History

The company was founded in 1910 by Hans Thomsen Hansen and was called “Horsens Træskoringe Fabrik” with an address at Smedegade 78 in the center of Horsens.

The company’s main production was wooden shoe rings. They also produced metal parts for garden tools – dowels and capsules. Clogs changed, however, and were no longer made 100% of wood. The upper part was replaced with leather, and there was no longer a need for clog rings, but clog toe fittings instead. The company began to produce it.

In the late 1930s, Christian Johansen was employed as a bookkeeper at the factory. He took over the factory from his uncle Hans Thomsen Hansen in the early 1950s.

In 1967, Kurt Christian Johansen became a co-owner of the company, and as no one was using wooden shoe rings anymore, it was decided to change the company name to C & K Johansen – short for Christian and Kurt Johansen.

The location in Smedegade was no longer optimal, and Kurt therefore bought a house at the company’s current address in 1968, where there was an attached car workshop. Production was moved to these premises.

Production still consisted of capsules, dolls and toe irons.

Production still consisted of capsules, dolls and toe irons.

Machines and equipment were in very poor condition, and Kurt saw it as his mission to update the machine park in order to be competitive in the long term. In 1976, the first, but second-hand, hydraulic deep-drawing press was purchased. This was the start of the company we know today.

At the end of the 70s, the company got a new customer who designed lamps. The main production then became lamp parts, which were pressed, punched and deep drawn. However, the lamp company went bankrupt in the early 80s.

Kurt decided to take over the company and make complete lamps instead of just components. It turned out to be a very good business, and in the following years, due to its success, large investments were made in larger hydraulic deep drawing presses.

In 2002, Jens Chr. Johansen joined the executive board after having been production manager for a number of years. In 2004, C & K entered into a partnership with a Vietnamese company, which became a joint venture in 2007.

Peter Møller was employed as director of C & K in 2008 after having been production manager/planner for several years. Jens Chr. Johansen moved permanently to Vietnam at the same time.

Under Peter Møller’s management, full focus was placed on optimization and automation of the factory. This meant, among other things, that items which could not be immediately automated were moved from Horsens to Vietnam.

In 2014, C & K Johansen bought out the Vietnamese co-owner and at the same time changed its name to C & K Metal Pressing, which is now a 100% owned subsidiary.