The SCA Group was founded on 27 November 1929. The man behind the formation of the company was Swedish financier Ivar Kreuger who merged some ten Swedish forest companies into a single group. The company consisted of forests, sawmills, pulp mills, machine shops and power companies. SCA had annual sales of approximately SEK 100 million and production was carried out in some 40 Swedish units with 6,500 employees. SCA's early years were marked by the international depression with lower prices and reduced exports. Kreuger's death and the subsequent break-up of his company Kreuger & Toll in 1932, eventually led to Svenska Handelsbanken assuming full control of SCA.