Harvia Sponsors Aufguss World Championships 2025 in Verona, Powered by EOS

Harvia Group sponsored the 2025 Aufguss World Championships, held in Verona, Italy, and the event sauna used at the competition was powered by an EOS heater, the German premium brand Harvia has owned since 2020. The sponsorship was confirmed as part of Harvia’s Q3 2025 investor presentation on 6 November 2025. Aufguss Worlds is one of the few competitive events that brings the European sauna trade together in person. The sponsorship extends the brand-building program Harvia laid out at Capital Markets Day 2024.

What Aufguss is

Aufguss is the German word for “infusion,” and in sauna terminology it refers to a choreographed ritual in which a trained “Aufgussmeister” pours scented water on heated stones and waves a towel in synchronized patterns to circulate the resulting steam around a group of bathers. A typical Aufguss session runs 8 to 15 minutes, builds to peak heat and humidity, and combines performance, sound (often music), scent (essential oils and ice balls), and athletic towel choreography. The practice is standard at German-speaking Central European commercial sauna facilities and has been spreading globally as social sauna culture expands.

The Aufguss World Championships is the ritual’s world championship, with national qualifiers, team and individual categories, scoring by certified judges, and routines that can run up to 15 minutes with multiple water throws, towel patterns, and music integrations. The event brings together sauna professionals, commercial operators, and enthusiasts from dozens of countries. The ritual is also a revenue product: Galgorm Resort in Northern Ireland, host of the 2026 UK Championships, pulls roughly $12,700 a month from a single 30-seat Aufguss room as a £20 add-on to spa packages.

EOS is Harvia’s German heritage brand

Using an EOS heater rather than a Harvia-branded heater fits the event: Aufguss is a Central European practice heavily associated with German and Austrian sauna culture. EOS, founded in 1944 in Driedorf, Germany, held an estimated 60% of the German premium sauna heater segment at the time of Harvia’s 2020 acquisition, according to Harvia. The EOS event sauna keeps the Harvia-EOS pair visible in the German-speaking premium commercial market, where KLAFS also competes.

The broader Harvia Group marketing strategy unveiled at CMD 2024 called for EOS and Harvia to operate as two global master brands with complementary positioning: Harvia as the accessible full-range brand, EOS as the premium commercial and German heritage brand. Sponsoring Aufguss Worlds with an EOS heater executes that strategy at an event that draws commercial European sauna operators.

One of several Q3 2025 brand pushes

Harvia’s Q3 2025 marketing activity includes Aufguss Worlds alongside the ThermaSol Solaris TIME Magazine recognition, the Fenix controller and MyHarvia 2 app launch, and continued international influencer activation on social media (CMD 2024 highlighted international sauna influencers @jun_esune, @shhhiyo, @joey_hryk, and @ashrcrawford promoting sauna and Harvia). Harvia is spending on brand visibility in markets, communities, and channels where sauna culture is already strong but Harvia brand awareness trails its market share.

That marketing spend is showing up in operating expenses. Q3 2025 operating expenses increased year-over-year specifically because of investments in “product development, brand building, channel expansion, and operational efficiency,” according to the company’s investor materials. Sponsoring Aufguss Worlds is one line item in that budget. For a company with EUR 198.9 million in 2025 revenue running a 19 to 20% operating margin, several hundred thousand euros on global sauna sponsorships is a small expense.