In 1947 the brothers Harry, Arne, Sture and Erik Modig established Modig Mekaniska Verkstad AB in the town of Virserum in south-eastern Sweden, with two other brothers among the employees, and Harry's wife Ulla also became an employee and manager. Early products included engine lathes.

In 1955 Harry Modig bought out his brothers to become sole owner of the business. A radial drilling machine was introduced and became very popular in the US and Canada; 80 percent of their radial drills were exported to the Americas. When Harry died in 1965, Ulla took over control and proved to be an able and active leader. In 1967, son Percy Modig began working for the company, and during that same year they introduced the model UBM30 universal drilling/milling machine. This machine was quite popular in Western Europe, with half the production going to West Germany. In 1972 the larger UBM AM universal drill-mill was introduced.

When Ulla Modig died in 1978, Percy Modig took over control of the business. Beginning in 1982 the company increasingly focused on CNC machinery, and in 1986 introduced the MD 5000 and MD 6000 machining centers, which were modestly successful. Then in 1987 they introduced the MD 7200 which provided much higher speeds, and Modig would continue to be an innovator and leader in high speed machining.

By the 1990s the company's products were increasingly aimed at aircraft manufacturing. In 1991 they acquired Junger Instrument AB of Stockholm, makers of tool and cutter grinders. The steadily expanding Modig company was supplying specialized machining, drilling, assembly, measurement and riveting machines to aircraft manufacturers, especially Boeing. The company was also making a specialty of extruding machines, especially for large and heavy extrusions. In 2002 Modig introduced the Trans Flex machining center which was aimed primarily at automotive manufacturing. High speed machining centers continue to be a specialty. In 2017 an HHV 2-Mill machine, with a 295 HP (220 KW) spindle, achieved a chip removal rate of over 1000 cubic inches per minute (16,400 cubic centimeters per minute).

Information Sources

• The lathes.co.uk site has a History of Modig document (PDF) that provided much of the information here. This history appears to have been written by Modig.
• A History from the Modig corporate website was also used in writing our summary.
• The lathes.co.uk site has information on the Modig UM3508 milling machine, the Modig 190-HFA lathe, and the Modig UBM-AM and UBM-30 vertical milling machines, the latter also being sold in the UK under the Meddings label.