Industry Spotlight: Fine Scandinavia
Johan Sundberg fell in love with Vietnam as a tourist. Today, he owns and operates a successful company with 300 employees. The company manufactures furniture, material handling solutions, and workplace furnishings.
Fine Scandinavia. That’s the name of the company Johan Sundberg founded in 2007. In the interview with Johan, we chose to focus on furniture manufacturing. The company designs, develops and manufactures for the private sector, public spaces, and industry. Customers are spread all over the world, but Europe, North America, Japan, and Australia are the strongest markets.
From metal products to furniture
Johan tells us that Fine Scandinavia originally focused on metal products for industry and public spaces. As they received more and more requests for metal furniture, a dedicated team was created to develop this business area. “For example, in the USA, we only sell furniture. Our furniture is available through six retailers at the moment, and this is steadily growing.”
Certified quality
Fine Scandinavia manufactures furniture and products in various materials, such as metal, pipes, wires, aluminium, glass, wood, and textiles. “Our emphasis is on traceability and quality.” Johan stresses that the company’s steel is purchased from international conglomerates based in Vietnam. The steel is supplied with an MTC (Mill Test Certificate) for traceability and to verify quality. Wood purchases are made exclusively from timber with EUTR certificates, to comply with the EU Timber Regulation and combat illegal deforestation.
Award-winning social sustainability
Fine Scandinavia is BSCI certified (Business Social Compliance Initiative), which means the company actively works towards increased gender equality in a traditionally male-dominated industry. Through internal and external training, the working environment for women has improved, which was recognised with the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles Award in 2022. Suppliers have a lot to live up to To ensure that suppliers adhere to the company’s values, a Code of Conduct has been established. Johan clarifies, “Considering the environmental footprint, our goal is to always to use local suppliers as much as possible. We always conduct supplier audits to ensure that a supplier meets our requirements, in terms of ethics quality and environmental.”
Exciting future
A lot of exciting projects are in the pipeline, and Johan hints at an exciting collaboration launching in 2024. “Over the course of a year, we, together with a well-known premium brand, we have developed a complete series of outdoor furniture in cast aluminium, with cushions in fabric from Italy, certified teak, and rattan. The furniture is assembled in our factory and will be distributed to six different countries.".
On the subject of the future, we asked what type of products Fine Scandinavia will deliver in 10 years. Johan believes that we will see a greater focus on sustainability and the environment. Automation and robots will be used more extensively to meet competition and quality demands. “Navigating between sustainability goals, quality, and competitiveness is a challenge, because the price tag is still a decisive factor. I sense a positive trend, even though a long-term commitment is still required to achieve a complete balance.”