Nyåkers Pepparkakor is a bakery situated in the north of Sweden, 60 kilometers south of Umeå.

AB Nyåkers Pepparkakor was first established in 1952. At this time it was an ordinary local bakery which baked lots of different types of pastries, and which also had a bread-wagon which travelled round the farms to sell to the house-holds.

In 1954 the bakery burned down and the two owners wondered whether to build it up again, or whether they should do something else.

They decided that it was time to make a big investment, and build a completely new factory with continuous line ovens. The idea was to specialise production to one single product, namely gingerbread biscuits.

The investment was a success and they soon became a market leader, together with the big competitor at the time, Pricks.

The problem that soon arose was the seasonal nature of the product (in Sweden gingerbread biscuits are a very big Christmas product.) and to get round this the factory was expanded to include additional products. The first new products were almond buns and fancy rusks.

As one success led to the next the factory became too small, and during the years it has been built out not less than seven times. For the last eight years plain cakes have be come increasingly more important for the company's sales.

Today AB Nyåkers Pepparkakor has a turnover of 30 MSEK and 24 employees. During 1996 the company produced a total of 1 216 tons of cakes worth 27 MSEK in sales.

Gingerbread biscuits are still the company's biggest product, with a share of 70%, and 65% of them are sold during the Christmas season.

Other products include almond buns, fancy rusks, and plain cakes (10 different varieties).

The company is the 3rd biggest on the market for ginger-bread biscuits, while for the other products they come in 6th place.