Mobile outdoor saunas start their international journey

Lapelland Finland Oy is bringing Finnish sauna culture to the world. The unique part? Their saunas have wheels under them. These saunas are now being exported across Europe, with the help of the Enterprise Europe Network.

The business of constructing saunas with wheels has been the specialty of Lapelland for 8 years. During that period, they have grown significantly in Finland. Today they employ 30 people, own a production site in North Ostrobothnia, in the north of Finland as well as five physical sale points. They have crafted more than 1 000 saunas and tiny houses on wheels so far.

"The mobility of our saunas is an added value when compared to a regular outdoor sauna," said Veli-Pekka Haikkola, export sales director at Lapelland. "Our saunas can be delivered and used almost anywhere. And they are also friendly for the environment as we don’t need to build foundations. This means no damaged or dug-up ground and no earthwork, resulting in less stress for the nature surrounding the site."

Quality and wellness

Lapelland, however, realised their product is not just attractive in the Finnish market. Other countries are also adopting the sauna culture, and the company wanted to take advantage of this trend. Globally, one million new saunas are built every year. Because of the ease of owning a mobile sauna, Lapelland thinks their products can be an answer to this surge in demand.

Their product proved to be ideal for internationalisation inside Europe which is why the Finnish company turned to the Enterprise Europe Network. "Our mobile saunas meet European road standards," said Haikkola. "We identified Germany in particular as an attractive market. The Germans really appreciate quality and wellness."

Teija Pakanen, the Network’s coordinator and business coach at Business Finland, remembers getting in touch with Lapelland. "Lapelland was a so-called ideal client since they have a modern production site with a competitive product and capacity to expand and scale up the operations," she said.

Local distributor

A plan subsequently took shape. First the Enterprise Europe Network supported the company in drafting a project plan and searching for suitable funding instruments. The Network’s services were then used to research local market information about regulations and standards. Their partner database and wide network of locally established Network partners, particularly in Germany, also proved key for finding a trustworthy local distributor in the sector.

One German distributor, Wellness & Garten, in particular took note of Lapelland. 

They entered into discussions and eventually signed a cooperation agreement. The German firm added Lapelland’s products to their line up and began promoting them in Germany. The partnership successfully introduced the saunas to Germany and the German consumers.

Since then, they have grown in the German market. Lapelland has already delivered several saunas to German customers. "We’re bringing Finnish sauna culture to new audiences," said Haikkola. "Our near future plans are to continue our growth especially in the Scandinavian and European market."