Grana International was founded in Belgium 1987, and was at the beginning primarily focusing on real estate investments and property management. Grana International was a sister company to real estate companies operating in Sweden and the United States, owned by the Fogelberg family. Grana International invested, on their own and in joint ventures, in several real estate projects in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Grana International was involved in management, financing, creating legal structures, refurbishments and construction. Blue Tower, the 24 stories well known office building on Avenue Louise in Brussels, was one successful project where Grana International was involved, both as owner and manager.
During the early 90’ the business of Grana International was expanded to include consulting, broker services, investigations, setting up corporate structures for, and advising other real estate owners/investors in the Benelux countries. Among the customers of Grana International were several Swedish Banks and foreign investment Companies.
In 1992 Grana International entered into one of its largest projects and researched into the Self Storage market in Europe. In early 1994 a joint venture was created together with Shurgard Self Storage Inc, a leading US Self Storage owner/operator, with the purpose of expanding the business in Europe. In 2004 Grana International sold its interest in Shurgard Europe to the mother company in the United States. At this stage, Shurgard Europe was operating in European 7 countries and managed 140 stores.
In 2005 Grana International invested in Street Car, a UK car sharing company that later was sold to Zip Car. Grana International also invested in Taxi System, a Swedish based Taxi booking and taximeter company and worked with the founders to build the business in Sweden. The company was sold in 2012 to the founders.
In late 2006 Grana International started SelStor, a Self Storage company based in Stockholm Sweden, focusing on building a Self Storage platform in Sweden. The company was sold in December 2012. At this stage SelStor had 8 operating stores and 2 under construction in the greater Stockholm market.
In 2014 Grana International started 24Storage. A new Self Storage company with innovative and new thinking ideas that would make them stand out from the rest. This made them very successful and today you can find more than 25 facilities in Sweden. 24Storage was later in December 2019 listed on the stock exchange.
Grana International AB is now actively looking at new businesses to build for the future.
