At the end of October 2022, Gustav Widström saw the news coverage of the war in Ukraine. He realized that many people were forced to cook over an open fire, which prompted him to develop a wood stove he had previously developed for humanitarian efforts, a stove based on a flat-pack solution where the stove is punched out of flat sheet metal.

The thought of Ukraine, combined with the resource-efficient flat-pack idea, sparked a new idea. Could a stove be built according to the same principle – easy to manufacture, deliver and assemble in crisis situations?

At an early stage of the project, Stefan Rahmqvist was involved, whose experience in sales and fire safety helped to quickly mobilize support and partnerships. Gustav contacted Operation Aid, which showed interest, as well as two leading suppliers in the Swedish automotive industry and the research institute RISE.

During the first week of November, Gustav sketched out a first proposal for a stove that would fit on a transport pallet. Six weeks later, after testing at RISE, the first model was delivered to Ukraine via the Blue Yellow Car to Operation Aid.

The stove works for both heating and cooking. The unique cut & fold technology means that the user can easily assemble the stove by hand, without tools or welding. This enables the production of tens of thousands of units both quickly and resource-efficiently.