The community of Karlholm has an industrial heritage reaching back to the early 18th century with iron works and saw mills. The Karlit board factory isn't of that vintage but started up in the late 1930s and shut down for good in 2012. The later part of its life was unstable with several different owners, among them Ikea who stepped in as a part-owner in 1995 and later became full owners. Karlit produced MDF board for Ikea until 2004 when they stepped out and the board manufacturing was moved to Poland. But production for the Ikea continued, now by manufacturing complete sets of furniture, among them the futon Hermes. Eventually the making of Hermes and else was moved to the Czech republic and by that Karlit was made bankrupt.
The entire property was sold on an executive auction in spring 2013. The only bidder was a entrepreneur who got it for the price of a family car with the initial idea to rent parts of the factory for storage. After realising that the property came with three kilometres of waterside the idea grew into what is now known as Karlholm Strand.
Again it's all thanks to my friend Pavel Matveyev that I got the opportunity to experience this place before it was completely demolished.
