The history

Nordisk Korthandel, Scanmaps ApS

was founded July 1, 1959 by Troels Oscar Petersen.

Growing Up

Troels Petersen is born and raised in Copenhagen. His father ran a small metal foundry in Copenhagen thereby creating the family's economic foundation. When Troels was 12 years old his father died of cancer. During the father's illness his wife, Ellen Marie Petersen, began working in the foundry. She worked in her foundry from 1938 until 1967 and in this way supported her family. By frugality and thrift she bought a small summer cottage in Holte, payed for the education and travels abroad for her son Troels, who attended the public shcool Holte Gymnasieskole and later Holte Gymnasium, from which he graduated in the summer of 1946.

Education

Right after highschool Troels Petersen got a position as a bookseller apprentice in Copenhagen completing the apprenticeship in 1949.

After finishing his education as a bookseller and doing his military service, he worked in a bookshop in Odense before going back to Copenhagen where Troels studied for his HH at Niels Brocks Trade Academy.

The Booktrade Business

Next followed seven years of various jobs in the booktrading business in Copenhagen, England, Sweden and again Copenhagen. 1952 -1953 Fremad Boghandel in Copenhagen. 1953 - 1954 (the winter) Blackwell, Oxford, England 1954 - 1955 Almqvist Wicksell Stockholm, Sweden 1955 -1959 GAD´s Boghandel on Strøget in Copenhagen.

In 1957 Troels began selling maps for GAD and this became his first experience with mapselling.

In the spring of 1959 Troels got the idea to specialize in maps and expand GAD's assortment with more detailed maps. His suggestion was not accepted.

The Beginning

June 30, 1959 was Troels last workday at GAD and on July 1 he opened Nordisk Korthandel, Scanmaps ApS. Why did he choose the name Nordisk Korthandel?
Because Troels thought that he would only be selling maps from Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries. It was a big goal in itself.

The First Shop

The first shop was situated in Toldbodgade 61. The phone number was: Palæ 2638.
The shop consisted of a chair and a table in his mothers foundry which phone he used. The ”big” investment was a new bike and the purchase of a map for the sum of 150 dkr plus some free samples. (Back then a map which today will cost about 95 dkr. cost 4 dkr.)
On his bike Troels visited companies in Copenhagen city. His first sale was to the master builders' association and it was a 4.50 dkr. map of Copenhagen. In the summer of 1959 he got his first customers and many of these are still buying from Troels today.

The Big Hit

was a special map of Rome to high schools, and garnisons all over the contry bough a map of WW2 operations.

Maps For Offices

Troels Petersen knew a master painter who could mount maps and thus began the sale of big wall maps. Until 1967 Troels managed the store himself with help from his mother, whom had - after nearly 30 years - shut down her metal foundry.

The First Co-Worker

In 1967 a man was hired to mount maps for schools and offices. In Nordisk Korthandel's first eight years it was primarily selling maps to schools and offices.
Not until 1967 did the business move to number 55 to bigger rooms where Nordisk Korthandel got its first map shop selling maps to customers coming in from the street.

Until 1972 Troels himself dealt with the customers.

Touring The Country

In 1972 the first co-worker was hired for the shop which meant that Troels could spend more time visiting schools all over the country. Back then catalogues were in black and white and in rather poor quality which necessitated visiting the schools so that the client/school could see the goods properly.

The Classic School Wall Maps

Troels brought a large assortment of wall maps to the schools. There were the three classic school wall maps: Denmark, Europa and the World plus a selection of maps for history, geografphy, languages and religion.
Up through the 70s Nordisk Korthandel, Scanmaps ApS grew and grew. One of the reasons for the rapid growth was due to the new building of many schools and high schools. This created a need for new school wall maps in large quantities.

Fire

In 1979 the shop and part of the office burned down. The building where the school and office maps were mounted was not damaged by the fire. The following rebuilding of the shop made it possible to expand the size of the shop itself, hence providing more space for the maps and the rest of the assortment.

Going Places

In the beginning of the 1980s apprentices were hired and from the mid-80s Nordisk Korthandel began selling guidebooks. The tourist business was expanding, we all wanted to travel.

The staff now consisted of 9 co-workers. Back then there were not a lot of travel guide series, but among the first were:

• Let's Go
• Michelin guides
• Lonely Planet

In 1971 the first "Kortavis" (catalogue) was printed in black & white - written on an IBM type writer.

Relocation of the workshop

In 1982 the school and office map workshop had to move to Flintholm Alle on Frederiksberg. The shop stayed on in Toldbodgade 55.

New Maps

From the mid-1980s Nordisk Korthandel became sole dealer of the environment school wallmaps and maps used in language and history classes plus geographical maps from Perthes Verlag.

Studiestræde

In 1989 a new era began for Nordisk Korthandel, Scanmaps ApS. The shop and workshop moved from Toldbodgade to Studiestræde so that once again the two business were located in the same place.

This turned out to be a great advantage. Nordisk Korthandel's new central location in the heart of Copenhagen's Latin Quarter meant that it became easy for our customers to get to the store.
Now the customers could themselves fetch school maps and maps for offices from our workshop in the back building.

Going East

Up through the 1990s the company grew. It was becoming increasingly popular to travel on one's own and the publishers published more and more maps.
New maps of the East European countries were published by all the major map publishers.

Around the World

As Interrail was replaced by “Around the World” trips the need for guides catering to the individual traveller increased. The bestselling guide book was Let's Go Europe. For us here in Europe the series “Lonely Planet” became a bestseller. The series has now existed for more than 25 years and is selling like never before. To travel on your own has almost become a must for young people today and what a must it is: to see and experience the world.

Increasing the map selection

At the beginning of the 1990s we were still buying most of our maps from small publishers. For instance we got our maps over South America from a small travel agency/publisher in Germany. The owner visited the various countries in South America on his motorcycle and bought the maps locally. The maps were good and very exact, but not cheap.

Activity Guides & Digital maps

Activity guides become a special niche and digital maps becomes part of the assortment. The guide series grow and maps of areas that used to be hard to get now becomes available from a wide range of publishers and suppliers.

Today we have many maps, both for driving and hiking, the selection is large. The guide series grow in numbers and new appear.

WWW

In 1996 we got our web address www.scanmaps.com - It was a fantastic new world that Nordisk Korthandel immediately embraced. Today our customers can get direct access to information about maps and guides by visiting our website. Our entire EDB-system is integrated so that when we add a new book or map to our assortment the product will be available online as well. It is a fantastic opportunity to give our customers constantly updated information. Today we have an online shop where the customer can buy our products, find the correct hiking map, and find inspiration to their next journey.

Mounting & Lamination

We have to small workshops where we mount maps for offices, private homes and schools. There are several frames to choose from: a stylish aluminium frame, a soft clothframe or a classic wooden frame (many different types of woods).
Nordisk Korthandel also laminates both wall maps and hiking maps.

Nordisk Korthandel 2004

Today Nordisk Korthandel has a staff of 15 co-workers. We have a large shop with app. 13,000 products (maps, guides, globes, atlases, wall maps, digital maps, etc.)

I 2003 we began to offer wooden framing of our wallmaps.

Troels

Troels is still here working and enjoying selling maps.
Troels found a niche that not only pleased himself but also his co-workers and we feel it here in the shop where we meet happy travel-ready customers.
It inspires us and makes us want to participate in the exciting travels that we hear about.

We would like to thank you for the inspiration and joy we receive through our daily work, and which has made the existence of this shop possible.