Gekås Founder and Owner

Göran Karlsson founded Gekås Ullared in 1963. The department store was named after his initials, GeKås. For 28 years, Göran Karlsson built up and managed the company, which today is Sweden's and Scandinavia's largest department store.

When the business started, it was called Firma Ge-Kås Manufaktur and the shop was on the ground floor of a villa in Ullared. Initially, Göran Karlsson sold cleaning coats for ladies and car coats for men at excellent prices. In 1991, Göran Karlsson sold his company to six employees at the company. Göran Karlsson was born in 1939 and died on July 26, 2004.

Ownership history

Founder of Gekås 1963 and owner until 1991 Göran Karlsson.

Owners from 1991 to 2004 Thomas Karlsson, Torbjörn Bäck, Håkan Janson, Kjell Andersson, Kent Gustafsson and Rolf “Lollo” Johansson. The price was 130 million and the new owners went in with 21.6 million each for their parts.

Owners from 2004 to 2019 were Thomas Karlsson and Torbjörn Bäck.

In July 2019, Thomas bought out Torbjörn and is now the sole owner of the entire company.