Götaverken

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Götaverken was a shipbuilding company that was located on Hisingen, Gothenburg. It was founded in 1841, and went bankrupt in 1989.

The company was founded in 1841 by a Scottish businessman called Alexander Keiller under the name Keillers Wekstad i Göteborg, and was aimed at industrial production. After bankruptcy in 1867, the company was reorganized into Göteborgs Mekaniska Verkstads AB.

In 1906, the majority of the company's stocks were taken over by Hugo Hammar and Sven Almqvist. Because of this, the company was reorganized into Göteborgs Nya Verkstads AB and a major improvement of the wharfs capacity was done. In 1916 the wharf was renamed to AB Götaverken. During the 1930s, the company had grown so much that Götaverken became the world's biggest wharf measured by the amount of launched gross tonnes. In 1950 Götaverken decided to construct a completely new shipyard at Arendal, which is also located in Gothenburg. When the shipyard was completed in 1963, it was internationally unique because most of the building was done indoors. Their old shipyard (Cityvarvet) was closed down in 1968.

In 1971, the company was taken over by Salénrederierna AB. And in 1977, the state-owned shipbuilding company, Svenska Varv, took over Salénrederierna because of the Swedish wharf crisis. During this last period of the company's history, they searched for alternatives to the traditional production of tankers and ore transporters. The company tried to aim its production towards special vessels, such as icebreakers, ferries and freezer ships. In 1989, the state-owed icebreaker Oden was delievered from Arendal as Götaverkens last own-made ship.

However, Götaverken Cityvarvet survived the crisis. Today the wharf performs a few types of reparations, maintenance work, and renovation of ships. It currently employs around 140 employees. Since the year 2000, the wharf is owned by the Dutch shipyards group, Damen Shipyards Group.

Götaverkens head office, located at Lindholmen, was built in 1951. After the Swedish wharf crisis and Götaverkens restructuring, the building has bein unoccupied since 1991. During 2006, the building underwent an extensive renovation for approximately one hundred million Swedish Kronas. In the beginning of december 2006, ESAB moved in.