Estonian Sauna Trust Debuts: HUUM, Auroom, Leil and DWILD Unite

Four of Estonia’s best-known sauna makers are putting one mark on their products. HUUM, Auroom Wellness, Leil Saunas and DWILD launched the Estonian Sauna Trust as Interbad opened in Stuttgart this morning, and HUUM used the same opening to unveil three new heaters, led by CORE Pro for commercial saunas. SaunaNews connected with the group through founding member HUUM as the doors opened.

The Trust is a shared quality mark for Estonian saunas, aimed at the buyers, distributors and spa operators who walk Interbad’s halls. Its promise is simple: a company carrying the mark was chosen for its quality and stands behind its products and technical support. Between them, the four founders make the whole sauna, from the heater to the finished room.

“Estonia has quietly become one of the world’s great sauna nations, and it’s time the world could recognize it at a glance,” said Mihkel Ilp, CEO of HUUM. “The Estonian Sauna Trust is a promise: when you see this mark, you’re looking at proven craftsmanship, real technical support and innovation from companies that stand behind what they make.”

A selective club, built to grow

The Trust is “deliberately not an open network,” according to its launch press release. Membership is by selection, and the Estonian-language release says members must meet set quality requirements. The group says the mark will appear on products, online, at trade fairs and in partner materials, working internationally as a quality seal.

The Trust’s website lists five principles behind the mark:

• Quality as a strategic focus
• Reliable products and expert support
• An authentic sauna experience
• Long-term reliability
• Thoughtful innovation

For now, the four founders are the only members. The group’s first post on LinkedIn put it plainly: “This is only the beginning.”

All four founders build around Tartu

The Trust is a nonprofit association, registered in Estonia’s Business Register as Eesti Sauna Liit MTÜ on May 18, 2026. Its board is the four founders, and its registered address is Vahi tee 9 in Vahi, just outside Tartu, which is also HUUM’s headquarters and showroom.

That address says something about the group. All four founders are based in Tartu County, around Estonia’s second-largest city. Leil builds in Võnnu, Auroom builds in Vana-Kastre and nearby Tõrvandi, and DWILD’s company, Designwild OÜ, is registered in Lähte. Southeast Estonia is also home to the Võromaa smoke sauna tradition, which UNESCO inscribed on its list of humanity’s intangible cultural heritage in 2014. Our look at how Estonia became a sauna manufacturing powerhouse tells the wider story.

Estonia’s sauna makers already share their showrooms

The Trust puts a name on something the SaunaShare team, which publishes SaunaNews, saw firsthand visiting Estonian sauna makers in August and September: real Estonian pride, and a habit of cooperating rather than competing. These companies often feature each other’s brands. At Huumimaa, HUUM’s demonstration grounds outside Tartu, HUUM heaters are shown inside Auroom saunas. At Auroom’s factory in Vana-Kastre, HUUM heater cartons sat beside cabins being assembled.

Meet the founders

HUUM makes electric and wood-burning heaters, UKU controls and the HUUM app. Founded by Siim Nellis, it grew out of a 2011 design project with the Estonian Academy of Arts that produced the DROP heater. HUUM OÜ, its main operating company, reported 2025 revenue of about €19.0 million, up from €14.7 million in 2024, according to its annual report in the Business Register. This week HUUM added CORE Pro, its new commercial heater, and the KLINT and KLINT Solo.

Auroom Wellness makes indoor and outdoor saunas and fully tailor-made rooms for homes, hotels and public spaces. Auroom says it has been building saunas for more than 20 years, and a 2025 Trade with Estonia profile put its output at more than 4,500 saunas a year, exported to more than 30 countries. Auroom is part of the Thermory Group: Auroom OÜ is wholly owned by Thermory, the Estonian thermally modified wood maker (see our coverage of Thermory’s ownership).

Leil Saunas builds design-led indoor and outdoor saunas, all made on a campus of about 15 acres in Võnnu, according to its website. Leil says it turns out more than 250 saunas a month and sells through more than 50 resellers, and it won a Red Dot “Best of the Best” design award in 2024. The Trust’s release puts Leil’s customers in more than 45 countries, the footprint we reported during Leil’s distribution push this spring.

DWILD designs and builds tailor-made indoor, outdoor and public saunas, engineered for architectural projects and heavy commercial use. Its saunas are “all handmade in the Nordics” from 100% FSC-certified timber, the company says.

Auroom and DWILD build the modular rooms bathhouses need

Two of the founders speak directly to the bathhouse boom in the US and Europe. Auroom and DWILD both build modular saunas: rooms engineered and machined in the factory, test-assembled there, then flat-packed and shipped for assembly on site. As SaunaNews reported in our look at how modular saunas are changing commercial builds in America, that approach moves the hardest thermal engineering off the job site, which is why it suits busy commercial rooms.

Auroom manufactured and installed four new saunas at Les Bains de Lavey, a thermal spa in Switzerland’s Rhône valley, working from a design concept by Leaderspa Pro SA. Auroom calls it one of the most ambitious and technically demanding projects in its history, according to its project page. DWILD says it test-assembles every sauna it makes, including one-off custom builds, at its Estonian factory before flat-packing it, and it engineers its public saunas for heavy daily use.

HUUM’s new CORE Pro, due in Europe in 2027, is aimed at the same spas, hotels and public saunas, and two of them can be paired side by side for up to 42 kW in a single large room.

In the founders’ words

“Great design is defined by what you see, but also by everything behind it: the materials we select, the precision of the engineering, the quality of every detail, and the way a sauna performs year after year,” said Marten Merdikes, CEO of Auroom. “For Auroom, the Estonian Sauna Trust represents a shared commitment to creating saunas of lasting quality.”

Romet Tsirna, founder of Leil Saunas, explained the word his company is named for. “Leil is difficult to translate, because to an Estonian it means more than steam. It is the moment when water meets hot stones, the room falls quiet and the sauna comes alive,” he said. “The Estonian Sauna Trust helps ensure that as Estonian saunas reach further into the world, the soul of the sauna goes with them.”

“A truly great sauna should feel as if it has always belonged exactly where it stands,” said Marko Kevvai of DWILD. “For us, the Estonian Sauna Trust is an assurance of thoughtful design, trusted craftsmanship, and saunas made to belong.”

Estonia now has its own banner

Finland’s sauna industry has marketed itself together for years through Sauna From Finland, a membership association of almost 200 companies whose quality certificate audits sauna venues. The Estonian Sauna Trust takes a different shape: a small group of manufacturers, chosen rather than enrolled, putting a mark on the products themselves.

It arrives at the right show. Interbad’s organizer, Messe Stuttgart, expects about 300 exhibitors from 28 countries this week and says the fair offers “the largest range of products worldwide in the sauna sector.”

For American buyers the mark is new, but most of the names behind it are already familiar. HUUM heaters, Auroom’s indoor and outdoor sauna models and Leil saunas are all sold in the US today.

This story is part of SaunaNews’ Interbad 2026 coverage. Sauna Marketplace, SaunaNews’s sister store, sells HUUM, Auroom and Leil products. Exhibiting and have news to share? Write to hello@saunanews.com.