Strong measures were required to survive. The product program was streamlined, operations were restructured, personnel reductions were carried out, and additional capital was provided by the owners.
It was a challenging period for the company — but also a defining one.
Step by step, the company regained stability. The focus became clearer, increasingly centered around valve spring wire and other oil-tempered wire products where the company had strong expertise and experience.
At the same time, important technological development continued.
In 1980, the decision was made to invest in the company’s first peeling machine for valve spring wire — technology developed by Kobe Steel in Japan. This marked an important technological step in the continued development of valve spring wire production.
In 1984, AB Garphytte Bruk merged with Hesselman AB to form the Garphyttan-Hesselman Group, with Incentive as the new main owner. Two years later, the industrial operations in Garphyttan became a division within the group, and the group name changed to Garphyttan Industrier AB.
Looking back, this was one of the company’s most significant periods of change.
It was a time of bold investments, difficult setbacks, and major restructuring — but also of learning, technological development, and a clearer direction.
The company entered the period as a broad industrial business shaped by expansion. It left the period leaner, more specialized, and more clearly focused on advanced spring wire for the automotive industry and other demanding uses.
And as the company moved into the late 1980s, a new phase began — with stronger international ties and a clearer focus on advanced spring wire.
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