Positive Hook-up - Monena

Sometimes it´s worth getting hooked on things. For Teuvo and Jukka Partanen, as well as all other Monena employees, getting hooked is a matter of pride. For them it means pioneering, design and commitment to customer relationships.

The road traveled by Teuvo Partanen and Monena has passed trough another company and trough beign a subcontractor for metal companies.

The dawning of the 1970´s brought along Monena´s first own product lines - paternosters and clothes storage solutions. The market leader position in both product segments was due to clear and uncompromising principles.

Subcontracting activities made way for own product lines. Over the years, Monena began to assemble its own models from components manufactured by subcontractors. Today networking enables Monena to concentrate on design, assembly and marketing.

Design by Monena

Design has been an integral part of Monena products since the very beginning. Designs by Antti Eskelinen date back as far as 1972. The quality of the design is demostrated by the fact that there is still demand for many of the products designed back then and that´s why we still also make them.

All in all, the list of designers comprises several dozen names and the quallity represents the very top of the Finnish design. In addition to Antti Eskelinen, other designers who have us their pen strokes include

Esko, Pajamies, Sakari Holma, Olli Hämäläinen, Ismo Mankonen, Timo A Phenkonen, Pasi Pänkäläinen, Mikko Rahikainen, Jukka Seppälä, Petri Vainio, Urmas Virta.

All of these represent the elite of Finnish design.

Monena pioneers in doing things differently. Copying is not part of our vocabulary because we simply don´t do it.

Creating order for public premises

Designing public premises requies patience. A good two to six years often go before the architect´s drawnings are celebrated in the opening ceremony.

Public premises don´t have clothes stands. They have design elements and dividers. The idea to create order and safety.

Clothes take up a lot of space; pockets are full of future technology. Design clothes deserve design storage. In public premises, getting hooked means safety.

Monena has been designing storage solutions for public premises since the beginning of the 1970´s. That was when the Merivaara public cothes stand production and the accomenying stores and accecories were integrated into Monena

The room reserved for clothes storage in interior decoration is stricly limited. Building guides allow a whopping 30 cm of hanging space per resident. This space of less than a foot is supposed to fit outdoor clothing for different weather, work and leisure.

Fuse boxes fight with clothes for storage space in hallways, being the first sight to greet visitors.

In the Nordic climate, building designs should allocate more space for storing clothes and for more air around them.

Exports are go

Exports have always played a part in Monena´s business. Since the early years, the company exported its products to the Soviet Union as part ot the bilateral trade. Nowadays the Russian sales offer both clothes stands and hanging solutions as well as paternosters.

The Hermitage Museum, Putin´s Palace and many other world-renowned public buildings are equipped with Monena´s products.

Muurame exported storage systems and paternosters to Scandinavian hardware already in mid 1970´s.

And there´s still more demand for exports.

Brand builders

A brand is what makes a workhorse too. At Monena, brand and design go hand-in-hand. We pride ourselves in getting our product specifications exactly right and delivering the ordered products to the customer bang on time.

Expertise is the ability to listen to your customers. Establishing needs and developing products to meet it. Monena employees have been buildings their customer relationships for over 30 years already. By now, both the supplier and customer have got to know each other and each other´s products.

Installation also plays a part in building the brand. The professionals who install the storage systems and paternosters have always been important asset to building Monenas brand.

Continuity

Continuity has always been a key word for Teuvo - in caring for the customers, looking after the staff and managing the company. The new generation of Monena management has been brought in gradually.

Jukka has taken the reins and committed himself to the continutation of the tried and tested strategy - in-house product development, design and delivery reliability - "Monena delivers exactly what the customer has ordered exactly then we promised. We like doing thinds our own way and will never take to imitating others."

The third generation of Monena employees is already growing. Into pioneers.