THE FIRST GENERATION

Mads Christian Olesen, who started as a shopkeeper and a dealer in the liquor trade, created a business that influenced agriculture in Vendsyssel, Denmark for many years. Until the turn of the century, he ran a heavy goods business, a grocery, and a sawmill. In 1901 he sold the grocery and then in 1903 the sawmill. From this point he ran a typical heavy goods business until 1929.