Honkarakenne Oy started their U.S.A. market launch with a bang. NFL star Steve Young’s huge log castle was used as a PR case to increase the visibility of Honka log homes. This was year 2001, and after that, things have progressed slowly and the visibility of Honka is still rather low in the States.
The latest financial report from Honka states that sales in the North America are all but stopped. The future doesn’t look too good either, the market is far from Honka’s manufacturing facilities, dollar is dirt cheap and the modern Scandinavian style of Honka log homes doesn’t appeal to American buyers.
Honka is the biggest industrial log home manufacturer in the world. The company is about three times bigger than their closest competitor and they have stunning design expertise and service attitude. However these strengths are not enough, because their price competitivity is shit.
So for me it is quite baffling that they are still trying to conquer the new world with the same old methods, which have worked so well everywhere else in the world. In my opinion, they should buy a local factory and build their sales network and service from that base.