The story of Polaria

Polaria’s history began in 1970 under the name Vakiometalli Oy. Our product range included chairs, beds, mailboxes, and familiar medicine cabinets, all made from combinations of metal and wood components. Mirror cabinets were included in the range when we took the opportunity to be the first company to manufacture Finnish steel mirror cabinets. However, our products were not efficiently manufactured and did not meet the market demand. We lived through many challenging years.

In the mid-1980s, a turning point rescued us from the brink of bankruptcy: the Veisto Group, owned by the cousins of our founder, Teuvo Rautio, became the major shareholder in Polaria. At the same time, it was decided that the mirror cabinets, which were already a part of the collection, would become our main product group. So, in 1984, we introduced the VPK060 cabinet model with integrated lighting. It was at this moment that the Polaria brand really started to develop.

When Finland was in the grip of the recession in the 1990s, investments in production automation, well-targeted marketing, and efficient sales efforts began to show results. We were trusted and had formed good customer relationships with construction companies and big corporations, for example. We reformed and turned the result into a positive one. Today, we are still on the same path. Our success is based on our experienced, hard-working staff, and on reliable and long-term partners.

Bathroom furniture is the steel heart of our company. That steel heart is durable and timeless, but not cold. Steel as a material is superior in humid spaces. The products may look like angular tin boxes, but for us, they appear to be straightforward, environmentally friendly, and long-lasting – products that are a part of everyday life for Finns.

Many times, we have entered bathrooms, which still feature a wall-mounted Polaria product from the 1980s; fully operational to serve the next decades. At these moments, we are proud of our products. We have chosen the best material and will continue to develop our products for the benefit of our customers in the century to come.