Lögberg-Heimskringla - 09.07.1982, Blaðsíða 1

Lögberg
Heimskringla
LÖGBERG Stofnað 14. janúar 1888
HEIMSKRINGLA Stofnað 9. september 1886
96. ÁRGANGUR
WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 9. JULI 1982
NUMER 28
American's venture in
sweaters buoys Icelandic exports
by James M. Markham
REYKJAVÍK, Iceland — There are
moments that change-a man's life.
For Tom Holton, a son of California,
the first came when he espied Hanna
Johannsdottir, a beautiful Icelan-
dic woman, on the ski slopes near
Lake Tahoe, Nev., in 1956.
The second occurred six years
later when the newly married cou-
ple visited Iceland, and the
American saw the herds of unusual-
ly colored sheep — earth tones of
off-white, beige, brown and black.
"I had never seen sheep like that
anywhere in the world," Mr.
Holton recalls. "That long, long hair
and all those colors."
From these encounters arose
Hilda Ltd., a company that designs,
makes and sells Icelandic sweaters
and other woolen goods that have
become a major export in this small
land of 230,000 people. Last year,
Hilda's sales to the United States
and Europe jumped to $6.6 million
— compared with just $450,000 in
1974, when the Icelandic sweater
first began to catch on.
And, despite the recession in the
United States and Europe, Mr. and

Tom and Hanna Holton, owners of Hilda Ltd., which makes Icelandic sweaters and other
woolen goods, on the "Palshus" sheep farm in Reykjavík, Iceland.
Mrs. Holton, who run Hilda
together, foresee no slowdown in
sales increases, which, they say,
have been running at about 30 per-
cent a year.
Hilda was not an overnight suc-
cess story. In the early 1960’s,
Iceland exported few finished wool
products, and the Holtons roamed
from village to village on this
volcano-strewn island attempting to
standardize a cottage industry of
their own creation.
"There were no size standards in
existence, and the coordination bet-
ween sleeves and body was totally
haphazard," said Mr. Holton, who
had been in the Navy before em-
barking on his Icelandic adventure.
"We worked a lot at home, and the
garments were brought there. Our
home was literally covered in wool,
and there was wool everywhere,
even in the soup."
"Until 1966, Hanna and I tried on
every sweater we sold to test it for
size,” said Mr. Holton, a lanky,
49-year-old. "If it fit me, it was a
Höfn donates Icelandic books
Fifteen Icelandic books, once part
of the library at Höfn, the Icelandic-
Canadian home in Vancouver, are
on their way to Alberta.
They are to take their places on
the bookshelves of the restored farm
home of Icelandic Canadian .poet
Stephan G. Stephansson.
That is a fitting place for the books
because they are among an
estimated 240 books at the Icelandic
Home that came from the old
Markervillé area library that
Stephknsson was active in starting
and maintaining.
The story of the return of the
books began when Oskar Howard-
son, a member of the board of the
home, saw an advertisement in the
Icelandic Canadian Magazine: The
ad, placed by historian Jane Mc-
Cracken, who was in charge of the
restoration of the old Stephansson
house, listed books that research in-
dicated may have been on
Stephansson's bookshelves.
Oskar took up the matter with the
Höfn board and was asked to survey
the home’s collection for books on
the list prepared by the Alberta
Historic Sites Branch.
With the help of club member
Gudrun Hallson, Howardson
separated all the books stamped
Idunn, the name of the Alberta
library. The two were aided by club
president Hrafnhildur Esmail, who
is also a member of the board of the
home.
"We found 13 books on the list
and two duplicates for a total of 15,"
said Oskar.
He said the approximately 2,000
books at Höfn include the Idunn col-
lection as well as other entire
libraries from Prince Rupert and
from Keewatin, Ont.
Also in the collection are books
gathered together as early as 1908,
when the Icelandic community of
Vancouver started a literary society
called Ingolfur. It merged in 1946
with an Icelandic Canadian social
club called Isafold to become Stron-
din which was the precursor of our
club.
medium.”
Dogged promotional work finally
led to breakthroughs at mail-order
outlets in the United States such as
Carroll Reed's Ski Shops, Eddie
Bauer and L.L. Bean. The market
began to develop and grow.
On a retail level, however, only
about 50 stores in the United States
carry the sweaters. Each outlet is
granted exclusivity in its area; New
Yorkers, for example, must trek to
Outdoor Traders in Greenwich,
Conn., to buy Hildas, which are sold
at retail for about $80 to $100.
According to Vidar Jonsson, a
spokesman for the company, Hilda
makes about 80 percent of its sales
to stores in the United States and
Canada and expects to hit the $7
million mark in its wholesaling
there this year.
Hilda shares the market with the
state-run concern, Alafoss, and with
Samband, Iceland's sprawling
cooperative movement, which is in-
volved in everything from cod
fishing to insurance.
"If we take the industry as a
whole, it employs about 2,000 peo-
ple," Mr. Holton said, "and God
knows how many more people are
employed iri their homes."
Socially, Iceland is a tiny place,
and, with success, pressure grew on
Mr. Holton to take icelandic citizen-
ship, which he did in 1972.
Continued on page 2