Description Feeding the appetite of Scandinavia, Axel Johnson is one of the region's largest food importers and retailers. Through interests in affiliated units, the company operates discount and upscale supermarkets and department stores, imports and wholesales food for supermarkets and restaurants, and invests in small and midsized Swedish companies. Operating primarily in Sweden, Axel Johnson is one of four financially and legally independent corporations that are owned by Antonia Ax:son ("Ax:son" is an abbreviated form of Axelson) Johnson and make up the Axel Johnson Group. The group is a fourth-and-fifth-generation, family-owned business that evolved from A. Johnson & Co., a trading company founded in 1873.