Ó. Johnson & Kaaber's history

Ó. Johnson & Kaaber is the country’s oldest wholesale. The company was founded in 1906 by pioneers Ólafur Þ. Johnson and Ludvig Kaaber. During the first decades the company was located in Reykjavík city center and exported Icelandic goods as well as importing necessities from abroad.

The company’s structure and business has changed somewhat over the years. It has sold and distributed a broad spectrum of goods to retailers around the country - everything from toothpaste and chocolate to fishing angles and motor vehicles! But the basis has always been importing and distribution of food and food related products. 

On the production side, ÓJK ran a paper factory for years, processed cod liver oil and chicory root and manufactured jams and packaged bakery blends. Best know of all the company's productions however, has always been the coffee. Since 1924 ÓJK has had its own coffee roastery which in the year 2000 merged with another roastery forming "Nýja kaffibrennslan". 

ÓJK's headquarters have been moved a few times during the last 103 years. The lastest transition was In 2004 when it moved into a new building at Tunguhals in Reykjavik. Around the same time, the coffee roastery was moved to Akureyri in North Iceland. 

More than a century after its founding, Ó. Johnson & Kaaber is still going strong. A nationally well known wholesale which presents and distributes products to all the major grocery markets, restaurants, candy shops, specialty shops and other retailers around the country. Employees are around 40, most of them in Reykjavík but also in Akureyri. The company distributes many well known brands such as: Colgate Palmolive, Del Monte, SCA (Libero - Libresse - Edit), Melrose's, Kiwi, Pågen, Tate&Lyle, Deli France, Kim's, Philips Lighting, Gardena and local brands like Vilkó, Mömmu, Rúbín, Braga, Kaaber and many others.