Gnosjö Konstsmide

Company History

Gnosjö Konstsmide was founded in 1942 in the southern Swedish town of Gnosjö (Småland) by Gunnar Johansson. Johansson, previously a driver for a local bus company, gave up his job to become self-employed as an art blacksmith. His first product was not a lighting fixture but hand-forged flower stands and decorative items. Johansson therefore chose the company name “Konstsmide” (Swedish for “art forge”).

In 1947, according to the company, the first industrially mass-produced Advent candle holder series in Sweden left the Gnosjö plant. This laid the foundation for the company’s later specialization in seasonal lighting products. Over the following decades, the product range shifted increasingly from pure art-forged goods toward outdoor and festive lighting.

In the 1960s, Rolf Johansson, the founder’s son, took over management. Under his leadership, internationalization began in the 1980s. According to company and trade press reports, in the 1980s Konstsmide launched the world’s first low-voltage string lights with an upstream safety transformer, a safety milestone that still shapes the European market standard for decorative outdoor lighting and string lights today.

The next innovation followed in the mid-1990s: in 1995, Konstsmide, by its own account, introduced the world’s first LED Christmas string lights. The early switch to LED technology has had a lasting influence on the company’s current Christmas lighting range.

In the 2000s, management passed to the third family generation. According to the company website, the current owners and managing directors of the Swedish parent company are the brothers Peter, Janne, Jonas and Daniel Johansson.

Location and Regional Context

The municipality of Gnosjö in Småland has been a center of small-scale Swedish metalworking since the 19th century. Its business culture is often referred to in Sweden as “Gnosjöandan” (the “Gnosjö spirit”), which stands for family entrepreneurship, craftsmanship discipline and a pragmatic openness to innovation. Konstsmide is among the most internationally visible representatives of this regional tradition.

Group Structure and Legal Form

Gnosjö Konstsmide AB (Org. no. 556217-1313) is the operating Swedish parent company and holder of the “KONSTSMIDE” brand. The group is run as the “Gunnar Johansson Group” and employs around 200 people worldwide. The group owns its own sales and production companies in Germany, the United Kingdom, Finland, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Norway.

Product Range

Outdoor lighting (Classic line): wrought-iron candelabras, wall, pedestal and post luminaires, and in-ground lights, produced in small-batch casting at the European plant.
Modern outdoor lighting: LED wall lights, spotlights, bollard lights, post luminaires, and a 12-volt plug-in system for garden and path lighting.
Konstsmide Smartlight: app-controllable outdoor luminaire series.
Solar outdoor lighting.
Christmas and festive lighting: LED string lights (24 V safety transformer), icicle, curtain and net lights, “Christmas light sets”, flagpole and party string lights, 31 V system (connectable).
Indoor Christmas lighting: Advent candle holders (traditional core product since 1947), Christmas tree lighting, stars, “Lucia” candle holders, decorative candles, table and window decorations.
Light figures and trees: LED reindeer and stars, wreath and tree decorations, artificial trees with LED lighting.
Spare parts and accessories for the company’s own Classic and LED series.
Iconic / Defining Product Lines
Advent candle holders (Advent candelabras): according to the company, in 1947 the first industrially mass-produced Advent candle holder in Sweden, and still a core product of the indoor Christmas lighting range.
Classic outdoor luminaire line in “gjutjärnsteknik” (cast iron / mold casting technique): produced in small series at the European plant, with a design in the tradition of the wrought-iron garden lantern of the late 19th century.
Low-voltage string lights with safety transformer (1980s): according to company and trade press reports, the first of their kind worldwide.
LED Christmas string lights (1995): according to the company, the first of their kind worldwide.
Designers, Product Designers, Authorship
Gnosjö Konstsmide is an industrial manufacturer with in-house product development. In the publicly available company and trade sources, no individual notable external designers are named as authors of specific models, whether for the historical Classic line or for the LED and Christmas lighting. The design follows the Swedish art-smithing and small-series tradition of the Gnosjö region and is handled internally. This statement is deliberately cautious, because a publicly documented attribution of individual models to named designers could not be found in the sources reviewed.

Production, Quality and Environmental Standards

The company operates its own plants in Sweden and Hungary and works closely with partners in China for parts of its range. According to the company, the Classic outdoor luminaire line is still produced in small series at the European plant using the cast-iron method (“cast-iron mold method”), as a deliberate continuation of the ornamental art-smithing tradition.

Market Position and Distribution

#Konstsmide is one of the reference brands in European retail for decorative Christmas and outdoor lighting. The range is sold through specialist retailers, large DIY and electrical retail chains, and the company’s own national subsidiaries. The brand regularly exhibits at the trade fair Christmasworld (Messe Frankfurt).