Brigitta Sahlgren

Brigitta Sahlgren, née Ekmarck was a Swedish businessperson. She was the managing director of the Sahlgrenska sockerbruket (Sahlgren Sugar refinery) in 1736-1771 and a trade and shipping company in 1736-1744.

Brigitta Sahlgren was the daughter of the merchant Olof Pehrsson Ekmarck and Christina Stillman and married in 1715 to merchant Jacob Sahlgren, who founded the first sugar refinery in Sweden, Sahlgrenska sockerbruket, in 1729, which became one of the greatest businesses in Gothenburg. She took over the refinery, as well as the trade- and shipping company which was also owned by her spouse, when she was widowed in 1736. Sahlgren had a monopoly upon the sugar industry in Sweden. When another merchant applied for permission to found a new one in 1740, she sued him before the government and won after a two year legal battle. However, as she did not manage to increase the sugar production to meet the growing demand, as the government demanded of her in exchange for respecting the monopoly from 1729, Nicolas Jacobson was after a new legal battle allowed to open a second sugar refinery in Gothenburg in 1749. The Sahlgrenska sockerbruket kept a leading role in the sugar industry nonetheless.

Brigitta Sahlgren had one son, Olaf (died 1758), and one daughter, Sara Christina (d. 1766) who married count Sparre, and was succeeded after her death by her grandsons; Jacob Sahlgren and count Gustaf Adolf Sparre.