Denofa

Denofa AS, established in 1912 as De Nordiske Fabriker A/S, is a Norwegian industrial company. It has produced oil, proteins and fatty acid for the food processing industry, the fodder industry and the pharmaceutical industry. Starting with whale oil as a basis for refinement, the use of soy later became more widespread. The company was established on 10 May 1912. The first board consisted of P. Bogen, Joh. Gmeiner, Hugo Wetlesen, Carl Dietrich Hildisch, Helge Offerdahl and Wilhelm Nicolaysen. The first production facility was located in Fredrikstad, planned and constructed by Carl Fredrik Holmboe. In 1923 Holmboe became chief executive officer. De-No-Fa launched a cooperation with the soap company Lilleborg in 1925, and eventually acquired it as a daughter company. Later, a 50% stake in the company was bought by Unilever, where Carl Fredrik Holmboe was chief engineer prior to his period in De-No-Fa. Holmboe left the CEO position in 1946. In 1959 Unilever's stake was bought by Borregaard. In 1960 De-No-Fa and Lilleborg was merged to form DeNoFa Lilleborg. The company owned Stabburet from 1969 to 1985. The year after that, Borregaard was acquired by the Orkla Group.