1 of 2
Obituary
2 of 2
Polykemi
Hugo Jönsson, the founder of Swedish compounder Polykemi, has passed away at the age of 83.
Hugo is said to have visited the office on a daily basis, even in his final days. His role recently was as Senior Advisor to the current management.
Hugo Jönsson was born in the village of Ingelstorp east of Ystad. He began his career at Persöner, at the time largest company in Ystad. There he advanced to Deputy Manager of the textile recycling department. In his book, My Own Story, which he wrote after his retirement, he recounts how he suggested to the management of Persöner to close the textile department and grow into the field of plastics; a suggestion which was apparently rejected.
Hugo continued to pursue the industry, borrowed money and founded Polykemi in 1968. A few years later the company was expanding outside the borders of Ystad and Sweden. Today Polykemi has approximately 250 employees with foreign subsidiaries in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany and China and agents/distributors in seven countries. The subsidiaries Rondo Plast (recycling) and Scanfill (packaging compounds) are both located in Ystad. The plant in China was opened in 2007 and Hugo Jönsson was instrumental in the process for establishing Polykemi in the Chinese market, as it was his conviction that it was necessary for Polykemi to be present there.
Despite a huge fire in 1975, Hugo’s business continued to grow, venturing into mineral reinforced PP in 1979, which turned out to be more complicated and expensive than calculated, almost causing the company go under. The development of Polyfill in 1982/1983 gave the company long term financial stability. In the mid-eighties, Jönsson invested in an R&D department for Polykemi.
In 1997 he retired as Managing Director and handed responsibility of daily operations to his sons Ola and Lars, naming himself Chairman of the Board at Polykemi — now the largest private employer in Ystad and in the southeast of Scania.
Outside of work at Polykemi Hugo also involved himself in local politics and was Chairman of the Ystad Harbour for three years, where he managed to convince the Polish ferry line operating the “Polonia” to choose Ystad as its Swedish harbor.
Hugo Jönsson was fond of non-profit sports, in particular Ystad IF team handball. Hugo Jönsson transformed YIF into the major club it is today, and is said to have been behind the club’s first Swedish Championship in 1976.
