Sustainability

Production

• Balmuir products are manufactured by highly committed suppliers. We have no in-house manufacturing.
• The origin of the production is defined by finding a company with right set of values, the company’s capability of processing the chosen raw material and producing required product quality.
• We carefully select all our suppliers and with many of them we have worked from the early years of the company. According to our policy, we build long lasting partnerships to able to develop the production to meet our quality standards.
• We aim to increase the transparency in our supply chain constantly. The majority of our production comes from Europe. The biggest sourcing countries are Italy, Portugal, Lithuania, Nepal, South-Africa and China. We also have production in Peru, Turkey, Poland and Finland.
• Regardless of where the products are made, we pay close attention to the manufacturing conditions. We aim to meet the manufacturers every year and visit the factories in person. Some of our suppliers belong to a social management system, like BSCI or SEDEX, and are audited regularly.
• We expect our suppliers to know their material sources and possible subcontractors. It’s important for us, that the raw material sources are traceable.
• We respect human rights and we expect our suppliers to do the same. It is a prerequisite that all our manufacturers follow the national law and comply with the International Labour Organisation Conventions and UN Global compact policies.

Care For The Environment

• We acknowledge, that the majority of Balmuir’s environmental impacts are caused by the manufacturing and transportation of the products. For this reason, we constantly seek for more environmentally friendly materials and energy saving solutions together with our suppliers and logistical partners.
• We recycle all the waste that is generated in in-house operations. We use re-usable boxes in logistics between our warehouse and own stores.
• In Balmuir production, natural colours and tanning processes are always preferred. The use of chemicals is strictly regulated by the European REACH chemical legislation. Some of our customer markets like Japan also have their own chemical regulations, and we make sure that all Balmuir products comply with these regulations, too.
• We do regular product and material tests to make sure that our products do not include anything harmful to the people or environment. Testing is done in external laboratories.

Personnel

• Behind the story of Balmuir is commited, ambitious and skilled personnel. Together we cherish an open and flexible working environment, where everybody has a possiblity to be creative and grow as a person.
• Our values; quality, reliability, flexibility and genuiness are visible in everything we do, and for that reason we are able to keep our brand promise and exceed our customer’s expectations.
• We treat everybody equally and with respect. It is important for us that all the employees feel valued.
• We appreciate our entrepreneural working culture, and support the personal career interests of our employees. There are always new challenges and interesting opportunities in this fast growing company.

Q&A

1. What are the core values of Balmuir?

The core values that guide our business are product quality, sustainability reliability and genuineness. Balmuir products are made of the finest natural materials in close co-operation with our carefully selected partners that share similar corporate values with us. Our personnel is commited to our values, which results in high-quality products and excellent customer experience.

2. Balmuir is a Finnish company. What does it mean to you?

The whole Balmuir organization operates in Finland: administration, design, buying, sales organisation, warehouse operations and in-house logistics. At the moment Balmuir employes over 40 persons in Finland. Whenever possible, we also use Finnish manufacturing and materials sourced from Finland. A fine example of this is the reindeer and elk leather gloves, that are made of Finnish leather. Also our capes, and some of our cushion covers, ponchos and beanies are sewn in Finland.

3. Where are the products manufactured?

Majority of our products is manufactured in Europe, e.g. silk and wool scarves come from Italy, while home textiles from Portugal (cotton) and Lithuania (linen). Other important manufacturing countries are South-Africa, Nepal and China. We also have minor production in Peru, Turkey, Poland and Finland. The origin of the production is defined by finding a company with right set of values, the company’s capability of processing the chosen raw material and producing required product quality.

4. How well do you know your suppliers and is your supply chain transparent?

We carefully select all our suppliers and with many of them we have worked from the early years of the company. We aim to meet the manufacturers every year and visit the factories in person. During the covid-19 pandemic, we have not been able to travel to manufacturing locations, which emphasizes the value of a long-term partnership and trust on both sides.

5. How ecological is the buying process?

Sustainability is a key factor in Balmuir buying process, because the majority of our collection consists of carry-over styles, that have a long life-cycle. Timeless design and high-quality materials make our products long-lasting. Our purchase quantities are based on the pre-seasonal orders and short-term sales forecasts, so we always buy the optimal amount of products for the season. This way we minimize the miss-purchases and over-stock. We aim to optimize our logistics and use more environmentally-friendly transport methods whenever possible.

6. How ecological are your raw materials and is their origin traceable?

In our production we use almost exclusively natural materials. For example, Kid Mohair South Africa carefully monitors the breeding of angora goats and the wool used in Balmuir kid mohair products can be traced all the way to the breeder. Some of our cashmere manufacturers produce their own threads, keeping the production line as short as possible. We continuously aim to increase the use of ecological materials in our production and are currently looking into the possibilities of using organically produced cotton in our products.