SvenskaThere was a man named Wiking Gunnarsson who had an idea for a parallel crane. Wiking ran and worked at the company that was then known as Moderna Traktortransporter. The company worked a great deal together with the Swedish power company Vattenfall building electricity grids. They harvested and delivered utility poles when new power lines were being installed. They had a great deal of experience of forestry work. Wiking had an idea to make a parallel crane based on the furniture company IKEA's classic desk lamp.
In 1968, Adil Wikhede founded Wikhede Mekaniska in Bäckefors, western Sweden, in FTG's current premises.
Wiking read in the local newspaper that the workshop at Wikhede Mekaniska was not very busy. So, he went there with his drawings. Things clicked and they founded the brand MOWI, taken from the two company names.
Around 1980, they produced prototypes and then sold the first MOWI model 245 crane. The invention proved a success and thousands of cranes and forestry trailers have left the factory in Bäckefors in the years since. Every good crane needs a forestry trailer, said Wiking. In conjunction with the crane launch, they also developed a new forestry trailer.
The parallel operation concept was adopted for forestry machine cranes, and many different models have seen the light of day. There were many different brands of forestry machines, and a MOWI crane became synonymous with ease of use. Some machines are still used professionally with MOWI harvester cranes, including brands such as Tigercat and Sampo Rosenlew. Today, in addition to cranes and forestry trailers, FTG also sells cranes for smaller forestry machines, such as those from Vimek, Malwa and Terri.