Group

Berner Oy

5 brands · founded 1883 · Finland

Berner Oy is a Finnish family-owned company founded in 1883 and headquartered in Helsinki [1][2]. It operates as a diversified group whose business spans four areas — consumer goods, healthcare and laboratories, agricultural trade, and industry — and it both manufactures its own products and imports brands for the Finnish and wider Nordic market [2].

Within the consumer-goods side, Berner Oy develops and owns a range of personal-care and cosmetics brands. The company remains wholly held by the founding Berner family, now in its fifth generation of ownership, which distinguishes it from the publicly listed groups that dominate much of the beauty industry [1].

History & milestones

The company traces its origin to the Norwegian merchant Sören Berner, who acquired the right to conduct business on 28 July 1883 [1]. From that trading house it grew over the following century into a broad Finnish industrial and consumer group. Berner Oy describes itself today as "a growing and internationalizing Finnish family owned company," structured around four business areas and supported by its own production [2].

Beauty and personal care sit within the consumer-goods area alongside the group's other everyday-product lines. According to Berner Oy, the same portfolio also includes non-cosmetic own brands in areas such as cleaning, footwear and automotive care, reflecting the group's diversified character [5].

Portfolio & brands

Berner Oy's own beauty and personal-care brands include Herbina, LV, XZ, by Raili and Murumuru, which Finnish sources list among the company's own brands [5]. The group's brand portfolio also features BTB13, Ekopharma and Pure=Beauty, presented on Berner's own brands pages [3].

These lines cover skincare, haircare and personal hygiene, and are developed and marketed by Berner rather than distributed on behalf of third parties. The company draws a distinction between the brands it owns and the external brands it imports and distributes in Finland [3].

Acquisitions & strategy

Berner Oy has expanded its cosmetics range partly through acquisition. In 2023 the group acquired Naviter Ltd, a Finnish manufacturer of skin- and hair-care products associated with the Pure=Beauty line, a deal an advising firm described as adding "a rapidly growing cosmetics company" to Berner's portfolio [7]. The purchase broadened the group's own-brand cosmetics manufacturing capacity.

Ownership

Berner Oy is privately held. Finnish sources state that the company is entirely owned by the Berner family [5], and the group presents itself as a family-owned business now run by the fifth generation of the founding family [1]. It is not listed on a stock exchange, and no outside majority shareholder is recorded in the available sources.

Brands in the group