Harvia Acquires Almost Heaven Saunas, Planting a US Flag in West Virginia
The newly public Finnish sauna maker picked up North America's biggest barrel-sauna brand for roughly EUR 4 million, instantly adding a US manufacturing base and dealer network.
Almost Heaven Saunas, founded in 1998 and based in Renick, West Virginia, is now part of Harvia Plc.
Harvia Plc announced today that it has acquired Almost Heaven Saunas, the Renick, West Virginia-based barrel sauna maker, for approximately EUR 4 million. The deal closes three months after Harvia's IPO on Nasdaq Helsinki and marks the company's first major acquisition as a public entity. Track the rest of Harvia's M&A program in our acquisitions timeline.
Why Almost Heaven
Almost Heaven was founded in 1998 and has grown into the largest traditional sauna manufacturer for the North American consumer market. The company runs a timber shop, panel line, and assembly facility in Renick, West Virginia, and sells through specialty dealers and mass-market retail channels including Costco. For Harvia, the deal delivers three things it could not replicate quickly on its own: a US-based factory, a recognized consumer brand, and an established North American dealer footprint.
Almost Heaven will continue to operate under its existing brand name and management, with Harvia providing integration support around heater supply, controls technology, and international sourcing. The company's Renick operations will be maintained and expanded.
Strategic Context
At the time of IPO, Harvia management laid out a clear consolidation thesis for the fragmented global sauna industry. Almost Heaven is the first execution against that thesis. North America is the single largest growth opportunity for the category, and having a domestic factory shields part of Harvia's US revenue from any future tariffs on European-origin sauna goods, a consideration that would become significantly more relevant seven years later.
The brand positioning Harvia would eventually land on for Almost Heaven was articulated publicly years later, on the Q4 2025 earnings call, when CEO Matias Järnefelt sized the US opportunity and placed Almost Heaven squarely in the volume tier.
"We see a market with significant growth potential. We believe there is more than 10 million saunas" in the US. "Almost Heaven is the brand which you could consider like the IKEA of the saunas." — Matias Järnefelt, CEO, Harvia Q4 2025 earnings call, 12 February 2026
That IKEA framing, volume, accessible price points, recognizable brand, is the endgame of the thesis that started with this 2018 deal.
Harvia executed its first public-company acquisition exactly three months after IPO. The buy is small in euro terms but strategically outsized: a US factory, a consumer brand with scale in Costco and specialty channels, and a template for how Harvia will continue to roll up the industry. More deals will follow.
Arlene Scott
Senior Wellness Correspondent & Hospitality Consultant
Arlene Scott brings over fifteen years of reporting and consulting experience across energy infrastructure, sustainable design, and thermotherapy-focused hospitality.
Full byline
Arlene Scott is a Senior Wellness Correspondent for SaunaNews.com, bringing over fifteen years of experience at the intersection of energy infrastructure, sustainable design, and thermotherapy. Her work focuses on the physiological benefits of passive heat therapies and the sustainable integration of sauna culture into modern wellness routines.
Arlene's background is rooted in the clean energy transition. She was a founding writer at MicrogridMedia.com, where she covered the technical and economic viability of desalination projects, microgrid deployments, and distributed renewable energy systems. During the mid-2010s, she was a regular contributor to Greentech Media (GTM) during its independent era — prior to the Wood Mackenzie acquisition in 2016 — reporting on the early integration of thermal energy storage and sustainable infrastructure.
Transitioning her focus from macro-energy systems to human-scale wellness, Arlene now applies her technical background to the hospitality sector. She operates as an independent consultant, advising boutique hotels and eco-resorts on the design, energy efficiency, and historical authenticity of commercial sauna and thermal spa installations. Her consulting work ensures that high-end wellness facilities balance traditional Nordic bathing principles with modern sustainable engineering.
Arlene holds a specialized certification in Applied Thermic Wellness from the Nordic Institute of Passive Heat Studies (NIPHS) and is a recognized associate member of the International Sauna Association (ISA). When she isn't reviewing the latest innovations in infrared technology or consulting on a new resort project, Arlene can be found tending to her own traditional wood-fired sauna in the Pacific Northwest. You can read her complete archive of essays on energy, wellness, and sustainable living at www.arlenescott.com.
