The hamburger chain Max was founded on June 14, 1968. It was then that Curt Bergfors and his former partner Britta Fredriksson opened the doors to his first grill in Gällivare. Since then, it has opened almost 150 Max restaurants in Sweden, and they are also found in Norway, Denmark and Poland, among others.
But in 1986, life changed drastically for Max founder Curt Bergfors. Curt’s sons Christopher and Richard Bergfors tells in Carina Bergfeldt’s talk show about the accident that turned the family’s life upside down.
The Bergfors brothers continue to work with their father’s life’s work, the hamburger chain Max. Image source: SVT
– He was maybe 36. He had decided to stop working. He had worked up his 20 million and was going to go around the world and “we’ll see how long I’m gone” and the journey began. We were there. We were 9 and 11 years old. First stop was the south of France. We are sitting in a restaurant for lunch in St Tropez and he is going to show how to dive from a jetty in shallow water. He knew it was shallow but wanted to teach us a “life lesson”, that if you are going to dive when it is shallow you have to do a belly splash almost. But yes, he failed and hit his head on the bottom and thus he was paralyzed from the chest down, says Christoffer Bergfors.
Richard Bergfors is today the president and CEO of Max. Here he is seen in 2007. Image source: Björn Larsson Ask/TT Bild
Curt Bergfors worked with Max until the very end. But after an operation in Sweden went wrong, he was flown to Miami in the USA, where he had an apartment with his wife Malin Känsäkanga’s Bergfors. In addition to the apartment in Miami, Curt also had a villa in Florida where he lived during the Swedish winters.
However, he spent the last time in his life in a hospital in Miami, and it was also there that he fell asleep on May 8, 2022.
Curt Bergfors was 73 years old. Image source: Max.se
– It is with great sadness that we announce that Curt Bergfors, MAX founder, main owner and working chairman of the board, has fallen asleep on May 8, 2022 with his immediate family by his side. He leaves behind a wife, four children, grandchildren and other relatives and friends, the family wrote in one press release then.
Max restaurant in Stockholm on Hamngatan. Image source: Leif R Jansson/TT Bild Why is it called MAX? Now Curt Bergfor’s sons reveal the real reason
After Curt’s passing, the eldest sons Richard and Christoffer have taken over, and there is no doubt that the business is profitable – in 2023, Max’s turnover was SEK 5.4 billion.
The boys’ salary envelopes are not on the meager side. Earlier, Nyheter24 wrote about the incredible salary that Christoffer Bergfors can collect every month.
During his lifetime, Curt Bergfors was a mysterious person who liked to stay in the background, and he never gave interviews. In fact, he was actually inspired by the movie star Greta Garbowhich is known for its somewhat mysterious appearance.
Greta Garbo was one of Curt Bergfor’s favourites. Image source: TT Bild
Something that many Swedes may have thought about at some point in their lives is why Max is called the way it is. In the interview with Carina Bergfeldt, the brothers now reveal why their father named his life’s work MAX.
Carina Bergfeldt and the Bergfors brothers. Image source: SVT
– One of his big idols was Greta Garbo…and the mystery. He actually had two. Greta Garbo and Max von Sydowand Max is the reason why it is called Max, reveals Christoffer.
– It could have been a Greta chain?, asks Bergfeldt.
– It absolutely could have been, replies Christoffer and laughs.
The Swedish actor Max von Sydow was born on April 10, 1929 and died at the age of 90 on March 8, 2020. One of his most famous roles was as the knight Anthony Block in Ingmar Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal, where von Sydow’s character played chess with death.
Max von Sydow (right) plays chess with Death. Image source: Stella Pictures. Max von Sydow in 1990. Image source: Stella Pictures.
von Sydow starred in over 140 films, and he enjoyed a lucrative Hollywood career for many years. In 2012, he was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
Carina Bergfeldt is broadcast on SVT Fridays at 8 p.m. and is available on SVT Play from 5 p.m.