 The company was founded in 1918 by the technically minded (1895–1979), as a mail order business based in the Swedish village of Insjön, Dalarna.Initially, only manuals and technical literature were sold, thus allowing people who lived in rural communities to obtain literature that would otherwise be unavailable.He opened his first shop in Insjön in 1926, but it was not until 1989, when the company opened a store in a shopping centre in central Stockholm, that it expanded into the retail business.