Passion for life at sea
What is the Ostrobothnian summer about at its best? Boating under the midnight sun of course, says Henna Forsström, Marketing and Product Manager at Finn-Marin. The Kokkola region is considered the birthplace of the Finnish boat-building tradition and even today, the majority of Finland’s boat-building industry operates in this region. So does Finn-Marin, one of the largest boat manufacturers in the Nordic market.
“We are proud of the fact that our business is a part of the strong tradition of boat-building and seafaring heritage in our region. All of our boats are designed and built at our four modern boat factories in Kokkola, Kalajoki and Sammatti,” Forsström says.
The Kokkola factory acts as the headquarters of Finn-Marin for a reason – it has close proximity to the sea. A dock extends from the Kokkola factory straight into the Gulf of Bothnia. The untamed sea and versatile conditions work as an unforgiving testing and developing environment for Finn-Marin’s boats.
“We design our boats in such a way that they meet the buyers’ needs. At Finn-Marin we are passionate boaters ourselves, so we know what our clients’ want. All of the details in our boats are decided through practice, not forgetting the Scandinavian reputation for spacious and modern design and safety, so that the client can simply enjoy nature and boating. Rain or shine, we want there to be a low threshold for boating,” Forsström says.
Finn-Marin aims to spread the joy of boating not only to Finns, but to Europeans as well. The company has always exported a large part of their production and in the past years the export has been around 85 percent. The biggest markets are the other Nordic countries, Switzerland, and the UK.
“Our goal is to gain a foothold with all our three brands everywhere in Europe and we aim to be the market leader in Scandinavia. This requires persistent work, but we are on the right track. We have defined our brand message for all three brands and we invest heavily in product development. We also work very closely with our dealers, who act as our ambassadors. We are literally living on the crest of a wave here in Kokkola, developing our boats with determination to serve the needs of our expanding customer base,” Forsström says.
