We are Valco Ltd, a Finnish company developing and selling things. We started in 2018 by importing a variety of stuff that has long since disappeared into oblivion. The idea was to test and import all the products we sell ourselves, to ensure the best quality and the best prices for our customers. 

We soon realised that it didn't really make any sense.

First of all, the constant hunt for new products and testing was a lot of work. Secondly, as soon as you had found a good product, someone at a large retailer had quietly added it to their own range. Third, there was always some asshole on our Facebook wall whining that "you can get this cheaper on eBay or Wish" (when in reality our prices were the same + taxes and duties, because we always bought straight from the factory).

So it makes much more sense to develop and sell your own products.

While thinking about this, we met Jasse "Jazmanaut" Kest, a sound guru who had bought our imported headphones and wanted to help us improve them. 

We put our heads together with Jasse in early 2019 and set out to design our very own model of headphones, Valco ANC headphones. A blog post has been written about this process. During 2020, sales and imports of all other products fell by the wayside and quickly, the company has changed from an online shop to a manufacturer. It hasn't been easy and we've had a lot of issues (fish memory for example), but at least our products are awesome!

Going forward, we will strive to bring new, excellent Valco products to the market that are of Finnish design and hopefully someday domestically produced in Finland. 

What gave the company such a great name?

The name Valco has a great legacy. It comes from the biggest financial failure and the most famous corruption case in the history of Finland. 

The original Valco Oy was a television tube factory jointly owned by the Finnish State, Salora Oy and the Japanese company Hitachi, in which the Finnish State had a majority stake. The company was founded in 1976 with the purpose to manufacture colour television picture tubes using technology supplied by Hitachi.

It was a project from the era of "Kekkoslovakia" (as in the 70's Finland was a nation ruled by a lifetime president Kekkonen, not unlike modern day Belarus. Kekkoslovakia is a pun of the name Kekkonen and the country Slovakia), involving corruption, incompetent politicians and regional politics. Naturally, the company was never profitable and production at the cathode-ray tube factory finally came to an end as early as December 1980, when more than 500 workers and employees lost their jobs.

The project proved to be an economic and political disaster. In addition to the fact that the factory did not produce any television tubes, many high-ranking politicians and officials were involved in a related corruption scandal. Finnish taxpayers lost a sum equivalent of a billion euros (or something) in todays money. Several government officials and corporate CEOs went to prison. No politicians were ever convicted.

Valco was criticised heavily at the time by the political opposition. For example, the SMP (a opposition party at the time) J. Juhani Kortesalmi said Valco was built for "decay, revelry, drunkenness and card-playing".

The name Valco Ltd happened to be vacant, so we decided to grab it for ourselves to make a fortune. Naturally, the present day Valco has nothing in common with the original venture other than the basic pillars mentioned by Kortesalmi. Occasionally, in some of the product names or advertisements, someone clever might notice other similarities with the original Valco.

Founders

The company was founded and it is fully owned by Henri Heikkinen (MSc computer science) and Jani Rajaniemi (PhD administrative sciences). Our humble aim is to develop awesome products that we want to buy ourselves and keep the prices at a level we can afford them ourselves.

Our first product was the innovatively named "Valco Wireless ANC headphones", which are a pair of wireless ANC headphones. Our most recent model is called VMK25.

Our VAT code is FI29196975 and our company is located in Tampere, Finland. Our Finnish website can be found from Valco.fi

Our vision statement

At Valco, we envision a world where everyone has bought high-quality, affordable audio products that enhance their everyday experiences from us. 

We strive to be a leading manufacturer of innovative, sustainable, and Finnish-designed audio products that provide the best value for money to our customers. With all the money we get from selling these products, we aim to build a Death Star (not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company). In our vision, some of the money will go on beer, alimony payments, large golden clocks, fast cars (or unnecessary large cars) and other necessities before the actual Death Star can be built. 

Our mission statement

Valco is dedicated to providing high-quality, sustainable, and affordable audio products that enhance our customers' listening experiences as well as fatten the company owners bank accounts. 

Our mission is to design and manufacture innovative, Finnish-designed audio products that provide the best value for money to our customers and a hefty profit for the company owners. We strive to achieve this by prioritizing quality and sustainability in our manufacturing processes while maintaining transparency, fairness, and respect in our customer relationships. Our mission is to make people feel good about giving us their hard-earned money. Our goal is to continuously improve our products and processes, and minimize our environmental impact while delivering the best possible audio experience to our customers. In the end, nothing matters, because we will build a Death Star (not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company) and enslave all humanity (except our clients, partners and resellers).

Legal info

Company registration code: 2919697-5

VAT code: FI29196975

Company address: 

VALCO Oy
PL 1001
33721 Tampere
FINLAND