History

The origin of Primus stoves goes way back to 1892 when a Swedish company B A Hjorth & Co presented the original Primus stove as “The World’s finest cooking system”. They had designed a stove in which the paraffin was vaporised before combustion, dramatically reduced smoke and improved heating efficiency. The brand was further strengthened when many of the great explorers of that time took Primus stoves with them on expeditions to the North and South poles and returned as national heroes.

The reliability of Primus stoves proved invaluable for the explorers, however, it was the consumer market that would embrace the new soot free technology and the word “Primus” became a household name throughout the world. 

For the next 50 years Primus developed and refined an extensive range of cookers and heating blow torches based on the paraffin soot free technology.
















On the roof of the World

June 2, 1953 will long be remembered as the day when Hillary and Tensing reached the top of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. Their feat was the crowning achievement of 20 years of dogged heartbreaking effort to ascend the 29,141 foot peak. It required superb physical condition – plus the finest quality, most reliable equipment of that time. Primus stoves were selected for the expedition, on a mission where every single piece of equipment was of the utmost importance and on which the climber’s lives depended on. Despite icy cold, biting winds and thin air, the Primus stoves operated perfectly. The Everest conquest was a triumph for Primus.
 
Interest in LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) had been around since the 1930s however it wasn’t until the early 1950s that a range of blowlamps and then camping products designed for use with LPG showed the significant advantages over paraffin. During the 1950s Primus designed and distributed the new technology gas stoves, lanterns and radiant heaters around the world. Primus continued production of the paraffin stoves until 1962 at which time the rights to continue producing the old technology was sold off.
 
In 1966 the Primus company in Sweden was taken over by the Esso oil group which had a strong interest in the LPG market. Today the Primus logo still retains the Esso inspired elliptical shape of its logo.
 
Primus Australia

The Primus brand has been distributed in Australia since the early 1900s. It was a Sydney based trader who ran the company Nelson & Co that was responsible for the distribution of Primus products in Australia up until the mid 1980’s. The distribution business was sold a few times during the late 1980’s and it was 1992 when the present owners of Primus Australia were first introduced to the Primus brand. Initially taking over only the Industrial sector the Mclaughlan Group set about turning around the fortunes of the Primus brand which had suffered during the late 1980’s.

Such was the success of the turnaround, Primus Sweden entered into a formal partnership with the Mclaughlan Group to establish the trading company Primus Australia in 1995. Since then both the brand and the company has continued to flourish. During the past 7 years Primus Australia has acquired several allied brands in order to provide the Australian outdoor sector the largest and most comprehensive range of outdoor camping equipment.
 
The Primus history of ‘quality and tradition’ still sits with us today and furthers our motivation to create new and innovative products for the outdoor sector.