Responsibility
We have our very own weaving mill in Lapua, western Finland. That is where we manufacture our products from yarn, sometimes even from fibre, to a finished product. This enables us to design our products and processes while keeping the ecological footprint as small as possible. We care about our employees the way we care about our family.
Our main raw materials, such as linen and wool, are certified natural materials. We use 100 percent European flax certified by Masters of Linen. We utilise local Finnish sheep wool and collect it from farms ourselves. Together with top designers, we design products that stand the test of time. We are constantly developing new techniques and looking for new innovations. We are willing to put effort into making sure weaving skills are preserved to future generations.
We make our Products – Not Somebody Somewhere
Lapuan Kankurit
We are traceable
Every now and then we come across the assumption that our linen would come to us as a ready-made fabric. This is not the case. We source fully traceable Masters of Linen flax yarn, which is grown and spun into yarn in Europe. We weave the yarns into fabrics ourselves, mainly in our own weaving mill in Lapua, Finland, as we have done for more than 50 years.
Unlike in the mainstream textile production, the bulk of the price of our products is comprised of production costs as well as wages in Finland and elsewhere in Europe. The certified wool we use comes from diligently reporting suppliers, and almost each wool type is spun into yarn in Europe. We have taken this transparency a step further with Finnish sheep wool, which we collect from local farms ourselves and spin into yarn. These Finnish farms are committed to our responsibility criteria.
Besides the wool finishing facility, in the past few years we have invested in digitalising our production, which has allowed us to trace each of our product’s origins from the source of the fibre all the way to the end of the production line. In the next few years our goal is to create digital product passes, which will allow us to clearly illustrate the origins of the materials as well as the production path and carbon footprint of any given product to our customers.
Production transparency and traceability are not only competitive advantages to us but also matters of heart. If we wish to make this world a better place, us entrepreneurs have to be willing to do our part and lead by example in ethical and sustainable textile production.
Jaana and Esko Hjelt, Weavers in fourth generation.
