Our history

The company was established by Mr. Tore Ulff in 1928 and during the company´s existence, it has made a full circle. The company began with shipbroking, continued as shipowners and has again returned to its brokering roots.

Mr. Tore Ulff was born in 1899 and for the first years of his life he lived in the port city of Karlskrona. After a short period of working in the Royal Swedish Navy he began studies at Påhlmans Handelsinstitut, a school of commerce. His first employment after completing his studies was with the shipping company Broströms, in 1919. He also worked for the shipping firm Clarksons in London and when he left he was the manager for Clarksons´ Scandinavian branch before setting up his own company in Stockholm. The name was of course: Tore Ulff AB.

Tore Ulff AB acquired its first ship in 1934, a cargo steamer of 3,000 tons named Diana built in 1908. Two years later it was time for the next ship acquisition of similar size, named Daphne. After some setbacks during the Second World War with ships being sunk Tore Ulff AB continued buying and selling ships in the 50´s, 60´s, and 70´s with Barbara, a bulkcarrier of 22,000tons being one of the companys largest.

During these years Tore Ulff AB was both a shipbroker and a shipowner but in the 1980´s Tore Ulff AB finally left the shipowning side and became a pure shipbroking company although a few part ownerships remained. Back then most of the brokerage´s business came from the Swedish forest industry with goods like sawn timber, pulp, pulpwood and paper being shipped. The forest industry is still important and now also ship biofuels such as woodpellets and woodchips. Today also the mining and steel industry uses Tore Ulff for shipping of products like ore, coal and steel.

Mr. Tore Ulff passed away in 1998 at the age of 99. He continued working for his company until the end. In the mid 1960´s his son, Carl Reinhold Ulff took over the position as Managing Director after, just like his father, having worked for Clarksons in London. He had also worked for Essberger, a shipowner in Germany and for one of the world´s largest brokers for sale and purchase, Barry Rogliano in Paris. Tore Ulff AB is today run by Carl Reinhold´s son Christer Ulff.