Gabriel 150 years - Flipbook - Page 24
a single piece of equipment was purchased for
the factory.
The annual reports continue to show a deficit up to and including ±∫≥≤. In ±∫≥±, the deficit would have been greater than the share
capital, and it became necessary to sell part of
the “family silver”. This was possible because
Kjærs Mølle owned ±≤ hectares of farmland.
This land was parcelled out and sold for the
building of private homes from ±∫≥± to ±∫≥∏. To
this day, street names such as “Kjærs Mølle Vej”
[Kjærs Mølle Street], Væverens Vej” [Weaver
Street] and “Spolen” [The Spool] bear witness
that the area once belonged to Kjærs Mølle.
Proceeds of the sale of this land, rather
than the manufacture of cloth, brought Kjærs
Mølle safely through the difficult years from
±∫≤± to about ±∫≥∂. These earnings provided
money for the necessary expansion and modernisation of the looms in ±∫≥≥, and in ±∫≥µ, dividends were paid to shareholders for the first
time in many years.
Whims of fashion
An advertisement from ±∫≤≤ for the shop.
From the beginning of the ≤∞th century, fashion had played an important role in invest-
precisely that there will not be something left
ment-making decisions at Kjærs Mølle. In spite
over.”
of the success enjoyed in the early ±∫∞∞s, in
±∫∞±, the company’s bookkeeper expressed his
In ±∫≤∑, a publication containing a large num-
concern about the expenses incurred in keep-
ber of advertisements for Kjærs Mølle’s pro-
ing up with changing fashions:
ducts was issued to commemorate the compa-
“At the present time, the range is comprised
ny’s ∏∂th anniversary. In these advertisements
of about ±∑∞ different qualities with at least
Kjærs Mølle’s clothing textiles were said to be
∏∞∞ designs. (...) In addition to making a draft
modern in both pattern and colour and resis-
and starting up, just the making of new pat-
tant to wear and tear. The fabric for sale in-
terns for the two seasons requires the work of
cluded cloth for making women’s dresses,
two men at the pattern looms for a long time,
coats, men’s wear of worsted yarn as well as
and, then, in order to make such a large selec-
“clothes as strong as iron for boys“! At that
tion of patterns, one must have a correspond-
time, the factory also made upholstery fabric
ing stock of raw materials of many different
as well as rugs and woollen yarn.
qualities. Finally, the stock of finished goods
This publication appeared during Kjærs
will often be bigger than is advisable because
Mølle’s period of crisis, in which foreign-made
one can never adjust production to sales so
goods threatened goods produced in Denmark.
1898-1940
25
