Our history in frames

1975

𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐚 – 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬?

Back in 1975, with just two employees, Stenmaterialer & Shipping Aabenraa ApS started trading raw materials for the concrete and asphalt industry.

Stema provided services such as sales, supply, chartering, stevedoring, and shipping. The company sold and traded limestone and aggregates from Denmark, Sweden, UK and Norway, while selling in Danmark and exporting primarily to Germany. Even our picture highlights the strong ties with Stemas southern neighbour: the German car belonged to an employee who crossed the border daily!

1978

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭-𝐮𝐩 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭!

Founded in 1978 by Hans-Jürgen Hartmann the German Elbe-Weser-Handelskontor – one of our two founding companies – operated out of the owner family's private home for five years. But in 1983, it was time for a change: the company built its first headquarters in Cadenberge. Later, EWH rebranded as Mibau – and to this day, the headquarters of Mibau Stema Group remain at the same location.

𝐅𝐮𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭: In its early years, the initials EWH playfully stood for "𝒆𝘪𝘯 𝒘𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝑯𝘢𝘶𝘧𝘦𝘯" – German for "𝘢 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩". And with good reason! Back then, the company traded in… well, almost everything: Danish wooden houses, garden furniture, windows, doors – and even the wheel loaders you see in the picture.

Another key pillar of the business was the import of Faxe lime, a porous limestone from quarries near the Danish town of Faxe. This lime was amongst spread over forests by helicopter to combat forest dieback – 𝐌𝐢𝐛𝐚𝐮 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐚’𝐬 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧!

1987

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐚 “𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭” 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞? 𝐓𝐨 𝐮𝐬, 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥!

This image from 1987 captures the early groundwork on the Norwegian coast near Jelsa – a site that would soon become Europe’s largest quarry of its kind and a cornerstone of our rock-solid business.
The company was originally founded as Norsk Stein A/S Jelsa by Odd Hotvedt and Per Nerheim. The two had previously worked on the construction of the Førrevass dam, part of Ulla-Førre, Northern Europe’s largest hydropower plant in Suldal. When the dam was completed, the equipment and the Berakvam industrial site (seen in the image) were put up for sale – and the two seized the opportunity.
In no time, a crushed stone plant was established. The founders partnered with Norsk Sand, which handled sales and, in 1989, secured Stema Shipping as a key customer.
Today, the plant is part of the Mibau Stema Group and produces around 13 million tonnes of material annually. From sand and aggregates to road construction materials, water stones, offshore supplies, railway ballast, and specialized products for various industries – our colleagues in Norway deliver.

A warehouse – and a strong committment to Aabenraa Port

Some call it a warehouse – we see a milestone that speaks volumes about growth.
Back in the winter of 1986/87, Stema laid the foundation for something big. To safely and eco-friendly store fertiliser lime for large-scale delivery, we built a warehouse unlike any other: at the time, it was the largest building in Scandinavia with a self-supporting roof.
Inside, 8,000 square metres of space held up to 100,000 tonnes of lime, which helps farmers to secure good harvests. Outside, in the port of Aabenraa, ships were ready to carry our product to customers near and far.
While Mibau Stema has moved on from fertilizer lime as a product – the warehouse is now run by a different company –, one thing hasn’t changed: our commitment to growing. Together with our customers, partners, and team, we continue to build on the strong foundations of our company. Just this year, for example, we expanded our operations in the port of Aabenraa and secured a contract for a new site. With a depth of up to 18 metres, the port is ideally suited to our fleet and plays a vital role in the flow of goods across southern Jutland and northern Germany.

Second-hand machines, first-class dedication.

When Norsk Stein began operations in Jelsa, it did so with used tools – and big ambitions. The photo from 1990 shows our very first plant, built largely from second-hand equipment purchased after the completion of the Førrevass dam.

Originally planned for an annual output of 600,000 tonnes of crushed stone, the site employed just 15 team members in 1989. Today, including seasonal staff, around 340 people work in Jelsa – a remarkable journey, powered by passion, persistence, and the people behind it.

