Sofia Gumaelius

Who was Sofia Gumaelius?

Sofia Lovisa Gumaelius, was a Swedish businessperson. She was the daughter of Otto-Joel Gumaelius, founder of the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda.

In July 1877, Sofia Gumaelius founded the advertising agency "Nya annonsbyrån, landsortspressens egen annonsförmedlare", generally referred to as Gumaelius Annonsbyrå or Gumaelius. It is known as one of the oldest advertising and communications businesses in the world.

In 1877 Sofia Gumaelius rented two rooms in Stockholm’s old town, intended as a temporary office. She borrowed some of the money for the start up from her brother Arvid Gumaelius and started the business off on her own. After a few months she needed to hire people and the first employee was Agda Wilson. The company quickly grew in size and within a year the office location had to be changed. In 1908 the firm built a new building in central Stockholm for their office. During Sofia Gumaelius’ lifetime offices were also established in London, Oslo, Malmö and Göteborg.

From 1881 the name S. Gumaelii Annonsbyrå was registered as an abbreviation for Sofia Gumaelius’ Annonsbyrå. In 1883 Sofia Gumaelius also established the firm Gumaelius & Co, for printing supplies. In 1918 both these firms were joint into one firm under the name S Gumaelius.