Pressalit celebrates 70 years

In 2024, we celebrate 70 years of Pressalit. Since the company was founded in 1954, many exciting things have happened in our history. Below we have compiled a number of the most important points in our timeline.

Pressalit was formed in 1954, but the idea behind it came about two years earlier

In a workshop in Esbjerg, two carpenters are shutting up shop for the day. But then a cat bolts past them, knocking over a pot of glue in its haste. The glue runs down the hot radiator and lands on the sawdust on the workshop floor. The result is a material with a promising potential to become toilet seats. A potential that chemical engineer Nielsen confirms after having examined the material more closely. Two years later, the company Pressalit is born.

The reason that Ry remained Pressalit's headquarters is because one of the carpenters came from there. People knew him and the local bank was happy to lend him money. The money was invested in a small, low-rise factory building, located in a fruit plantation, and some modest production tools, such as a food mixer from a bakery for mixing powders in. So it started small. Very small. But the company was christened - without false modesty - Dansk Pressalit Industri.

In order to sell the toilet seats, the company got in touch with someone who knew the plumbing industry inside out: Martin Jensen (grandfather to Kim and Dan Boyter) was employed as salesman in 1954 and quickly became the co-owner. Since then Pressalit has grown into the company it is today.

The 2010s

New brand structure

In 2001, Pressalit decided to launch a new brand structure to underline the vision of having a unified company. The new logo had to show that Pressalit's different business areas were all part of the same family.

CSR People Prize

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has for many years been an integrated part of Pressalit, and this was rewarded with the "CSR People Prize", which is awarded to companies that have made special efforts in the CSR area.

Pressalit Care offers new and exciting measures

In 2012, private customers would be able to find Pressalit Care's height-adjustable kitchens directly in the shops. A new collaboration agreement with HTH ensured that people with disabilities would be able to go into a normal kitchen shop and buy a flexible kitchen specifically for their needs.

The 1990s

New location and new quality requirements

At the end of the 1980s, the decision was made to move the Aarhus-based office employees to Ry. Thus began the construction of a new head office in Ry, which would be ready in 1991.

Responsibility on the agenda

In the mid-90s, Mogens Boyter was contacted by the Minister for Social Affairs, who had heard that Pressalit treated their employees particularly well. Mogens Boyter could only confirm this. This led to the formation of a network that would develop a new collaboration between companies and the public sector around social co-responsibility.

Third generation takes over

In 1998, Mogens Boyter passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly. Pressalit was taken over by the third generation of the Boyter family: Kim, Dan and Erik Boyter - with Kim as CEO. This marked the start of a new era in the company's history.

The 1970s

Business grows

The toilet seat Scandinavia from 1975, designed by Sigvard Bernadotte and Acton Bjørn, became a major success and represented a breakthrough for Pressalit. The export share now rose to above 50% and, in subsequent years, Pressalit established its first foreign subsidiaries.

Pressalit Care is born

In the mid-70s, a recently qualified architect contacted Pressalit in connection with his final thesis: bathroom products for the physically disabled. Pressalit was open to the idea and the new product range was called Pressalit Rehab, later Pressalit Care. This would later become a business for Pressalit.