History:

ARVIK hf. was started as a partnership on November 7, 1983 by Mr. Guðmundur Árnason and his son Árni Árnason. The partnership was later incorporated on December 8, 1990. Registered capital is ISK 11.000.000. Ownership is now in the hands of Árni Árnason and his family.

ARVIK hf. succeeds an import/export firm by the name of G. Þorsteinsson & Johnson hf. which was founded in 1941. Mr. Guðmundur Árnason was General Manager of that firm until 1983 when he an Mr. Garðar Þorsteinsson decided to dissolve their partnership. Mr. Þorsteinsson then founded a new company by the same name which he later sold. The firm is no longer active. Mr. Guðmundur Árnason, on the other hand, founded ARVIK sf. with his son Árni. ARVIK sf. continued to represent about half of the companies that were previously represented by Messrs. G. Þorsteinsson & Johnson hf.

On January 1st, 2001 ARVIK transferred its building material division, including lighting products, material handling trucks and equipment and safety products over to the firm Husasmidjan and its daugther companies.  Subsequently, on March 1st, 2001 ARVIK moved its offices to Gardabær.  Today ARVIK sells raw materials to the plastics and paint industries, as well as being a wholsale distributor of various fly fishing products.

Management:

Mr. Árni Árnason became General Manager on August 1, 1991 when his father retired and sold his shares in the company.

Árni Árnason earned his MBA degree from the University of Minnesota in 1974. He was Executive Director of the Iceland Chamber of Commerce from 1979 to 1986 when he joined BYKO hf.,  at that time the largest supplier of building materials in Iceland, as Vice President, Finance. Árni came to work for ARVIK in May 1991 as General Manager.

Board of Directors:

Jóhanna Gunnlaugsdóttir is Chairman of the Board of Directors. Jóhanna finished her BA in Library and Information Science from the University of Iceland in 1985 and MSc(Econ) - Master of Economic and Social Studies in Information and Library Studies - from the University of Wales in 1998. She has worked as a consultant in information and records management in her own firm Gangskör sf., since 1986. She received her Ph.D degree from the University of Tampere in November 2006. She is presently a Professor in Information and Library Science at the University of Iceland specializing in electronic records management.

Halla Árnadóttir finished her matriculation examination from the Commercial College of Iceland in 1997. In 1998 she completed her studies in Icelandair´s Travel School. She completed her BS degree in Business Administration from Reykjavík University  in the spring of 2001. She is presently working as a SAP consultant with AppliCon in Iceland.

Árni Árnason General Manager of ARVIK is also a member of the Board which has a total of three members.

© ÁRVÍK hf. 2009