Lundia furniture is manufactured at Siparila's Kajaani factory

The Finnish furniture brand Lundia's furniture will in future be manufactured at Siparila's Kajaani factory. According to Michaela von Wendt , Managing Director of Lundia, production will start in Kajaani in spring 2020.

- There are fewer and fewer domestic woodworkers. For us at Lundia, this became clear about a year ago in the spring. Our long-standing supplier announced that they were shutting down their factory and would therefore no longer supply our Lundia Classic parts after the end of this year," says von Wendt.

According to Von Wendt, Lundia also considered moving abroad, but the desire to produce domestically and the company's values won out. Lundia's tracking system can trace the origin of the pine used in the shelves back to the forest.

It was not easy for Lundia to find its way to Kajaani, as there are few manufacturers in Finland.

- Because domesticity, employment and short transport distances are important to us, we decided to stay in Finland. After a summer of intense partner hunting, we were lucky to find a new, competent and ethical supplier in Kajaani. The price for working domestically is that we have to prune our product portfolio.

In the future, Lundia will discontinue production of the 50 and 60 centimetre deep Lundia Classic shelves. However, according to the CEO, demand for these depths has been very low, only a few per year.

- Lundia's decision to manufacture its furniture range in Finland is good news for us. We are constantly developing our production to meet the international competition. For example, we do not have a traditional workforce management system at all, but instead the employees work under the self-management of the factory manager. However, there are problems with labour availability, especially in our Kajaani and Parkano factories," says Juha Sojakka, Managing Director of Siparila.

Von Wendt published an open letter on Tuesday in which he wants to stimulate the debate on domestic production also in the future. He is concerned that in the future, those who value domesticity will have to stretch their wallets beyond their limits if they want to buy products made in Finland.

- As knowledge and production continue to shrink, we are increasingly reliant on imported products, for which we do not know the ethics or the production chain. At the same time, jobs, taxpayers and product development are being lost to other countries," he writes.