Montana Buys Danish Sustainable Furniture Brand Takt

Danish design brand Montana has acquired fellow Danish furniture maker Takt and will relaunch its catalogue under the collection name Takt by Montana.

Montana announced the buyout of the company, founded in 2019 by trained physicist and former Lego and Bang & Olufsen executive Henrik Taudorf Lorensen. Takt makes modern Scandinavian furniture from FSC-certified wood that is low-carbon, flat-pack and designed for disassembly.

The deal covers Takt's future launches and its existing products, including the Cross chair by British design duo Pearson Lloyd and the Spoke sofa by Anderssen & Voll. All will now be sold under the Takt by Montana name.

What does the acquisition change?

Montana CEO Joakim Lassen said he hopes the Takt line will act as an understated counterpart to Montana's existing selection of colourful modular furniture — including the Montana System storage — and bring valuable learnings about sustainability to the table.

"Takt brings experience with materials and the environment, and we are looking forward to bringing our respective experience together and taking this work even further," Lassen said.

The promise of shared expertise comes with an open question: neither company disclosed the purchase price, nor did they detail how many Takt employees will transfer. Montana said Takt staff will be integrated into its organisation "as far as possible" — wording that leaves room for cuts.

A scientist's approach to emissions

Takt has built its reputation on an ambitious approach to sustainability. The company targets net zero by 2030 and focuses on driving down emissions primarily through the design of its products rather than operational cuts.

It assesses the carbon footprint of its products throughout their entire lifecycle using the EU's Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) single score. It claims to be the only design brand to consistently have all of its products marked with the EU Ecolabel — a claim that, like most self-reported firsts, rests on the company's own assessment rather than independent verification.

"I have a background as a scientist, so it was important to me to start measuring things," Lorensen told Dezeen during the outlet's Carbon Revolution series. "The starting point was to get a grasp of the impact of the choices we're making."

Scale in exchange for independence

Lorensen will join Montana Furniture's board, where he will share his experience and perspective on sustainability. By gaining access to the established, international infrastructure of Montana, which has been operating since 1982, he hopes Takt's furniture will reach a larger audience.

"The past few years have been an exciting and instructive journey for TAKT," Lorensen said. "We have built a brand where materials and the environment have been central, and we have collaborated with a number of talented and celebrated designers."

"Now it is time for TAKT's next chapter, and we are delighted that it will be written together with Montana."

What remains to be seen is whether Takt's net-zero-by-2030 target and its Ecolabel coverage across the full range survive the transition into a larger group — the acquisition statement makes no commitment on either point. The answer will define whether this is a scaling of a sustainability model or its dilution.