In 1923 Anders Föreland bought himself a small turninglathe and started his one-man company. His father owned a cement work in Övreby in Norway and at a free space in a corner of the building Anders could run the buisness. In fall of 1925 Anders' father John Foreland bought a Chevrolet-chassis. On this chassis Anders and his younger brother Gunvald built a combined bus/lorry bodywork. In 1927-28 3 or 4 similar bodyworks were built and due to this activity the localities were expand with a new building, messured 7x20 m in two levels. At this moment Anders and his brother started the firm A & G Föreland, Karosserifabrikk, Maskinverksted.

The rough times in the beginning of the '30:s made Gunvald seek himself to Gothenburg and the School of techniks. He studied motor and machinery and graduated with engineer diploma. Back at the company times were getting better and the orders that came in mostly was related to building buses.

When the Volvo PV 445 deliverychassis appered on the market, the Volvodealer Trygve Iglebäck in Kritiansand ordered one. He wanted the Foreland brothers to do the bodywork for the car that was to be an exhibition car. The style of the bodywork became approved by the public and ten more chassis were built. On this car you can see the indicators model flipping arrow and the A-model bumper and taillight. This could indicate that this is one of the 500 first produced chassis, the PV 445 A - seriel. These models had the speedometer in the middle of the dashboard with two glove compartments on either side.

Second generation Föreland, John Föreland, started in 1949 and the third generation, Stein Föreland, started in 1968. In 1970 the companies name was changed to Föreland Karosserifabrikk A/S.
The company went bankrupt in 1995 with 17 employees.


Information about A & G Föreland Karosserifabrikk is taken from the book Håndverk på hjul by Asbjörn Rolseth. The book has the ISBN nr. 82-995890-0-2 and is released in year 2001. It presents around 50 norwegian coachbuilders with high quality photos in black&white. A big thank you to Kåre Leth who tipped about the book!

Published 2002-01-14