In 1795, Fredric Hummel started Sweden's first cotton spinning mill, which soon became widely known. The business flourished and reached its peak in 1834, only to start losing turnover the following year. Competition from other spinning mills combined with difficult transport were two reasons for this, and when the spinning mill's main building burned in 1846, an era came to an end. Hedefor's factories began to be built in 1876 on the initiative of P A Åkerlund.