History of the LNS Group
LNS was established in 1961 by Malvin Nilsen and his father, Leonhard Nilsen. Since then, the group has expanded to include 13 companies, including even the third generation of Nilsens.
The group’s main office is situated in Risøyhamn in Vesterålen, Norway. The group has activities throughout Norway, as well as on Svalbard, in the Antarctic, Hong Kong and in Chile, and the group recently completed projects in Russia, Greenland, and Iceland. In other words, LNS activities span the globe; from the North Pole to the South Pole.
In the early days, the company’s fleet of machinery was most modest, comprising a truck, a bus, and a taxicab, operating in the local community only.
Today, LNS has a large and highly advanced fleet of machinery, and the group is at the forefront of developing and adopting new technology.
The road from a modest, local company to the emergence of today’s global group, with 800 employees and a turnover of NOK 1.6 billion, has been long and winding, with many exciting milestones along the way.
- The Coast Guard base on Sortland (initialised in 1979) significantly expanded the LNS fleet of machinery
- The Stagnes base in Harstad (initialised in 1983) was the first major contract secured by LNS in competition with national contractors
- Arnesfjellet in Ballangen (1983) marked the beginning of LNS mining operations
- The Steigen tunnel (1986) was the first ever tunnel project for LNS
- LNS expanded to Svalbard (1999) when Svalbard’s cornerstone industrial enterprise, Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani, was on the verge of bankruptcy and asked for an emergency intervention by external actors
- The Almannaskard tunnel on Iceland (2004) was the first contract secured by LNS abroad
- With the establishment of LNS Chile (2008) and Hong Kong (2009), the group expands to include activities on another continent. Through this company, LNS will blast tunnels and rock caverns and engage in mining operations in South America