Dedikeret til kulturen siden 1926 - og stadig med samme mission

Aage E. Grønlund
On 15 February 1926, my grandfather Aage E. Grønlund took over the bookshop at Østergade 44 in Copenhagen, which at the time was called “Bogstuen” after Ellis Lohse (former authorised signatory at Høst & Søn). Around the same time, he also established Grønlund's Publishing House, which from the beginning published poetry books, children's books, photo books and postcards, and later also picture calendars with photos from all over the Kingdom. My grandfather is a well-known man in the book industry and the shop is characterised by the many industry professionals who regularly pop in. He loves travelling - and for a while he even had a travel agency that organised group trips to Spain. In 1955, the publishing house moves to Pilestræde 2.

Jørgen Grønlund
My father took over the publishing company in 1960 after attending Niels Brock and serving at sea as a radiotelegrapher. He is a skilled photographer and receives great recognition for his photography work for Lademann's travel encyclopaedias in the mid-70s. His photography became an important part of the publisher's product - and in the years that followed, the publisher published catalogues and postcards for countless castles, manor houses and other tourist attractions.
The bookshop was sold in 1973 to Jytte and Thomas Axelsen, who at that time had run the shop with my father for a few years.
In 1971, the publishing house moves to Vestergade 23-25 in Copenhagen and at one point employs around 15 people. “Grønlund in the Centre” is the slogan. And customers come from near and far to plan the next year's productions.
Every summer, my father travels around the Danish countryside with the whole family. My mum Agnete and my two brothers Thomas and Peter and I live in the caravan, which is set up around the country's castles, manor houses, zoos and amusement parks and serves as a base for our father's photo work. The films are chilled in the fridge, lunch is served at the dining table and the family is together in the evening.
My father knows how to create the postcards, catalogues, slideshows and other souvenirs that customers demand in stores around the country.

In the early 80s, my mum becomes an integral part of the creative team in the office. She has a good eye for graphics and therefore becomes an important part of the company's product in the future.

Mikkel Grønlund
As a boy, I had many holiday jobs at Grønlunds Forlag. Primarily working in the warehouse and in production and delivering goods to the neighbourhood customers.
In 1984, I started at Niels Brock Business School and was employed by the company alongside my studies. Here I got under the skin of the more administrative part of the company. Based on my education, we updated many of the company's routines and when IBM launched the first PC model XT in Denmark in 1984, we invested in the company's first computer with word processing and accounting installed, 10MB hard drive, 12″ monochrome screen and a 9-pin printer connected.
Over the years, more computers are added. We embark on what was then called DTP (Desktop publishing) and the entire graphic design process changes like never before.
I learn to photograph, proofread, write business letters, do marketing and meet clients. Counts, Barons, CEOs and historians and many other interesting people. After some very instructive years with my father, I bought the company in 1991. In the meantime, we moved to Allerød's industrial district, both to get more space, but also to make access easier for customers and carriers.

Father, mother and son - after the reception in 1991

The building in the green business area in Allerød

Lone and Jørgen at the warehouse in Allerød

Exhibition stand - Church Fair in Odense

1 million postcards required roller shelves

Together with the talented videographer and producer Lars Winding, we release Denmark's first tourist video on VHS. Later an interactive CD-ROM about Copenhagen, a DVD film about Denmark and in the following years the tourist book series “Wonderful Copenhagen” and “Wonderful Denmark”. Our postcard range expands from only covering Greater Copenhagen to become nationwide, with Coop stores as buyers, among others.
These are wild years, when digitisation of images will become an exciting part of our everyday lives. And where our storage capacity will be severely challenged. First we solve the problem with roller shelving for the millions of postcards, later with containers for the pallets of books.
Over the years, the publishing house has developed into a creative and modern graphics company, producing books, postcards, fridge magnets and photographs for many of Denmark's most recognised attractions and cultural institutions. This includes LEGOLAND, which has been a customer since the opening of the park in Billund in 1968.

In 2000, we moved the publishing house to Maribo, where we got much better storage space. The main house on the old farm became the company's administrative centre, where a small team of four, graphic designer Gitte, the indispensable administrative octopus Else, photographer Lars and I developed the company into a graphics company with a wider range of products - and now also with customers abroad.

The publisher's farm on Kirkevejen in Maribo

Mikkel on a photo job in Central Jutland

The "Fotodanmark" image database takes shape

Fotodanmark sells images from all over Denmark

After 2.5 years of preparation, at the turn of 2002/2003 we went online with the image database Fotodanmark, where our large photo archive from all over the country was made available online, focusing primarily on professional users such as advertising agencies and publishers.

In 2010, I decide to give the company a new direction and a different look. We move back to Allerød to one of the city's landmarks, the Scandinavian Trade Building. At that time, there wasn't much publishing left in our daily lives. And with a sharp focus on developing, designing and producing products for museum shops and brand stores that allow guests to take the experience home with them in the best possible way, we are now looking ahead to the company's 100th birthday. And the company is now simply called “grønlunds”.

Photo assignment at Christiansborg Palace

The diversity of the cultural world, combined with the high quality demands of our customers, is something I really appreciate. All my adult life I have worked with the Danish cultural heritage and experience industry - and even though a lot has changed over the years, it's still the same spirit that prevails at grønlunds as almost 100 years ago.

And the mission is still the same: to help our customers commercialise their assets and tell their story so they can ultimately give their guests a piece of the experience to take home.

Mikkel Grønlund