A VISIT TO THE OFFASON PLAYING CARDS FACTORY
The Offsettrykeriet Offason
AB was founded in 1965 by Jan-Ove Offason at the age of 23. They started
printing in a small house in Käglinge, using a second hand Roland printing
machine, that was modified by Jan-Ove. It's a family owned company and after the
death of Jan-Ove in November 2010 the company is run by his son Chris. Nowadays
the company is specialized in the manyfacturing of games and playing cards.
The IPCS is all about playing cards too and that was probably one of the reasons
that the Offason company offered their cooperation to the Swedish organizing
committee of the 2010 IPCS convention. They printed the well illustrated and
informative catalogue of Scandinavian playing cards, which all attendants
received in their convention bags, and no doubt the special convention deck too.
But their involvement went a bit further. On the last day of the IPCS convention in Malmö a
bus trip was made to the Offason factory in Vittsjö.
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Upon arrival we were presented a soft drink and were welcomed by the present CEO, Chris Offason, who had -because of our visit- especially scheduled the manufacturing of playing cards for this Sunday. The informal reception took place in the parking lot at the |
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backside of the plant. After Chris had told us something about the history of the company and the present production and policy, we were invited to enter the production hall, a moment that most of us had been looking forward to. |
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| The large production hall is divided in three parts. The first hall has production lines for packaging material. Here boxes are made for | ||
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the
games that Offason produces. |
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In
the mean time Robert van Gool had the time of his life, as he had worked
in the playing card factory of Van Genechten when he was about 16 years
old. |
And there were playing cards everywhere......... |
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On the next page the modern way of manufacturing will be illustrated........
