3L celebrates its 50th anniversary

3L Office reached a remarkable milestone in its history as it celebrated its 50th anniversary. To mark this special occasion, the company hosted an open house for the public, inviting everyone to step inside.

10/31/2019

Time for celebration

3L Office reached a remarkable milestone in its history as it celebrated its 50th anniversary with great enthusiasm and warmth. To mark this special occasion, the company hosted an open house for the public, inviting everyone to step inside and discover the inner workings of 3L Office. It was a unique opportunity for customers, partners, and the local community to get a firsthand look at the dedication and innovation that have defined the company for half a century.

But the celebrations didn't stop there. To express gratitude to the hardworking team that has been instrumental in 3L Office's success, a festive party was held for all employees. It was a time to reflect on the company's journey, acknowledge the dedication of its staff, and look forward to a future filled with continued growth and achievement.

As 3L Office embraced its 50th year, it did so with a deep sense of pride in its past accomplishments and a renewed commitment to delivering quality and excellence for many years to come.

Introduction of 3L

3L is a manufacturing company located in the industrial area of Brylle city. 3L produces laminating cards, tape dispensers, photo corners, adhesive products for scrapbooking, plastic pockets, and more. Approximately 70 people are employed at the Brylle address.

On the occasion of the anniversary, I have been asked to write a bit about why and how 3L came into existence and something about its early history.

We, Jørgen, Jens, Bjarne, and Frits Ludvigsen, grew up at "Skovgård," Nårup Skov (Skovvej 30), where we were accustomed to a "flexible" and uncertain economy. This perhaps made us quite risk-tolerant. Our background was varied; I had completed a high school diploma in modern languages in the evening at "Fyens Studenterkursus" and was studying theology and religious history at the University of Copenhagen.

Jens cultivated early strawberries under plastic to earn the money to start, Bjarne had completed a different type of high school diploma, and Frits attended "Fyens Studenterkursus" in the evenings.

We were a bunch of "country boys" who had no expertise in machinery, production, trade, accounting, or much else that would have been helpful. We simply had to start from scratch.

Why did 3L come into existence?

While I was attending the preparatory course, I had created some index tabs from label paper, written the alphabet on them, and glued them into my dictionaries to make it faster and easier to look up words.

We had talked about trying to put this system into production. In 1968, Bjarne said it had to be now, or he would emigrate to Canada. This clashed with my studies, but I agreed to give the project a year. However, it became more than that. That's the answer to why 3L came into existence.

How did 3L come into existence?
Using the Copenhagen telephone directory, I started calling potential suppliers of plastic films, adhesive films, and more. If they couldn't help, they referred me to others.

In this way, I obtained some samples to work with and test. Yrsa, who was studying theology, and I lived in a two-room apartment above a gate in Njalsgade on Islands Brygge.

At that time, the rule was that you had to get married within three months to secure an apartment, so we did in November 1968. The apartment was heated by a kerosene stove.

There was neither a shower nor a sink, only a toilet. We only had to pay 875 DKK per quarter, so we could live inexpensively.

We both received student grants and loans. I tested the material samples I received on top of and next to the kerosene stove, as well as at the bottom of the kitchen sink and in a window to test their resistance to UV radiation.

That's how I found out that we could use a clear polyester film from ICI, a self-adhesive white plastic film, and double-sided tape from Fasson.

We had the self-adhesive films cut to usable widths somewhere in the city. Based on this, we could start producing the tabs/registers for Gyldendal's red dictionaries.

66 tabs could be glued into one row in a dictionary. Each tab was 6mm high with the alphabet in offset black print (with subdivisions) on both sides so they could be pasted into the pages, halfway over each other.

These small plastic tabs demanded precision in production and the quality of the materials used. They needed to have a certain stiffness and must not break (hence polyester film), and the adhesive must not "bleed" through the paper.

I have worn-out dictionaries with tabs that look new even though they were installed in 1971. Quality requirements became a recurring theme in the development and production of the many future self-adhesive products that 3L brought to the market.

