Mustad has expanded from their core business of manufacturing hooks and terminal tackle to a varied range of other fishing accessories.

[4] The company was headquartered in the small village of Gjøvik (Norway), an area with poor infrastructures where transportation was an obstacle to most type of supplies.

Over the years, Mustad was a crucial part of Gjøvik and the region as a large number of the population was involved with the company and its many products.

Knowing the importance of this invention to the company, Topp and the Mustad family worked to keep the secret by, instead of ordering a patent, restricting workers from getting near the machines and signing non-disclosure agreements.

[8] Since then, the company assumed wider responsibilities over employees and their families: children were provided schools and several recreational and welfare activities were offered.

Hans Mustad's social disposition attracted attention of the press that started visiting the factory premises and its schools, band, choir, library and shop.

Just before World War I, Europe consisted of five great powers (the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia), plus another two nations were large consumers of horseshoe nails (Italy and Spain).

The decentralized strategic approach proved very effective for Mustad when - after World War II - the company lost all its factories behind the Iron Curtain, including about 8,000 employees.

In the second half of the 20th century Mustad has increasingly diversified its interests into many different businesses, mostly based upon metallic wire, but also expanding into food and machinery: paper clips (of which Mustad turned out 70 million pieces a year), mattress springs, zippers, screws, margarine (which was produced for over 100 years and discontinued only in 1996), machines for the paper industry and for the manufacturing of boxes.