The Story of Warma-Uunit – From a Fisherman’s Son to a Stove Master
The story of Warma-Uunit begins in Pyhämaa, a small fishing village in Uusikaupunki, Finland, in the early 1960s. Vesa Salminen, a 10-year-old boy, was playing with his friends when they started throwing rocks at an abandoned chimney. Vesa’s father, who heard about the mischief, taught his son a lesson in responsibility by making him build a new chimney with the help of a neighbor’s son.
Brick by brick, towards stove building
Vesa had no idea that this poorly built chimney would be the start of his future career. He trained as a bricklayer in 1979 with his brother Timo, and soon the brothers were building chimneys and walls in the nearby village. As they gained experience, they became general contractors, building brick facades in Uusikaupunki and neighboring towns, and sometimes even further afield.
Public construction in Finland almost completely declined following the recession of the 1990s, so Vesa’s side business of chimney and stove building became his main focus. As a creative thinker, Vesa started casting refractory elements for stoves to make his work easier and faster. He was a good stove builder, and in 1999 he built a production hall on his property. The first employee, an apprentice bricklayer, also started working in the new hall.
The idea of a functional element structure led to the creation of a stove factory
The business quickly expanded into the production of fully element-built stoves, and the first Warma-Uunit stoves were launched in 2001. In 2002, a factory store opened in Uusikaupunki, as well as sales points in neighboring towns.
The burning desire was (and still is) to manufacture efficient and functional stoves, but also distinctive ones, which encouraged the company to start its own tile production in 2006 in Uusikaupunki. The same year, the foundry was expanded and automated. In 2008, the company name was changed to Warma-Uunit Ltd, and at the same time, all production except for the foundry in Pyhämaa was concentrated in the center of Uusikaupunki.
Warma-Uunit Ltd employs about ten people. In addition, the company has a nationwide sales and installation network. The stove industry has experienced major changes in recent years, both due to the fluctuating economic situation and the significantly stricter legislation. Fortunately, the goal from almost the very beginning has been to maximize heat output with small amounts of fuel and minimize smoke emissions. Therefore, it has been possible for the small manufacturer to meet the new environmental standards, although the standardization of the range with its bureaucracy has required a significant investment.
A pioneer of clean wood burning
Even though Warma-Uunit is one of the smallest players in the industry, the company’s position as an expert in wood burning is significant, and Vesa and his R&D team have been invited to participate in many wood combustion projects. Uusikaupunki is home to one of Finland’s most comprehensive stove laboratories, and the company’s own R&D work and collaboration with the University of Eastern Finland have made the patented Woodsaver Warma-Uuni stoves pioneers.
However, R&D work for high-quality and clean-burning stoves is not enough to make stoves environmentally friendly. The work in the laboratory has shown that wood burning is possible with a very small environmental impact, and wood burning can even significantly reduce the impact of other heating methods. However, the right wood burning methods are essential. Inspired by this, Vesa Salminen has traveled all over Finland teaching stove users how to burn wood correctly. Vesa’s wood-saving firing courses were chosen as the environmental work of the year in 2013 by the sustainable development expert organization Valonia in Varsinais-Suomi.
From father to daughter
In October 2022, Kaisa Tuominen was appointed as the new CEO of Warma-Uunit. She has had experience in the stove industry for most of her life, being Vesa’s daughter. She officially joined the company as a fresh BBA when the tile factory started operating in 2006, and ceramics took her so much that Kaisa studied glass and ceramics, graduating as a designer in 2012. Vesa continues to be the tireless idealist in Warma-Uunit’s R&D.
Facts
- Warma-Uunit Oy was founded in 1995 under the name V-S Muuraus
- The company has been manufacturing element-built fireplaces since 2001.
- the Salminen family founded Warma-Uunit Oy.
- The company’s headquarters are located in the center of Uusikaupunki, Finland.
- The firebox foundry is located in Pyhämaa, in the Uusikaupunki archipelago.
- Warma-Uunit is the only manufacturer of factory-made tiled stoves in Finland.
- The company is a pioneer in the development of ecological and efficient combustion technology for storage stoves.
- Warma-Uunits has sales in Finland and in some Baltic countries.