Johan Sørensen

Who is Johan Sørensen?

Johan Jean Christian Sørensen was a Norwegian businessperson and book publisher.

He was born in Drøbak as a son of shipmaster, merchant and lighthouse manager Abraham Georg Sørensen and Nancy Samuelson. He was a brother of Niels Georg Sørensen. The family moved to Lindesnes in 1842. He worked at sea from the age of thirteen, but in 1844 he moved with the family to Hustadvika when his father became manager of Kvitholmen Lighthouse. At the age of seventeen Sørensen became a shop clerk in Kristiansund. In 1868 he married German citizen Anna Henriette Dick.

Sørensen moved to Spain in 1857 to trade dried and salted cod. His company was located in Santander, and soon expanded to include timber trade. In 1862 a branch office was opened in Bilbao, where a mechanical workshop was also established. From 1867 to 1871 he was the consul for Denmark in Spain. He gradually relocated his business to Sweden, where he established a sawmill with his brothers inn 1874, Säfveåns AB in Göteborg. In 1880 he moved back to Norway, residing at the property Fagerstrand near Høvik. His interests in the companies in Spain and Sweden was gradually discontinued, but the companies were still ran by others.