One of Norsk Stein’s founders, Odd Hotvedt, is still part of the team – living proof that long-term success is built on commitment.

Heading east – with vision, drive and a dredger.

After the German reunification, many companies looked east. For our German co-founder EWH, or Mibau, the direction was clear: the Baltic Sea region offered new opportunities – and we were ready to take them.
It all began in 1990 with a gravel plant in Rostock, and the rescue of an old gravel dredger. The “Baltic Kies” had already sunk once, been salvaged and was about to go to the scrap press. After the acquisition, we rebuilt the gravel dredger: it secured a large part of our raw material extraction from the Danish Baltic Sea until it was decommissioned in 2001.
In the 90s, the company expanded further, founding several ready-mixed concrete companies and becoming the region’s leading distributor. We produced and sold millions of tonnes of material. But gravel remained at the heart of it all. The photo from 1993 captures a proud milestone: we built our own gravel dredger MS Seekies, and the gravel plant in Greifswald. There, gravel dredged in Polish waters was processed for the concrete and asphalt industry.
Today, the MS Seekies is no longer part of our fleet. For economic reasons, we now supply the German market from Sweden and Norway – another example of how closely connected our operations have become.

I𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗿—𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀?

1994 marked a defining moment in our company’s history: the year our founders, Lau Boisen (left) and Hans-Jürgen Hartmann (right), came together—not just for the photo, but to turn Mibau and Stema into one company.

But let’s take a step back. For years, the founding companies—EWH and Stenmaterialer & Shipping Aabenraa A/S—maintained a close trading relationship. EWH purchased rock material from Norwegian and Swedish quarries from Stema, which was transported to Germany on what were then smaller ships, and sold it under its own name to German customers.

Then came 1994: EWH transferred its business operations to Mibau and acquired shares of Stema Shipping A/S (Denmark). The rock business was thus merged into the new company, while Stema's lime business was sold to Fakse Kalk.

That Mibau Stema would go on to build its own terminal network and operate Europe’s largest quarry? Judging by this photo, our founders may already have had an inkling.

𝗥𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘀, 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹, 𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗱 – 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺?

Each year, our Norwegian quarries supply around 17 million tonnes of high-quality crushed rock. But that's not all—we also offer sand and gravel from land-based deposits through a long-standing connection with Heidelberg Materials.

This close connection goes back to 1994, when HeidelbergCement acquired shares in EWH, our German founders. Over time, this involvement deepened, leading in 2001 to an exclusive distribution agreement with Heidelberger Sand und Kies (now Heidelberg Materials Mineralik DE GmbH). As part of the deal, we took over employees and began the exclusive distribution of materials from five gravel pits—among them the Langhagen site, the largest in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes and reserves of 70 million tonnes.

Our network expanded further in 2005 with the addition of three gravel pits, four river barges and a small dredger along the Weser. In 2007, we added the Damsdorf gravel pit—the largest of its kind in Schleswig-Holstein. Thanks to this integrated setup, we can offer customers larger packages with sand and gravel, complementing our aggregates from Norway.

𝗔 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀.

Here it is – our German headquarters in the year it officially opened! By 1995, the original premises had become too small for the expanding Elbe-Weser-Handelskontor EWH, or Mibau Stema Deutschland. So the company took the next step and extended its footprint in Cadenberge.

The bold blue and yellow colour scheme still catches the eye. Even the lorries – originally taken over in 1987 with the acquisition of H.-H. Rademacher GmbH in Cuxhaven – were given a fresh new look.
And yes, the most frequently asked design question has an answer: the blue stands for water and the sea – which is central to our logistics to this day. The yellow? Simply the favourite colour of one of our founders, Hans-Jürgen Hartmann. Today, it is a lucky match for our sand, gravel and aggregates products – coincidence or just good taste? In any case, the brand colours make our German headquarters a real eye-catcher!