All round the world

Ever since its beginnings more than a century ago, Primus has stood for cooking, lighting and heating. Roald Amundsen had a Primus stove among his supplies when he was the first person to reach the South Pole on 14 December 1911. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay used a Primus on Mount Everest when they reached the summit on 29 May 1953. Every day, all round the world millions of people use our stoves and lanterns. No matter whether you need to cook at the North Pole or in your own back garden, you can count on Primus to work.

Today we export to some 70 countries, which accounts for approximately 90 per cent of our total sales. Every year we put a large part of our revenue back into research and development work. We're continuing the pioneering spirit of the 1890s, when the Primus stove was invented, and we're still developing new products from ideas and suggestions from all over the world.

One of our latest innovations is the environmentally friendly PRIMUS EtaExpress™, a stove for people who are looking for light weight and small size!

1892 The first soot-free kerosene stove is constructed by Frans W. Lindqvist. The stove is named Primus.

1897 Andrée attempts to reach the North Pole via hot-air balloon. He takes a Primus stove along on his journey.

1911 Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole. A Primus brand stove is on the expedition.

1953 On 29 May 1953 Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first people to scale Mount Everest. Their food is cooked on a Primus stove.

1978 Primus introduces environmental work. Development begins on burners to reduce the use of wood for cooking in African countries.

1996 PRIMUS MultiFuel, the first stove that can run on LP gas, petrol and kerosene, is tested during an ascent of Mount Everest by the adventurer Göran Kropp. It is successfully launched the following year.

2001 The world's lightest LP gas stove is launched by Primus' Japanese subsidiary, Iwatani-Primus. This stove weighs only 60 grams.

2001 The PRIMUS OmniFuel stove is launched. A stove for all fuels. ("Multi" means many; "Omni" means all.)

2006 The environment-friendly, highly efficient PRIMUS Eta Power EF stove is launched and wins a number of awards around the world.

2008 Primus begins investing in Bauminvest, a long-term tree planting project in Costa Rica, to offset the carbon dioxide output of Eta stoves.

”Verldens förnämsta kokapparat!”

Two 19th-century fellows, F.W. Lindqvist and J.V. Svenson, began manufacturing kerosene stoves in a little blacksmith's workshop in central Stockholm in March 1892. They named their company J.V. Svenson's Kerosene Stove Factory, and they gave their stove the name Primus.

When the patent had expired and other manufacturers could begin to compete with their own kerosene stoves, they found they had to put up with people referring to their stoves as Primus stoves, too.