The story
Holmen was originally called Mo och Domsjö AB (MoDo), a Swedish company created in 1874.
Carl Kempe (1799-1872), a Pomeranian-born merchant, originally partnered with his brother-in-law, but was from 1836 single owner of a sawmill in Mo, at the river Moälven, near Örnsköldsvik in northern Sweden. Carl Kempe later established a steam-powered sawmill at Domsjö on Moälven. The latter has been running as an independent company called Domsjö Fabriker since 2000, and in 2011 it was acquired by India's Aditya Birla Group.
The company Mo och Domsjö AB was created in 1874 by Carl Kempe's sons from these holdings, among several other industries controlled by the Kempe family. It was led at various times by the brothers Bernhard (1830-1908), Wilhelm and Frans Kempe (1847-1924) and remained in the control of the Kempe family for most of the next century.
Originally producing and exporting timber, the company moved into pulp and paper at the end of the 19th and early years of the 20th century and into wood-based chemicals during the middle part of the 20th century. The name was usually abbreviated to Modo and has since 1963 through sponsoring given its name to the ice hockey team Modo Hockey.
The company was merged with the Norrköping-based industrial company Holmens Bruk AB in 1988 under the name Mo och Domsjö AB.
In February 2000, the group changed its name to Holmen AB.
In June 2016 the newsprint mill in Madrid, Spain, was sold to International Paper.
From Wikipedia’s article on Holmen (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5