In 1893 Olav Kavli opened a small cheese shop in Bergen, Norway. The business was a success, so much of a success that in 1924 Olav opened his first factory. That factory developed the world’s very first spreadable cheese, Primula, and from there Kavli grew into an internationally recognised brand present in Sweden, Finland, Norway and the UK.
Jonny Mattsson is the CEO of O. Kavli AB, the subsidiary of the Kavli Group that serves the Swedish and Finnish markets.
“Sweden is the odd one in the group because we operate in so many different categories,” Mattsson says. “We have 12 brands from spreadable cheese to other dairy products. We are market leaders in mustard and condiments in general.”
Kavli AB has three factories across Sweden and Finland and an annual turnover of 1.1 billion Swedish kronor, as well as more than 10 million euros turnover in Finland. The subsidiary employs 
nearly 270 staff of the 1,000 employees in the Kavli Group as a whole, which has a turnover of roughly 4.5 billion euros.
What is surprising about Kavli, however, is what happens to the volume of that turnover which is profit. It does not go to shareholders. Instead, Kavli literally gives it away.
“We are owned by the Kavli Trust, so we give away all of our profits to charitable causes every year,” Mattsson says. “We have been doing that for 60 years now.”
Many companies make their charitable donations a big part of their corporate identity, but Kavli has never traded on those terms. When talking about the company’s selling points, Mattsson is far more excited to talk about the quality of its spreadable cheese, which has an 80% market share.
“We are keen on the product and the brand standing on its own,” Mattsson says. “That we give away our profits is an added benefit.”
Kavli offers a broad range of products at a very high quality.
“The melted cheese we work with is just huge blocks of gouda and edam cheese,” Mattsson points out. “We melt it, add spices, meats and seafood, heat treat it and put it into tubes. It is healthy, has low-fat content, tastes great and creates very little food waste.”
The reduced waste is also important to Mattsson from a sustainability perspective, and Kavli has recently started using recyclable aluminium tubes in its packaging.
Beyond the spreadable cheese, Kavli is well-known for its mayonnaise, where the firm is also a traditional market leader in the tube format. That is accompanied by other products including its iconic pink burger dressing.
“We are known for the quality and consistency of our products. We have been around for a long time. Taste is always the most important thing for us,” Mattsson emphasises. “We are a branded product. We need to use the best ingredients.”
For A Good Cause
But while Kavli trades on the quality of its products, it sells those products to generate profits that can be donated to good causes. Through the company’s owner, the Kavli Trust, those profits are donated across three key areas, humanitarian work, research and culture. Humanitarian work receives 60% of those profits, research gets 30%, and culture receives 10%.
“Every year, when we close our books we give our proceeds to the Trust which handles most of the donations,” Mattsson explains. “They choose those causes every three years, depending on what needs to be focused on at the moment. From 2021 to 2023 our primary focus is child mental health and smart climate solutions. Those are our priorities.”
As well as the Trust’s donations, which on average total 10 million euros per year, Kavli also makes employees’ donations of approximately 1 million euros a year.
An employee nomination process gives Kavli’s staff the opportunity to nominate causes.
“We single out five organisations and invite them to throw a party and hand out cheques,” Mattsson says. “Last year we gave 3.5 million SEK to five different organisations. One example was the Cancer Rehabilitation Fund which works with people that have successfully recovered from cancer. Once they are released from primary care, they are lonely. They have just been through trauma and there is nothing there to catch them. They have received substantial amounts from us over the last three years.”
It is a special kind of business, and that attracts a special kind of person.
“The fact that we give everything away attracts people interested in more than just a paycheque,” Mattsson says.
It is a trend that is becoming more and more relevant in modern recruitment, as the ethics of a company becomes as important as its pay and benefits to potential candidates. While that purpose is valuable in attracting and motivating Kavli’s people, however, Mattsson insists his company is first and foremost a business, not a charity.
“We are just as professional and tough as any other player in terms of developing brands and innovations,”
Mattsson says. “Those qualities are just the same. We are not ‘nicer’ or less professional just because we’re owned by a trust. The more we grow, the more profits can be redistributed into the community.”
Kavli also invests in its own people and business, giving its staff new opportunities to develop while working to modernise the company. While the company has always been quiet about its charitable spending, as ethics becomes a bigger concern for other brands in the sector, Kavli is letting its flag fly.
“We are being clearer about our purpose and why we exist,” Mattson says. “We didn’t want that to be the reason people engaged with our products, but as more companies are starting to sell on their ethical credentials it is time for us to do the same.”
Right now, Kavli is on a growth journey. Mattsson is constantly on the lookout for new additions and bolt-on companies that can create opportunities.
Over the last 10 years, the company has grown from 400 million SEK to 1.1 billion SEK, partially through acquisition. Mattsson would like to see that double through expansion into new categories.
“We are different in that we have strong brands but are also on the right side of history,” Mattsson says. “As more companies give more of their proceeds away it becomes clearer that it is the right thing to do. You can be a hungry company that wants to grow and do that with purpose.”
