TOMRA was founded by the two brothers Tore and Petter Planke in 1972. It started out with the design, manufacturing and sale of reverse vending machines for automated collection of used beverage containers. During this time, a major breakthrough for Tomra was when in 1974, the Swedish entity Systembolaget ordered 100 RVMs.
1980s–2000s
TOMRA was listed in Oslo Børs on 18 January 1985 and tried to secure a position in the American market to no avail. It was then successfully attempted to enter the market in 1990s. By 1999, sales in the US accounted for more than half of total revenues. In 2006, TOMRA delivered more than 8000 new reverse vending systems to Germany. TOMRA's sensor-based sorting technology business was first established in 2004 with the acquisition of TiTech Visionsort AS, a provider of optical recognition and sorting technology, from Ferd AS for 219 million NOK. With the acquisition of Orwak in 2005, TOMRA established itself as a producer of compaction and baling solutions with an installed base of more than 67,000 balers. In December 2014, TOMRA sold the Orwak operations in Norway, Sweden, Poland and Japan under the name TOMRA Compaction to San Sac Nordic AB of Sweden. As of August 31, 2005, TOMRA Latasa Reciclagem S.A., offering aluminium can collection and recycling assets services in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina, was acquired by Aleris International, Inc. On 1 July 2006, TOMRA's subsidiary Titech Visionsort AS acquired 100 percent of the shares of Germany-based CommoDaS GmbH, a provider of recognition and sorting technology for metals, plastics, glass, minerals and gems, for approximately 100 million NOK. On 1 Juli 2008 TOMRA announced it bought Australian peer Ultrasort Group, a provider of advanced recognition and sorting technology to the mining industry, for 160 million NOK.
2010–2019
Via several acquisitions, TOMRA had grown into a global company since the 2000s and secured 75% global market share in RVMs and 60% Material Recovery from Collection Solutions and 40–65% in Sorting Solutions. On 12 December 2010, TOMRA's subsidiary TiTech acquired Dublin-based food technology company Odenberg, a designer of equipment used for producing 65 per cent of all French fries worldwide, for up to 57.5 million Euro from ACT Venture Capital in Dublin and members of the Van den Bergh family in Belgium; Odenberg's chilling/freezing unit was later considered a non-core business and sold in 2013 as to a newly formed company, Power Food Technology Ltd., of Ireland. On 31 December 2011, TOMRA sold the assets of Tomra Pacific, Inc., a recycler of used beverage containers in California, to rePlanet, LLC for approximately $25 million. In June 2012, TOMRA purchased 100% of Belgium-based food sorting specialist Best Kwadraat for 138 million Euro. In October 2016 TOMRA signed an agreement to acquire Compac Holding Ltd., a New Zealand-based provider of packing house automation systems that sort fresh produce based on weight, size, shape, color, surface blemishes, and internal quality, for $70 million plus up to $230 million in earn-outs available to Compac founders; the transaction was completed in March 2017. On 26 February 2018, TOMRA signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares in BBC Technologies. The deal resulted in BBC Technologies’ precision grading systems and innovative punnet and clamshell filling solutions for blueberries and other small fruits join TOMRA Food's own fruit inspection and grading technology portfolio.
In 2001, the EU Commission performed an investigation of Tomra's competition law compliance. Based on this investigation, the Commission concluded in March 2006 that TOMRA in their opinion had foreclosed competition in the period 1998 to 2002 in the market for reverse vending machines in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden by implementing an exclusionary strategy. TOMRA appealed the decision to the European General Court in 2006. In September 2010, the Court issued their judgment where they dismissed Tomra's appeal both on the substance and on the amount of the fine. TOMRA consequently accrued 28.2 million Euro for the fine and accumulated interest in the third quarter financial statement for 2010. TOMRA appealed this decision again but finally lost the case in April 2012.
