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Berndt Wilhelm Schauman (1857 – 1911) was a Finnish industrialist, the most important in Jakobstad at the beginning of the 20th century. He was the older brother of Ossian Schauman. Wilhelm Schauman's first industrial installation was a small chicory (coffee additive/substitute) factory, which he founded in 1883. He was also involved in the local tobacco factory as part of the management. Apart from this, he continuously founded new enterprises such as a sugar refinery, a steam powered saw mill and a plywood factory, which was the first of its kind in Finland. His enterprises soon expanded beyond the borders of Jakobstad. A paper and pulp mill was later built in Jakobstad, and remains today as the largest factory in Jakobstad. It is owned by UPM-Kymmene, as a result of a merger in 1988. ==Life== After graduating as a mechanical engineer in 1879, Schauman gained employment at a metal factory in St. Petersburg, Russia. Four years later, his young wife (Mimmi Roos) wanted to return home, and the couple decided to return to their hometown Jakobstad when Schauman was turned down for the post of technical director at the Serlachius Mänttä Mills (despite having received some initial promises). After visiting chicory factories in Germany and Russia, he started his own chicory factory in Jakobstad in the Thodén bakery in the centre of town, employing 6 or 7 people. Chicory is a coffee substitute. The factory met with great success and proved to be very profitable, after which Schauman started to build a second production site just outside town in 1884. Within a few years, he was the largest chicory producer in Finland. After a fire destroyed the second factory in 1892, Schauman built a third close to the harbour. This factory became operational in 1893, and is today a museum, housing the original machinery. Initially, the raw material was supplied from Germany, while later Belgium became the most important supplier of chicory root, followed by the Netherlands, Imperial Russia, Estonia and Poland. The business boomed as Schauman combined a high quality product at competitive prices with successful marketing strategies. Schauman employed his own agents in cities such as Helsinki, Turku, Tampere and Viipuri, and was careful to design attractive packaging with Russian type print consisting of medallions and other embellishments. Schauman would himself travel around Finland, inviting shopkeepers to sample his products. At the peak of production in 1903, Schauman employed 60 employees, producing close to 1400 tons of roasted and ground chicory. After the mid-1890s, Schauman diversified into other business activities such as the export of timber goods, towboat operations, the production of saw goods and he also founded a sugar refinery on the Alholmen peninsula outside Jakobstad. In 1889, Schauman was elected to the board of directors of the Ph. U. Strengberg tobacco factory, and seven years later, he was given the post of chairman and CEO. The Strengberg tobaccy factory was at this time the largest producer of cigarettes in the Nordic countries, and also the first internal tobacco producer in the Nordic region. Schauman continued to expand his personal business empire and in 1910 he purchased a steam powered saw mill in Yxpila (near Karleby) and the same year he founded a plywood factory in Jyväskylä. He did not live to see the factory completed, however, as he died suddenly during a business trip to Berlin on 14 November 1911. His fortune at the time of his death was estimated as 2 million Finnish Marks. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wilhelm Schauman」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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