Business structure
The diverse business life in Helsingborg has a long history of entrepreneurship. The business environment is among the best in the country.
There have never been as many companies in Helsingborg as there are today. Since 2010, the number of companies in Helsingborg has increased by about 13 % and in the end of 2017 there were 14,262 companies operating in Helsingborg. The percentage of the population in work increases in parallel with the growth in the number of companies. Today, almost 71,000 people work in Helsingborg, an increase of over 15,000 people, or 27 %, since 2000. Among Sweden’s 290 local councils, Helsingborg is in the 39th place for employment growth in the period 2000-2016. Most of the employed workforce is found in commerce (17%). Since 2010, the largest workforce increases have occurred within care and nursing, while the highest percentage increases have been in the property business
Today, 73.9 % of the population is in gainful employment, which is proportionate to Scania as a whole. By factoring in commuters who travel across the border to Denmark, the employment rate increases to over 75 %.
The business community in Helsingborg is made up of a mixture of large global corporations, medium and small company owners, and clusters with unique profiles and capacities. Just like the rest of Sweden, small and medium-sized companies comprise the larger part of the business community. The larger part of these, around 60 %, are single entity companies without employees.
Foreign-owned companies
Since the turn of the Millennium, the number of foreign-owned companies has increased significantly in both Helsingborg and the rest of the country. Today, there are over 600 foreign-owned companies in Helsingborg, an increase of 140% since the year 2000. The foreign-owned companies employ close to 13,000 people, or approximately 20% of the employed workforce in Helsingborg. Among the largest of these corporations are Johnson & Johnson (McNeil), Nestle, DHL, Puma and Unilever.
Turnover
In 2017 the total annual turnover for all business in Helsingborg came in at just above 130 billion SEK (excluding VAT). The commerce industry was responsible for nearly half of this turnover, while corporate services, construction and logistics combined were responsible for another 25 % of the turnover. The rest of the business sector accounted for the remaining 25 %.
Largest companies
The largest private employers are more often than not companies within commerce, logistics and the intersection between these two industries. IKEA is the city’s largest employer, followed by ICA (stores not accounted for in this statistic) and the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson (McNeil). Marvin Holding runs a number of preschool and academic institutions in the city, Total Produce works within logistics and Nobina runs the city and regional bus services on behalf of Skånetrafiken. Furthermore Posten Norge (Bring) works within logistics, Resurs within payment services, Attendo in recruitment and the Axel Johnson-corporation runs several companies within the commerce industry.
