History

WE’VE GOT HISTORY

Get to know us a little bit better.

Get to know us a little bit better. Founded in Nyland in 1985, we were first conducting parallel activities in welding, sheet metal, electronics and hydraulics manufacturing components for companies in northern Sweden. Through the years, we have been growing to a world-leading producer of vehicle movers with customers all over the world, fully focused on our proud invention: STRINGO. We look forward to adding new milestones to our timeline.

“Fahléns Mekaniska Verkstad, Famek” (Fahléns Mechanical Workshop, Famek) is founded in Nyland, Sweden, by Göran Fahlén. Famek has several operations - welding, sheet metal, electronics and hydraulics - running in parallel.

The first STRINGO prototype is made, on just one wheel. The invention wins that year's “Skapa-pris” award (Innovation award) and we as a company get a Swedish patent.

The STRINGO product is further developed to incorporate both front wheels. Maneuverability improves, a car can be turned 360 degrees with the rear wheels stationary in the same place.

Göran Fahlén decides to close down the STRINGO product but a request from a vendor in Germany to market it there leads to a rethink, and a decision is made to continue for another year. We receive a European patent.

The first three STRINGO are sold on export to Germany, with BMW purchasing two machines and Audi one machine.

The STRINGO 450 is launched, which can move cars weighing up to 2,5 tons.

We get an American patent.

The STRINGO 550 is launched to move cars with a weight of up to 5 tons. We set up a subsidiary in the United States.

We acquire a new property, which means production and administrative offices under the same roof.

Nina Thelin, daughter of the family that owns the company, begins working at STRINGO as a marketing assistant.

We decide to take an “all-out” strategy to investment in exports. Lego production ends, and an “all-out” investment begins in the development and manufacture of vehicle movers. The warranty period increases from one to two years.

Nina Thelin takes over from her dad, Göran Fahlén, as CEO. The S-series is launched, the first of which is the STRINGO S3. The S3 is more modern and has better characteristics in terms of performance, ergonomics and power.

The STRINGO S2 is launched. With the S2, we can meet the requirements of car showrooms, museums and collectors primarily. We also get a new patent.

We open a subsidiary in China. As one of the top six entrepreneurs in Sweden, Nina Thelin is awarded the "International Growth of the Year" award at EY Entrepreneur of the Year.

We open a subsidiary in Japan.

We are celebrating 35 years as a company.

Stringo S2

Experience that counts

The first prototype for what would become Stringo was developed back in the mid 80’ies. We had noticed how difficult it was to move the vehicles at the nearby car showroom. It took three men and a lot of time to move the car out of the showroom.

The founder of our company, Göran Fahlén liked the idea of building a machine that could move vehicles. The invention garnered attention and Göran continued the development of the product which was named Stringo, from the Latin Stringere, which means press, push or squeeze.

Despite the interest for the product, both nationally and internationally, it was difficult to sell the first Stringo. It came to a point where we considered closing down the production but just as our hopes began to die, there was a phone call from Germany. A Swedish man had read about Stringo in a German trade journal and was interested in the product. He visited us and this visit led to him becoming the German sales agent for Stringo.

Six months later he rang again. This time with good news. Our new business partner had sold two Stringos to BMW and Audi. It turned out that the major customers were the automotive industry – and what customers!

With BMW and Audi as developing reference customers and a twenty-year patent, Stringo took a big leap forward on the market. A leap that we have been managing ever since. Today we have the world’s biggest car manufacturers, many in the premium segment, in our customer stock.