Furnishing the Future: Luonto Furniture’s Journey to Seamless Operations with Odoo

Location/Region: Charleston, South Carolina
Industry: Furniture
Apps implemented: Appointments, Knowledge, Appraisal, Accounting, Approvals,  CRM, Discuss, Documents, eLearning, Email marketing, Employees, Events, Expenses, Field Service, Inventory, IoT, Manufacturing, Marketing Automation, Planning, PLM, Quality, Sales, Sign, SMS Marketing, Social Marketing, Surveys, Time Off, Timesheets, Website, To-dos, Dashboards, Attendance, Barcode, Calendar, Contact, Data cleaning, Link Tracker, Live chat, POS, Requirements, Repairs
Software Replaced: Microsoft Navision
Number of users: 15
Company size: U.S.: 50 (Worldwide: 500 total)
Hosting type: Odoo.sh

Furniture in a home often serves two main purposes - functional and aesthetic. Some pieces make good use of a smaller, compact space; others simply add style and flair, even if they are not the most practical. Luonto Furniture, based in Charleston, South Carolina, wants furniture to be both functional and look good while doing so.

Luonto Furniture is a U.S. extension of the Finnish parent company Pohjanmaan Furniture, which was founded in 1964 by Pentti Viitala. Pentti wanted to make high-quality furniture at an affordable price point. He started the business and enlisted the help of his family to speed up production. His son, Timo, became more and more involved with the company, eventually becoming CEO in the ‘90s. Today, Timo remains involved with Pohjanmaan Furniture as Chair of the Board, maintaining the company’s family business legacy.

Timo, Pentti’s son, now Chair of the Board, helping by pressing buttons.

In 2012, Pohjanmaan Furniture expanded into North America, opening the Luonto Distribution Center in Charleston, South Carolina. Today, Luonto specializes in functional furniture, such as sofas that turn into sleepers and pieces with storage space. The North American-based company distributes furniture manufactured by its Finnish counterpart, importing products from overseas into the country. As Luonto continued to expand its reach in North America, it needed a comprehensive ERP to handle the growing operational needs of the business. This is where Odoo comes in.

Prior to using Odoo, Luonto was utilizing Microsoft Navision to manage its business operations. While the company was managing with this system, Ville Karesto, COO at Luonto Furniture, explains that it left something to be desired in terms of functionality. Ville says that Luonto needed an “all-in-one platform” where daily operations such as sales, accounting, and inventory could be managed simultaneously. The company’s top priority in a new ERP was seamless integration that connected business functions, as well as an intuitive, user-friendly interface. Microsoft Navision wasn’t meeting the company’s needs and wants in these crucial areas.

Luonto Furniture began exploring alternative solutions and narrowed down its search to Netsuite and Odoo. Ultimately, the decision came down to two things. First, Ville says that Odoo offered better scalability for the company. Second, Odoo’s software seemed to lend itself more easily to customizations that would fit the company’s specific business needs. Considering these two important factors, the company decided that Odoo was the best fit for the job.

Reflecting on the past four years of its relationship with Odoo, Ville highlights how the ERP has helped Luonto Furniture along every step of its daily workflow. Website engagement automatically generates leads within the CRM application, giving Luonto the ability to follow up with interested buyers. Odoo’s inventory management capabilities give Ville and his team insight into the volume of incoming and outgoing products, allowing for more accurate forecasting and decision-making. Ville explains how Odoo’s Chatter feature has been especially impactful for the business, allowing employees to communicate internally without wasting time. For example, its warehouse workers are located in a different building from the office workers. Odoo’s database allows a flow of communication that doesn’t disrupt productivity– a feature that was simply not available before in its previous software.

With integration within one platform being Luonto Furniture’s top priority in an ERP, Ville says that Odoo has more than provided the level of interconnectedness and communication between business functions that he was looking for. The interface’s user-friendliness and intuitiveness have led to a positive experience for the company’s employees. As COO, Ville finds Dashboards, in particular, to be the most useful Odoo module he uses daily. 

It has become my favorite app for sure. A few clicks away, you can see all the different aspects [of the business].

Ville says that, overall, Odoo has given Luonto Furniture more capabilities than the company ever initially hoped for. As the company continues to bring Finnish-designed functional furniture to the North American market, Odoo is by its side to handle all of the nitty-gritty day-to-day operations. 

Honestly, anyone who asks, [Odoo has] been nothing but a good thing for us. For us, it has worked really well.

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