approach towards our customers, our suppliers and, not least, our staff. During the early 2000s, we received a number of additional certifications and awards, including ISO 13485 certification (a complement to ISO 9001 for medical technology products), the e-mark (a manufacturer status for the production of automotive electronics), Gazelle company (Dagens Industri’s recognition for companies which have grown rapidly while still remaining profitable) and AAA (D&B’s highest credit rating). In autumn 2003, we purchased a manufacturing unit from one of our former customers, ANOVO Nordic AB.
Ten new employees joined ONROX in connection with this acquisition, bring the total to 85. A new business system, Axapta, was installed in 2006, allowing for even more effective production planning, more cost-effective purchasing, considerably better monitoring and control of production, etc. Naturally, we fine-tune our procedures and working methods constantly in order to keep improving and make our entire organisation more efficient. Further investments are planned, such as equipment and routines for lead-free soldering, an automatic optical inspection (AOI) system, Flying Probe (a computerised testing system for small and medium-sized production runs) and additional automated assembly equipment.
A new chapter in ONROX’s history began in autumn 2005, when the company was sold by its owners, Stefan Borgström and Sven Fagerlund, to Midway Holding AB. The Midway Group includes 13 companies, with a total of around 1,000 employees and an annual turnover of approximately SEK 2,300 million. The choice of Midway was mainly due to the fact that the owners wanted the company to continue to operate largely unchanged in future. Midway allows its companies to work without significant intervention, which was ideal for us, while still being willing to invest if necessary and justified. Obviously, being part of the Midway Group gives us more muscle and greater security for our customers, our suppliers and, not least, our employees. We look to the future with a great deal of confidence.
Additional investments were made during 2006 and 2007, including two Mydata My 12E units with Hydra Speedmount, another EKRA X5 screen printer, an OptiCon Advanced Line 4M AOI system and a number of tools for testing and inspecting surface-mounted circuit cards in particular. The OPS (Onrox Production System) was also launched. In brief, this means that production is broken down into cross-functional groups with responsibility for customers’ products and deliveries.
2008 saw the installation of two new MyData My100DX-14 automated assembly machines, an SPI solder paste inspection system, a Rehm VX734 remelting furnace and various equipment for more streamlined, more efficient production.
During the winter of 2008 and the spring of 2009, Onrox – together with industry as a whole – was affected by the economic crisis and the subsequent recession. We are taking advantage of this involuntary dip in our workload to launch our internal project, OPS (Onrox Production System), carry out management training, evaluate various computer-assisted tools and employ an Executive Vice President/Technical Manager. Once again, we are able to look to the future with confidence.
