Intertek Sweden – celebrating 100 years of assuring innovation
02 Apr 2025
Partnering with the innovators of today and tomorrow to bring quality, safety and sustainability to life.
Stockholm, Sweden: Intertek, a leading Total Quality Assurance provider to industries worldwide, celebrates the centenary of its Swedish operation this year.
Intertek Sweden is a market leader in the Nordics, partnering with innovative companies around the world to ensure that the electrical products used in our homes, workplaces and health care facilities are safe and meet the highest quality standards. In 2025, the business is celebrating both its 100-year history and looking ahead to what the next 100 years hold for its customers and the innovative products of today and tomorrow.
Sweden is a country of innovators. From the pacemaker to ASEA's groundbreaking work in electrification and automation, Sweden's contributions to technological development have been highly significant.
Swedish companies are known for taking safety and quality seriously, and 'made in Sweden' stands for safety and quality both at home and abroad. However, when the first electrical products entered Swedish homes and workplaces on a large scale in the early 1900s, many were dangerous to use. It wasn't uncommon for short circuits to cause fires or for people to be seriously injured, or even die, from electric shocks.
Founded in 1925 to mitigate these problems, the mission of Intertek Sweden – or Svenska Elektriska Materielkontrollanstalten AB (Semko) as the company was then called – was to ensure that electrical installations and products entering the Swedish market were safe to use. The company accomplished this by testing products in its own laboratory and, from 1926, issuing the S-mark, which denoted that the product had been tested and approved by Semko. Until Sweden's entry into the EU in the 1990s, no electrical products could be sold on the Swedish market without an S-mark.
As Swedish companies are pioneers in green technology, electrification, and digitalisation, Intertek Sweden has been a pioneer in compliance and standardisation. Until 1939, Swedish electrical safety standards were developed and published by Semko, and in the 1960s, Semko was one of the founding members of the international Certification Body (CB) certification system.
Today, Intertek Sweden is a trusted Total Quality Assurance partner across the Nordics and beyond. Known for their dedication to helping innovators take their groundbreaking technologies to market around the world in the fastest and most efficient way, Intertek Sweden's employees are important voices in the IECEE's (Electrotechnical Equipment and Components) CB programme, the European certification organisation European Testing Inspection Certification System (ETICS), and in the national, regional, and global committees and working groups that drive standard development across traditional and emerging technologies.
Timo Lieber, Vice President, Electrical, Europe and Managing Director, Intertek Semko AB, commented: "We are proud of our long history and the role we have played – and still very much play – in assuring the quality, safety and sustainability of innovative products entering the market, not just in Sweden but around the world.
“With 100 years of leadership in compliance, safety, and quality, and our broad global network, we remain the Quality Assurance partner of choice for a diverse range of exciting and innovative businesses. Our team’s customer focus and expertise make us the obvious choice to help today's and tomorrow's technology innovators navigate increasingly complex regulatory landscapes.”
Sunny Rai, President, Electrical & Connected World at Intertek, added: “Intertek Sweden is a pioneer in the electrical space, and over the past century, the expertise and experience of our colleagues in Sweden have been instrumental in building Intertek’s electrical testing and certification capabilities around the world.
“This year, we celebrate the rich history of Intertek Sweden, while looking forward to the next 100 years of unsurpassed support to innovators in the Nordics and beyond."
For Media Information:
Please contact:
Åsa Larsbo
asa.larsbo@intertek.com
About Intertek
Intertek is a leading Total Quality Assurance provider to industries worldwide.
Our network of more than 1,000 laboratories and offices in more than 100 countries, delivers innovative and bespoke Assurance, Testing, Inspection and Certification solutions for our customers' operations and supply chains.
Intertek is a purpose-led company to Bring Quality, Safety and Sustainability to Life. We provide 24/7 mission-critical quality assurance solutions to our clients to ensure that they can operate with well-functioning supply chains in each of their operations.
Our Customer Promise is: Intertek Total Quality Assurance expertise, delivered consistently, with precision, pace and passion, enabling our customers to power ahead safely.
intertek.com