Familon’s latest advertising campaign was enough to cause sleepless nights, particularly for the company’s employees in Kankaanpää, southwest Finland.
The print ads, which appeared in the Kesko Group’s Pirkka advertising supplement, addresses consumers, telling them that by spending more on Familon's duvets and pillows manufactured in Kankaanpää, they could create as many as 10,000 new jobs in Finland.
“Did you know that by sleeping well you could bring jobs to Finland? Buy Familon’s Princess pillows and duvets made in Kankaanpää. Just ten euros more every month could create 10,000 new jobs in Finland,” the print advert declares.
The problem with the ad, though, is that the company had previously informed employees that it planned to relocate production of its high end beds and bedding from Kankaanpää to Estonia.
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Familion chief executive Jouko Salakka admitted that the ads were in poor taste and apologised for the campaign.
"The campaign was agreed long before the decision was made to relocate production. In principle the ad is not misleading because all of the current stock was made in Kankaanpää and we still manufacture in Finland," Salakka remarked.
"But I must admit that the style of the ad is not the best possible at this time," he added.
In February this year the company decided to shutter the Kankaanpää factory and transfer logistics operations to another facility in Heinola. The Kankaanpää had some 23 workers on its payroll at the time.
In 2014 the company was purchased from Finlayson by Europe's largest bedding manufacturer, TradingHouse.
17.40, 5.8.2015 The sale of Familon to TradingHouse was in 2014, not 2004 as this article previously stated.