Satu
I moved to Äkäslompolo after some life lived. I met my husband, Per, in the karaoke of Humina and started to come up North more often to see him. I started to travel to Ylläs in 2003 and since I have started to get to know the place. Already we came to Lapland to cross country ski with my family when I was a child so that is when I originally started to love Lapland. I moved to Sweden to Aareavaara in 2006 and that is still our second home. I gained a lot of my customer service skills when I worked for example in a Bank and later in Alko, I worked in Alko in Ylläs so some clients might already know my face. You might see Per also in Kota working at the cashier or doing other necessary jobs.
Anne
I have hiked in the national parks of Lapland with my Finnish Laphunds since the 1990´s and have dreamt of moving to Lapland for years. Finally, I moved to Äkäslompolo with my husband Arto in 2006. I took part in the dog sled guiding courses but mainly I have been at home with the children until 2016 when I started my own business, KipakkaKettu. I have a skill for handicrafts, a talent that runs in the family, which has now become part of the business. I also graduated from vocational training for nature products in 2018.
How we are here?
We met in 2013 when Satu was downhill skiing, a break at the bottom of the slopes came to pet Anne´s Finnish Laphunds; Satu asked if she could buy a puppy in the future from Anne as she is breeding the dogs. Satu waited for few years and finally a lovely brown puppy was born, Unna. Since then we have been good friends and when Anne got the possibility to buy Velhon Kota, she asked Satu to join the business, who did not hesitate a minute.
Ilkka Poutanen from Selvä Pyy pub proposed us that you should have your own ale, we are always on the look out for new ideas so it didn’t take too long to convince us! Working in co-operation with Ilkka, we developed our idea and we now have our very own Velho’s blond ale. The hops in the ale are from Äkäslompolo.
We also want to serve non-alcoholic bubbly drinks so we have Lehtikuohu, which is a sweet drink that gets the taste from black currant leaves and it is made in Ilomantsi.
