Valter Ljungström founded SIR of Sweden in Vingåker in 1925, though at eighteen he was legally too young to register the company himself, so his mother Hilma set it up as Ljungströms Konfektionsfabrik AB. The first production line ran out of the family's own kitchen; Valter's father Joel had been a tailor, and the name SIR was chosen specifically to evoke the tailored elegance of a British gentleman. The company grew to employ around 1,300 people across its Vingåker plants by the early 1970s, and is now run by Valter's grandchildren.