A Collaboration With Møltrup Farm

When Carsten Thor founded Thors Design he was faced with the challenge that he wanted to place his entire production in Denmark. By doing so he could significantly minimize the climate impact from the production, and also be close by when furniture is created.

But Danish labour is an expensive resource, and his network encouraged him to forget about it, if he wanted to make a profitable business. Especially because a single cut through the hard bulwark wood takes on average 12 - 15 minutes – compared to approx. 3 minutes for Douglas fir.

However, this didn’t make him quit his ambitions. Instead, he contacted Møltrup Farm, a local social economic workshop and residence for men living on the edges of society, as he knew they had a dream to start working with wood.

The partnership became a win-win situation. With Thors Design as a customer, Møltrup had the possibility to invest in a saw to cut wood into planks. And with Møltrup as a supplier, Thors Design had the opportunity to have planks cut for an hourly wage which enabled Thors Desing to place its production in Denmark.

Møltrup and Thors Design still have a collaboration today, 21 years after Thors Design and Møltrup Sawmill saw the light of day through joint will and work.

“I encourage other companies to consider using social economic workshops to handle part of their production. We have always been incredibly happy for our partnership with Møltrup, which not only enables us to produce locally in Denmark, but also to make a difference for the men on the fringes of society – which has a huge value in itself.”