Nord Mills in Malmö

in Swedish

Perspectives on a Roller Mill

Nord Mills is emblazoned across the rooftop—this is the flour brand Lantmännen Cerealia AB supplies to bakeries. When the same flour is sold to households, it’s usually labeled Kungsörnen.

The site’s history begins in the 1880s, with expansions, demolitions, and additions over the decades. More history ↓

How Much Longer Will Nord Mills Remain?

Currently, there are no official plans to close or convert the plant, but two powerful trends suggest the mill may disappear within a few years. The city draws closer every year, and harbors have become attractive to planners and investors. The railway lines are now gone, and sea freight to the factory has also ended. Now it’s all about cars, cars, cars. More on city planning↓

The second force at play is the changing flour market and ongoing consolidation in the industry and within Cerealia. In recent years, the milling business has delivered profits of approximately SEK 100 million. More about Cerealia↓

Production

About 190,000 tons of flour are produced annually. The plant operates 24/7 year-round and is managed by about 40 people. Roughly 80% of the flour goes out in bulk to major customers. There are no fewer than 140 different products, made with two main methods: either grains are blended into a raw mix and then milled, or milled separately and combined as a finished product.

Grain milling has a long history, but today’s rollers move at varying speeds, making it easier to separate the bran (the husk) from the grain.

A silo facility handles intake, weighing, sampling, cleaning, drying, and storage. Optimal grain storage requires moisture below 14%, and before milling, grain must be dried. Silos also allowed producers to influence pricing: without storage, all grain would hit the market at once—driving prices down. The overall storage capacity here is about 53,000 tons.

A Green Art and Industry Project

Imagine if the amount of grain in a silo could be visualized as a green light beam reflecting the fill level via inside sensors.

How full are the silos today? The answer is: as empty as possible. Grain prices fluctuate widely on global markets; overpaying for a bulk order cannot be recouped if world prices fall. The plant typically keeps 20,000–30,000 tons in stock.

See video at competitor Skåne-Möllan AB ↗ for a sense of a modern mill’s workings. The picture above is from Nord Mills in Malmö. More interior shots can be found in the Malmö Stora Valskvarn report. See sources for details.

Logistics

Grain arrives by truck and ship and departs primarily by rail and truck.

In the past, at least one ship a week would deliver up to 4,000 tons each—a cost-effective method. To minimize unloading time, grain could be suctioned at about 180 tons per hour through a 30-cm pipe. Shipping faced uncertainty when the drawbridge was set for replacement; more in the “future” section below.

Previously, SJ railway delivered 1,500–2,000 flour wagons annually, which were then filled for delivery to Cerealia’s Järna plant, Polarbröd in Norrland, and more. The port owned the tracks; the switch lies well beyond the plant. The road here is Norra Neptunigatan ↗.

But the bulk of traffic is by truck—up to 5,000 trips a year. Every load is tested for quality: protein content, moisture, and more. It takes about five minutes for the lab to provide results, and trucks are sometimes turned away. Even though the mill is farmer-owned, strict standards mean only the best grain becomes their product.

History

Cerealia was founded in 1984, when Lantmännen merged its milling and consumer products businesses. The roller mill became part of the new subsidiary Nord Mills AB—a union of Kungsörnen mills, Mårten Pehrsson’s roller mill, and Helsingborg Kvarn AB. The Malmö mill was known as Nord Mills until about 2008, when it became Lantmännen Cerealia – Malmö kvarnen.

Today’s truck entrance was once an open street—now it’s part of the facility. See the Malmö Stora Valskvarn report for more history.

The Flour Market and Cerealia

Between 2009–12, the volume of bagged bread dropped by 13%, and this trend continued in 2013 (source: Skåne-Möllan AB Annual Report 2013). Reducing bread consumption is one health trend affecting the flour market. Large industrial bakeries such as Pågen—which runs its own mill—face more competition as supermarkets expand in-store baking.

Cerealia operates a factory in Laholm that makes nearly half a million pancakes per day—about 100 million a year. You’ll find them even at IKEA around the world!

Lantmännen Cerealia AB lost between 100 and 200 million SEK ↗ for several years, but recorded a profit of about 50 million in 2013. Ongoing structural pressures may yet alter the company’s mill network.

The Future of the Site and Area

In February 2014, Lantmännen Fastigheter AB (LF) and Malmö Municipality signed an agreement for several property ownership changes in the area where the roller mill sits. LF acquired leaseholds and bought land for SEK 25 million; after a city council decision in April 2014, the deal took effect July 1, 2014. Background for the agreement is laid out in section 3.1.

... the planned transformation of the Gäddan block, rerouting of streets and removal of tracks around Södra and Norra Neptunigatan; removal of the rail bridge across Norra Neptunigatan—which ends rail access; and conversion of the drawbridge to a fixed bridge—which will end ship traffic ...

The agreement also states that ship traffic in the southern harbor basin—including to Nord Mills—will cease between the end of 2015 and the end of 2016. The drawbridge is to be replaced by a fixed bridge in 2016. Rail service to Nord Mills may end as early as April 2015. Whether Cerealia will then bring grain to the mill by transshipment from Helsingborg or Malmö’s outer harbor, this will mean more truck movement and environmental impact—though this has likely been considered in the city’s growth calculations for Varvsstaden and West Harbor.

The Malmö Nord Mills Mill Will Be Gone Within a Few Years

The agreement states in section 2.12:

The companies’ [Cerealia’s] ambition is for the operations at property Triton [where the current plant stands] to end at Universitetsholmen within 25–30 years, though closure may come sooner depending on internal restructuring.

My assessment, without any insider knowledge, is that the Nord Mills facility will close within a few years. The parties probably anticipate this, and the agreement is the first step in the process. The city wants the plant gone as soon as possible, while LF gains leverage to develop the site for new projects—perhaps in partnership with Skanska, PEAB, Wihlborgs, or another company. Things may already have changed since this was last updated.

The vivid coloring in the image above hints that, as shipping and heavy industry retreat from the harbor, water area can be reduced, making space for more housing, offices, and green zones—raising the land’s value for LF as new owner.

Lantmännen Fastigheter AB (LF) has an option to build a new plant elsewhere in Malmö, but this seems unlikely. In Vejle, Jutland, Cerealia already operates one of Europe’s most modern, efficient, and eco-friendly mills (see reference). There are certainly other possibilities, too.

We can look forward to a very different urban landscape here within the not-too-distant future. How much longer will flour leave Nord Mills Malmö for the world?

References

• About BiBB, a media company and an encyclopedia 4.0
• Nord Mills ligger på Norra Neptunigatan i Malmö
• Foto med referens Stadsbyggnadskontoret använd med tillstånd
• Malmö Stora Valskvarn, Pdf. Maria Johansson och Olga Schlyter: Malmö museer
• Inventeringsrapport om silor i Skåne, Pdf. 2013
• Division Livsmedel i Lantmännen Cerealia AB
• Lantmännen Fastigheter AB | Havnemöllerne
• Text/photo/web: Johan Schlasberg

Published: 2014.06 Uppdated: 2025.09.11

Kategorier 20 Företag och industrier 5

---



Förslag till förbättringar av BiBB är välkomna



You know a lot, we may add a little^®