Bankruptcies|Koistinen Kantele is known as a developer and manufacturer of kantele.
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Koistinen Kantele oy has filed for bankruptcy.
The reasons for the bankruptcy are high interest rates, uncertainty and savings in the cultural sector.
The merger of Rääkkylä Osuuspankki and the repayment of the loan depleted the working capital.
Hannu Koistinen hopes to find a way to continue making kantels.
Finland the largest kantele manufacturer Koistinen Kantele oy has filed for bankruptcy. Finland’s largest musical instrument manufacturer in terms of turnover has employed four full-time and two part-time employees.
The company operating in Rääkkylä is known as a developer and manufacturer of kantels. Its innovations include, among others, professional concert kantels, electric kantels, modern small kantels and communal kantels.
I’m complaining the designer and the company’s CEO Hannu Koistinen according to the bankruptcy there are many reasons behind it, such as high interest rates, a time of uncertainty and customers’ investment prudence. The savings in the cultural sector have also affected the number of orders, says Koistinen.
“After all, this time has been a tough time for an awful lot of industries, and it has been that way for us over the years as well. For some reason, this fall the demand for new kantels completely died down,” says Koistinen.
Company went through a corporate restructuring between 2019 and 2024, which it emerged victorious from. In addition to the decrease in orders, the bankruptcy was accelerated by the merger of the local cooperative bank with the provincial cooperative bank. As a result of the merger, the provincial bank obliged the complaining company to pay off the bank loan of 63,000 euros all at once. As a result, the company’s working capital was depleted.
“Of course, it is also the case that the company’s ability to change in a situation where it has gone through a corporate restructuring has not been easy.”
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“After all, this period has been one of the most difficult for an awful lot of fields.”
In the year The turnover of the company, founded in 2000, has varied over the years between 300,000 and 500,000 euros. According to Koistinen, the turnover in the last couple of years has been around 360,000 euros. Even last spring and summer, the company was on pace for a turnover of around 400,000 euros.
The bankruptcy news is a big blow to the domestic kantele field, for which Koistinen Kantele leaves a big gap.
Koistinen says that the company has taken “kantele to a whole new level”. According to him, a huge investment has also been made in the development work.
“I have believed that, as a result, it is possible for the kantele to flourish again.”
According to him, the technical development of musical instruments and the production of products could not be done through an association or any institution.
“It has been necessary to make that cultural breakthrough at the risk of trying. Also, the volume could not have been done in any other way.”
In addition to Koistinen Kantele, another well-known Finnish kantele manufacturer is Lovikka based in Ylitornio. In addition, there are individual craftsmen in Finland. According to Hannu Koistinen, the tradition of small-scale kantele-making is strong, but few make it their main job.
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“It has been necessary to make that cultural breakthrough at the risk of trying.”
Hannu Koistinen work has been a vocation. The tradition of making kantele has been in the family for a long time, 67 years. It was once started by Koistinen’s father, the kantelemaster Otto Koistinenwhose life’s work the boy later continued in his own way.
At the age of 22, Hannu Koistinen decided to renew the kantel. In 1989, he set himself a goal that he still remembers by heart: “The goal is to modernize the Finnish concert kantele in such a way that it meets the criteria of a new universal instrument in terms of characteristics and renews the image of the kantele so that Finns can be actively proud of their national instrument that lives in time.”
“It was implemented through quite a lot of gray stones,” he says now.
“Now the time for a one-man mission is over.”
Koistenen according to which kantele playing in Finland today has “broader shoulders than ever before”. There are dozens of educational institutions where kantele playing is taught, there are plenty of teachers and several kantele artists, the most prominent of which are Maija Kauhanen and Ida Elina.
Koistinen is not yet able to say how he intends to continue with the chants. He hopes to find a way to continue making kantels.
“There is no clear plan yet. Perhaps creative destruction will now hit the spot and at least some kind of forced structural change will take place. I don’t think that the need for our instruments will ever disappear,” says Koistinen.
“After all, we only have about 700 concert stands in the world. After all, they have to be maintained. There is still a need for this expertise, but we’ll see how it takes shape.”
Correction 27.12. 3:41 p.m.: Corrected company name. The correct form is Koistinen Kantele, not Koistinen Kantele.
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