Back to the beginning

I found a printer on Vesterbrogade willing to experiment with printing on polyester film and later on other experiments as well. He supplied many printed materials to us for several years, including those for new products, even after Yrsa and I moved to Oure Præstegård in 1976.

The first machine
We needed to build a machine to produce the "Book-Index" tabs, so I contacted the Technical Institute, where in the plastic department, there was an engineer who was willing to build such a machine but not according to the principles I suggested.

This was done in Jens' name since he had the money. After a long process and many experiments, a large, fine, and complicated machine was built, but it was not precise enough. Therefore, we refused to accept it (July 15, 1970) and hired a lawyer, but ended up reaching a settlement on payment.

We then started building a simple machine according to my original principles in the woodworking room at Orte Centralskole. It, in combination with a cutting die, could produce the tabs with great precision.

Initially, they were cut out at Højrup Æskefabrik before we bought an old cutting die from Gundersen at Assens Tobaksfabrik on April 15, 1971. Our first production location was the old horse stable at "Skovgård."

Design and Sales
We knew that the grocer Nielsen in Nårup had a son, Poul, in Copenhagen who was an advertising illustrator.

We got him to design the 3L logo (3 x Ludvigsen) and not "4L" since Frits wasn't old enough to be a part of it. It also didn't hurt that there was a big company in the USA called "3M"! - We applied for the registration of "3L" as a trademark in 1969.

Poul shared an office with another advertising illustrator who designed the printed materials needed for packaging, brochures, etc. We got the photo model and actress Birte Tove, who looks up a word in a dictionary, to grace the back of the Book-Index packages.

Our first salesperson was one of Yrsa's classmates.

The first invoice, for 269.10 DKK, was issued on December 1, 1970, to Rasmus Hansens Boghandel. However, it didn't become a success, so I reached out to Gyldendal, who published the red dictionaries.

The people I talked to liked our Book-Index, but the board felt it didn't fit into their product range. I was referred to a wholesaler, "Mumm & Zaum" (M&Z), which subsequently sold a lot of Book-Index for us.

Director Pindborg showed me some products he imported from Germany and the Netherlands and asked if we could make similar ones. So we did—in better quality.

Development and Export

Frits began building machines for the new products.
Bjarne handled production and shipping.

From our apartment in Copenhagen, I handled purchasing, finances, invoice writing, correspondence, export paperwork, and customer visits. We quickly realized that we needed to enter export markets if our small company was to become something.

Through "Dansk Arbejde" (Danish Work), I made contact with embassies and consulates around Europe, and also a few in the USA and Canada, to which I could send product samples and ask for help finding addresses of companies that might be interested in distributing our products.

This way, in 1972, we started exporting to Norway and Finland, in 1973 to Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Sweden, and in 1974 to Italy, the Netherlands, and England.

As early as February 1970, we began seeking protection for our trademarks and submitting patent applications. Brdr. Ludvigsen I/S was founded on November 1, 1969, by Jørgen, Jens, and Bjarne. Frits became a partner on January 1, 1975, and on January 1, 1977, Brdr. Ludvigsen I/S was converted to an ApS (private limited company), with Bjarne becoming the director.

Later, Brdr. Ludvigsen I/S was converted into 3L-Ludvigsen A/S.

The foundation was laid for 3L's further development.
We invested everything we earned—and more. We could very well have gone bankrupt with significant private debt, but we made it through, and despite the hardships there must have been, we stuck together all those years.

Throughout the seventies, we utilized all the stables at "Skovgård." In the eighties, 3L expanded further into the old packaging factory in Glamsbjerg and with Lægård and Dampa in Knarreborg.

In 1989, 3L was able to move its offices and most of its production into the first phase of the newly constructed buildings on Vibækvej in Brylle. That same year, we established a sales office and warehouse in Chicago, USA. This is a brief story, as I roughly remember it, of how 3L came into existence, with many omissions!

Jørgen Ludvigsen