Montana Furniture is a family-owned company, established in 1982, leading within storage and furniture for private homes and contemporary office spaces. The company was founded by the late Peter J. Lassen, who is also the designer of the Montana system. Today, the company is run by Peter’s son Joakim Lassen, who is the fifth generation of his family to work with furniture and the great-grandson of manufacturer Fritz Hansen.

All Montana modules are designed, developed and made in Denmark. Every day, in a small town on the island of Funen over 140 professionals work hard to uphold the highest standards of processing, painting and assembling – making sure that your Montana furniture will last a lifetime.

Innes have worked with Montana for many years and have a great working knowledge of their products. Whilst we are more conservative with our colour choices, Montana allows both subtle and bold colour combinations to be produced and shows how your specific choices can totally change the look of the pieces. Montana has developed a system that is very simple and yet very complex at the same time and really allows the end user to customise their piece of furniture to make their own.

After graduating from high school, Peter J. Lassen entered the Navy, since the family could not afford to pay for further education. After five years of service as a naval officer, he joined his father-in-law’s company, Fritz Hansen Furniture, where he went on to become CEO. Meanwhile, he had married his old high school friend, Birgitte (b. Fritz Hansen), who became a dentist. The couple had three children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

However, in 1979, Peter J. Lassen’s took a radical turn, when, after decades of service, he was fired from his position as CEO of Fritz Hansen Furniture. The reason was that customers were not yet ready for the progressive furniture he had put into production in collaboration with designers such as Verner Panton and Jørn Utzon. Sales had declined. Today, Montana has relaunched several of Verner Panton’s designs. The latest being the iconic Pantonova seating system originally designed in 1971.

Upon the dismissal from Fritz Hansen Peter J. Lassen was given three years’ salary, but he also bought the rights to the ‘60 x 60’ shelving-unit concept, which he himself had developed. He regarded those three years as a huge stroke of luck. They gave him the time to develop Montana, which he founded in 1982. However, leaving the company, which his wife’s father had founded in 1872, was far from easy. Peter moved his family from Copenhagen to the island of Funen so that he could be close to the skilled workforce that he knew he needed to make Montana a success. It also took many years to adapt the shelving unit to be a workable system and then took a further six months to get their first sale after the launch. Peter, however, was a very patient man who believed in his product and we thank him for his perseverance and dedication in creating such a clever system.

Peter J. Lassen’s youngest son, Joakim, the fifth generation of Fritz Hansen and Montana, joined the company in 1999, when they acquired the furniture company DJOB. When Montana merged with DJOB in 2009, Joakim Lassen was appointed Director of Design and Communication. In 2015, he succeeded his father as CEO for the whole of Montana and is very hands-on in the running of the company.

The new furniture company was named Montana: because it is international; because the three rhythmic syllables evoke the modular system; because it trips off the tongue; and because, in Danish, it plays on the verb ‘montere’ (assemble). As an environmentally-conscious furniture company, which has never moved its production abroad, Montana A/S made a huge investment in environmentally-friendly technology at a very early stage. For example, the MDF modules are painted using water-based paints. The entire production takes place in Haarby on the Danish island of Funen where, until his departure Peter J. Lassen, had a working knowledge of all the processes and machines.

Montana is all about providing users with options rather than solutions. When creating his unique storage solutions, Peter J. Lassen wanted users to use their own imaginations, thereby gaining a greater sense of self-esteem. His belief was that users of Montana’s modules could create a better existence for themselves, in which function and aesthetics were inextricably linked. Montana should enable each user to design his or her home or workplace with a sense of freedom and individuality.