The good, the bad and the future

2020 has been a year we are grateful for, despite the pandemic. Or maybe we are even more thankful just because of it. We want to take you through our past year, with all its ups and downs because there’s something to be learned from it all.

We had moments to celebrate, like when starting the year with a win for Best Stand at the Stockholm Furniture Fair for our reusable stand design. And the excitement surrounding the new products added to our furniture range, like the modular STONES series. Showcasing that there truly is a spot for sustainable manufacturing and furniture going forward.

And then we had moments not worth celebrating. It cannot go without mentioning that selling social meeting places in times of a pandemic probably isn’t the easiest we have done. This past year has taken its toll on the whole world and brought some incredible challenges upon us all. But along with it; opportunities. Opportunities to show leadership, to inspire and to highlight the importance of the green shift, and even accelerate it.

At Vestre we have a CEO with a mind like this, Jan Christian Vestre, which also led him to representing Norway in the largest entrepreneur championship in the world in June. Truly a moment worth celebrating.

It's the same mindset which made us seize the opportunities that came along with the pandemic, and make the biggest investment in the Norwegian furniture industry for decades. The world’s most environmentally friendly furniture factory, The Plus, will be up and running at Magnor in Norway by next year. The new factory will be a global showcase for sustainability and highly efficient manufacturing. Our goal is for The Plus to trigger an avalanche of new and sustainable investments in mainland industry - accelerating the green shift and creating more meaningful jobs around the world. We need that now. Actually, it's way overdue.

And it’s the same mindset which in October led us to launching the world’s first ever bench to be made from ownerless marine plastic. An initiative to clean up the seas and reuse materials already made. It really has been a year of tackling global issues and doing what we can to make the world a better place. Because although a lot has changed in 2020, at Vestre we still believe that everyone can change the world a little. We are doing it with a bench and a factory, and our CEO got to tell the world exactly how when he wrapped up our 2020 with a TEDx talk on this very topic.

After all is said and done, we are grateful for 2020. Mostly because new life has been breathed into the importance of solidarity. Solidarity shown to both people and planet. And with that as an underlying principle, we can do anything. We’re ready for 2021.