“Our customers have been extremely pleased with Matkahuolto’s locker terminals and extensive network of pick-up points. Most of the feedback received is positive. For gun deliveries, we use the ‘To be collected in person’ service, which has worked to our full satisfaction. We’ve been very happy with the speed and reliability of Matkahuolto’s deliveries. We also use ADR transports,” says Olli-Pekka Ojajärvi.

“It’s easy to agree with what Olli-Pekka is saying. Although we’re practically the only parcel service for the delivery of high-security items to consumers in Finland, our cooperation has also been expanding nicely to include other products. Working with Olli-Pekka, Pekka and Seija has always been uncomplicated and constructive,” says Matkahuolto’s Key Account Manager Joonas Peura.

He understood that the low number of people living in the vicinity was not enough to support volume sales. It was necessary to expand the customer base to include the whole of Finland, and so he started mail-order sales of firearms as early as the 1960s. At that time, the only other company engaged in mail-order sales was Anttila, a large department store based in Tampere. It is safe to say that the foundation on which the company stands today was laid by Ahti Huvila in the 1960s. Initially, Ahti Huvila posted classified ads in newspapers with nationwide circulation. They only included long lists of firearms complete with prices. And as the price-setting was successful, the business took off.

“In the early days, my mother used to take the moped and drive to the village centre to send customers the parcels packaged by my father,” Seija Ojajärvi laughs. Even then Ahti Huvila understood that it was necessary to have the products in stock in order to be able to dispatch them quickly.

Over the decades, Ahti Huvila’s product range varied to the extent that groceries had to make way to other products. At one point, he sold household appliances. In 1984, the shop was relocated to the village centre.About ten years ago, Seija and Pekka Ojajärvi, who had acquired the company in the early 1990s, decided to focus entirely on firearms and other hunting equipment. “When the firearms laws were tightened as a result of the deplorable school shootings that took place at the time, we wondered for a moment whether it had been a mistake to concentrate on guns. But since it was mainly the provisions on hand guns that were made stricter and we didn’t sell many hand guns anyway, we got off with a scare,” Pekka Ojajärvi recalls.

Classified ads have since been replaced by the online store. While large stocks tie up a lot of capital, it is essential to have the traded goods readily at hand either in the warehouse or on the shelves. Once Ahti Huvila receives the customer’s purchase permit, the customer gets the firearm on the following day,” Pekka Ojajärvi says.

Footfall in the brick-and-mortar shop is also high, even though Soini is way off the beaten track. Still, random shoppers and passers-by are rarely seen in the large, stylish and well-equipped shop.