KJELL AND MÄRTA BEIJER founded the Beijer Foundation through a donation in 1974. Since its establishment, their foundation has contributed to scientific research and culture in Sweden for more than four decades.
Kjell and Märta first met at Svenskt Tenn. Ms. Märta Sahlqvist (Later Mrs. Märta Beijer) served as a business assistant to the founder of Svenskt Tenn, Estrid Ericson. One day, Kjell Beijer visited the store. He had just bought an apartment and needed help decorating it. Märta was the one to assist him, and that was the start of their relationship. The couple married in 1941 and settled at the Säby Estate in Järna, where Anders Wall's uncle worked as a manager. That is how Anders Wall met Kjell Beijer at the early age of eleven, although at the time no one could have guessed what the future would bring.
Kjell Beijer was born in 1899 into a family that had long experience in trade and shipping, not least with the trading house G&L Beijer. In 1915, Kjell Beijer's uncle, Waldemar Beijer, founded a Stockholm branch of the trading house, which much later was to become Beijerinvest.
In the early 1920’s, Kjell Beijer got a job with his uncle in Stockholm, and quickly advanced to cashier director. The branch became an independent company with Kjell Beijer as the main owner. The company traded in industrial goods such as coal, chemicals, and steel. For a long period, G&L Beijer was the Swedish agent for the Luxembourg-based steelworks group Arbed.
In 1964, Anders Wall became the CEO of G&L Beijer Stockholm with Kol och Koks (coal trade). He had worked for 10 years in various positions at the company. During Anders Wall's management, G&L Beijer sold off the coal trade, and developed the company into Sweden's leading business in the construction material trade. In 1967, the company changed its name to Beijerinvest. One of several significant deals was the purchase of the listed company Pribo, which had interests in Pripps breweries and the food trade, and also held a large stock market portfolio. The shares that Kjell Beijer owned in Beijerinvest thus came to represent a considerable fortune.
