The Brands:
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Icelandic American works with many of the best
known brands in Iceland. In fact, many of the best known brands in
the world. Among others, brands from the world known companies,
Procter & Gamble and Philip Morris.
Check out our brand portfolio
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COMPANY HISTORY
COMPANY FOUNDER Bert Hanson and
R.K.Jónasdóttir met in
Hollywood California,
where Bert was a real estate broker, and they decided to marry in
Iceland August 1961.
Bert met a number of Icelandic Companies, who were interested to
sell their products in California, amongst them was a company
called ORA.
(Ice-Am bought it in 2002).
Some others in the fish industries were parting ways at the
time, from the monopilized industry, and that challenged Bert to
contact a client of his after returning to California, who was
the owner of a distribution company, dealing with frozen fish.
He called to a meeting some of his colleague's, and they were
very interested and hoped that Bert Could deliver directly to
them, rather than dealing through the monopoly.
At that point it was necessary to be in Iceland and Bert decided
to assign his real estate company in 1963 to his people for a year
should it not succeed.
Bert's efforts were repulsed by the monopoly
with a few
exceptions.
Bert elected to form his own company
that of import and export calling it
Icelandic American.
Established April 15th 1964.
First Contact With PM And P&G
In 1964 Bert visited New York and he contacted Philip
Morris and
Procter & Gamble A/S amongst others for possible representation.
That materialized at a later date.
The First Goods And Vision
Bert selected to enter the cosmetic field and shortly thereafter
created a manufacturing plant. Representing companies called
Pierre Robert
from Sweden, Nivea from Denmark and thereafter
Revlon in
1980. Bert used his experience in advertising and promoting
from his career as a real estate broker in California and made those products
successful.
Manufacturing Cosmetics
The cosmetics production increased steadily becoming the No. 1
in that category in Iceland. We could compete better and
advertise more, as there were price controls and very high
duties that did not apply to us, as we worked it from Raw
materials. We closed production in 1994 because of new
legislations.
Bert's vision to ten fold sales, was to place Toiletries into
the Grocery Trade, with the objections of the cosmetic trade
that was not practiced in those days. It proved to be correct,
and all parties sold more.
Memorable 1975
1975 was a memorable year, we moved into our newly built
premises factory, offices all in one place. Egill Ágústsson, our
managing director joined the Company that year. We surrounded
ourselves with the best people, trained all to achieve our goal
that was the envy of our competitors in order
to be the best in
the business.
We started working with Philip Morris introducing
Marlboro, from
whom we learned a great deal as to promotions. We acquired as
well a few Alcoholic Beverages that went hand in hand.
The Year 1980
In 1980 while store checking we realized that we were on far too
few shelves. We decided to change our portfolio and import
various items that are daily used and sold in Supermarkets. The
first products were Gerber,
Bahlsen,
Oetker, and Campbell’s. But
we needed bigger items.
The big changes took place in the 90's when we secured Procter &
Gamble A/S exclusively.
They had been with 6 importers. We had a
small part of theirs up to that time, mainly
Pampers developed
from scratch, and some detergents Fairy and
Bold.
Early 90’s - P&G
We started to build the P&G brands, selecting 3 items per year,
working after P&G policy, hired very proficient staff and
accomplished wonders, getting great market shares. We motivated
our staff with positive attitudes to be the best they can be.
This has been our No. 1 asset to success.
We got professional help from P&G and contributed by applying
local knowledge of the market. It was a win-win situation. Since
then we followed the same procedure, and accomplished great
market shares in all categories.
Mid 90’s - BKI Coffee
We were approached by the Danish Co. BKI-Coffee and started from
scratch to build that coffee brand. We applied our true and
tried methods, learned from past experiences and it worked
wonders. Promotion moneys up front, and we very soon had good
market shares in a Mega Category.
The Year 1995
In 1995 we got into collaboration with Allied Domecq
establishing a
Joint Venture Co.
The Company concentrated on importing and selling alcoholic
beverages. Top Brands like Ballantine's,
Beefeater, Tia Maria,
Kahlua,
Courvoisier, Tequila
etc.
Allied Domecq had worked with 5 other import companies and they
selected us as their partners. The company was successful and
profitable from the start. We added to our portfolio strong
brands such as: Jack Daniel's,
Southern Comfort,
Miller Beers, Bacardi-Martini
and MUMM Champagne.
The Year 2005
In 2005 Pernod Richard bought
Allied Domecq and added most of
their portfolio brands such as Jameson, Chivas Regal,
Glenlivet,
Jacobs Creek wines, plus more.
We developed Tommasi, Concha Y Toro wines to be big players in
our portfolio. The company of SAB Miller
entrusted us with their Pilsner Urgell and
Grolsch Beers.
We as well added Finlandia Vodka from Brown & Foreman, to our
portfolio.
Success Continues Under a New Name
In the year 2006 Icelandic American bought all shares in the
Joint Venture Co. under
a new name, Mekka Wines & Spirits Inc.
LOCATION
We build and moved in 1975 to our present location at Tunguháls
9-11.
The company is now working from 5 Locations,
total 21.000 square meters.
The latest addition
was to build a much needed freezing compartment
to house 1,100 pallets.
Leaders
The shareholders are Bert Hanson, Ragnheiður Jónasdóttir,
Ragnheiður Hanson and Egill Ágústsson.
Bert Hanson is the
director/owner and Egill Ágústsson the managing director.
New Millennium
Late 1999 we acquired an Icelandic Manufacturing Company,
FRÓN Biscuits.
In early 2002
ORA a canning Company was bought.
In December 2003 another
biscuits company was bought, Kexsmiðjan.
In March 2004 the biggest addition to date,
was added to the portfolio,
MYLLAN-BREAD Inc.
The largest
production company in Iceland, producing bread, cakes and
pastry.
In 2001, ICEAM with joint venture partnership, opened a
T.G.I. Friday's restaurant to great success, followed by
3
Burger King stores in 2004.
In 2005 we acquired joint ownership of Askja, a prominent car
dealership, importing cars from Mercedes Benz
and KIA.
In 2004 we introduced a new department in our organisation that
of:
INDUSTRIAL AND CATERING DEPARTMENT.
Today in 2010 we have grown by leaps and bounds, with some of
the top companies we acquired to work with.
FUTURE
We have merged with various Companies to operate
Lean &
Mean to be extremely competitive.
We have different divisions to keep focus on products that
make
us SUCCESSFUL.
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