Valeryd’s history started in 1958 when the entrepreneur Sigge Adolfsson from Vedum asked the brothers Bernt & Per-Owe Larsson in Larv if they could help him. He wanted a trailer that he could hitch to his car. It needed to be light to simplify his everyday life when he travelled around to different farms demonstrating his products.
At that time, the Larsson brothers ran a garage and they had some experience of converting truck trailers to tractor trailers. The brothers accepted Sigge Adolfsson’s challenge and in no time at all the first unbraked light trailer rolled out of the workshop. The need of this type of trailer proved to be large and on account of the demand, the activities of the Larsson brothers grew so that they needed to relocate.
They chose to move to Valeberg, which is located six kilometres from Larv in the vicinity of Ryd. The brothers then created the name of the new company from the name of the area, ValeRydssläp (ValeRyd’s trailers). Within a few years the mass production of trailers was a fact and they extended the range to make trailers for transporting cars, boats and horses. In 1967 the first horse transporter with an A-frame was made at the factory. During the 60s, 70s and 80s the activities of the Larsson brothers and Valeryd grew. Up to 1991 more than 10,000 trailers had left the Valeryd’s production line, and best of all many of them are still in use!
Magnus Larsson who owns the Valeryd Group and is the son of founder Per-Owe Larsson grew up 200 metres from the factory, and he relates what it has meant to him:
“I have many memories from manufacturing, the welding, assembly and finishing, mainly green trailers with strong, welded steel frames and wooden edges and floor. I started working in production quite early on when I was 10 years old and received one Krona for each tyre I fitted on a rim and inflated. Using normal hand tools, I managed to fit 30 tyres in one hour and earn a whole 30 Kronor. So, from an early age I realised hard work pays off”
Each generation of a family business puts its mark on operations. Magnus Larsson quickly realized there was a vast market for spare parts for lightweight trailers. Valeryd started to develop a concept system to meet this demand.
In 2018 Valeryd will celebrate its 60th anniversary.
