In 1795, Fredric Hummel started Sweden's first cotton spinning mill, which soon became widely famous. The business flourished and reached its peak in 1834, only to begin to lose 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 down in 1846, an era ended. Hedefor's factories began to be built in 1876 on the initiative of P A Åkerlund.