Clas Ohlson company was founded in 1918 by the technically minded Clas Ohlson (1895–1979), as a mail order business based in the Swedish village of Insjön, Dalarna. Initially, only manuals and technical literature were sold, thus allowing people who lived in rural communities to obtain literature that would otherwise be unavailable. He opened his first shop in Insjön in 1926, but it was not until 1989, when the company opened a store in a shopping centre in central Stockholm, that it expanded into the retail business. The first store outside Sweden was opened 1991 in Oslo in Norway and in 1999, the
Great Mills (DIY) to its stores. This saved many motorway miles as deliveries were co ordinated, rather than having hundreds of suppliers delivering to the same store each day. By 2000, over 70% of the product range was delivered by the Great Mills fleet, two or three times a week. In 1994, four of the worst-performing Great Mills stores were rebranded into the chain No Frills DIY. These stores were St. Austell, Salisbury, and Northallerton. Other than external signage saying "No Frills", the interior of the stores followed no corporate planning as the concept was to sell anything and everything in an attempt