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Private company

Ax:son Johnson family

Business family in Sweden

The Ax:son Johnson family (Swedish pronunciation: ) is a prominent Swedish business family, controlling the Axel Johnson Group and Nordstjernan.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

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Axel Johnson 1936
Photo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons4

The Ax:son Johnson family (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈâksɛlˌsɔn ˈjǔːnsɔn]) is a prominent Swedish business family, controlling the Axel Johnson Group and Nordstjernan.2

Corporate structure

Ax:son Johnson family sits at the top of its group. 5 entities, 4 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

What it owns

What Ax:son Johnson family reports owning in its annual reports to the SEC: buildings, land and equipment, real estate and locations, investments, intangible assets and inventory, at the end of its latest fiscal year and a year before.

Stakes and holdings (Wikidata)

Things Wikidata records the company as owning, with the share when stated.1

The story

In 1873, Axel Johnson founded the trading company A. Johnson & Co., the predecessor of today's Axel Johnson AB.

In 1890, Axel Johnson formed the Nordstjernan shipping company, which expanded rapidly. He managed to break the international coffee monopoly, known as the "coffee conference", a strictly controlled pricing cartel for the transportation of coffee to Europe. Axel Johnson built under favorable external conditions the company that was to form the basis of the Axel Johnson Group, and which was later developed by his son, Axel Ax:son Johnson (1876–1958) and following generations.

From Wikipedia’s article on Ax:son Johnson family, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Subsidiaries and ownership

Also owns

From Wikidata.1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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