Vuori

Vuori Oy (previously Vuori Ventures) is a holding company established by Kasperi Salovaara, headquartered in Hyvinkää, Finland.

History
Kasperi Salovaara became interested in investment at an early age, and dabbled into business through the formation of Silvertop Brewery (which soon would evolve into Silvertop Unibrew) and Zoop Music Entertainment.

After the success in establishing operations of Styhon Battersea, helping at the foundation of Gearbox Films, and becoming one of the richest billionaires, he decided to gain citizenship in Norway and Canada. He also assigned people to take care of his parts in various companies, including his childhood best friend Martin Glass, who became the Head of Gearbox Films's financing department.

The new holding company seperate from Styhon Battersea was soon named after the word "vuori" (Finnish for "mountain"), as Salovaara thought to form it as his very own, similar to OWL Ventures, as in "his own mountain to conquer". The name also attributes to his Nordic origins.

Silvertop Unibrew
Silvertop Unibrew (Silvertop United Breweries NV) is the beverages division of Vuori, with legal headquarters in Amsterdam and operational headquarters in. While currently not the #1 largest, they are one of the largest brewing and soft drinks companies by brand portfolio and breweries.

Silvertop Unibrew started its life as Silvertop Brewery, a Lappeenranta-based brewery he founded with Martin Glass as a side business to Salovaara Ventures Group. They started out brewing IPA and cider, but soon found their niche in quirky products, such as Lizard Spit and Not Too Cola But Just Enough, which were under the Silvertop brand. In addition, Silvertop also sold beverages such as an elderflower and lemon soda.

The name "Silvertop" came from Salovaara himself, when he was browsing around grocery stores and noticed many microbreweries selling cans with silver tops. The name worked, as it had the branding already integrated into it, utilizing the usual "indie brewery" silver top as part of its image. "Goldtop" was suggested as an alternative brand, but was shot down quick after both Kasperi and Martin figured they wouldn't have any idea how gold coloured cans would work.

They struck deals with Tsingtao Brewery Company and Asahi Group to distribute each other's products in Finland and Asia (as Salovaara had an affinity with Asian culture, especially drinks and food), as well as with Hartwall, Inex Partners and Altia for additional distribution and production. As an addition to Silvertop's products, Silvertop also sold rye bread (Silvertop Bread), made under a collaboration with local bakeries using the yeast from Silvertop's brewery.

In addition to quirky products and smart deals with big companies, Salovaara also was in charge of its marketing, which set itself apart from its microbrewery competitors - their ads alternate between serious-toned cinematic and artistic short films and short surrealistic ads a la Budweiser. Many ads for Silvertop Unibrew products since the beginning were either produced, written and/or directed by Salovaara, with one of the notable exceptions being the Super Bowl ads, as he allowed the creative visions of "more disadvantaged creators [such as BIPOC and physically disabled] to drive" the ads instead.

Their Twitter was also regarded as a "down-to-earth" brand account, tweeting out surreal tweets (which resulted in comparisons to @dril and pukicho) as well as employing an AI to randomly generate new product ideas - which, with enough votes and meeting certain expectations such as safety in consumption, became limited edition items. This generated a few limited edition flavors, such as Banana Cider with a Hint of Peanut Butter and Bacon.

Silvertop's first expansion included the acquisitions of Latilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas in Finland, ThaiBev in Asia, and Constellation Brands in the United States, as well as new deals with AmBev and Grupo Modelo to expand to South America.

By then, Silvertop announced a collaboration with Fazer, which also had a factory located in Lappeenranta, announcing Fazer Marianne mint chocolate flavored cream liqueur, which were limited time only and available through Silvertop's own website as well as Fazer's stores in their factories. It received positive to mixed reception. Their collaboration with Lehmus Roastery of Lappeenranta, announced at the same time, saw them selling a limited edition coffee cola soft drink under Silvertop's flavor name "Skinnarila", taking its name from a quarter of Lappeenranta which was most associated with student life and work culture, due to it housing institutions such as the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology. It ended up becoming one of Silvertop's staple flavors.

Around the time Vuori Oy was established, Salovaara and Oliver Watson engaged on an acquisition spree for breweries and wineries, aiming to both establish OWL as a leader in fine drinks and expand Silvertop Brewery to a powerhouse. OWL Drinks opted to acquire the rest of the operations that Silvertop couldn't acquire.

Gurgel Motors
Gurgel Motors is the automotive division of Vuori, which was formed to plan and manufacture new electric vehicles under the revived brand, which is a famous Brazilian brand. Salovaara founded the division with Gearbox Films co-founder Edward R. Benjamin after they both found out about each other's passion for cars. (Salovaara's passion was more technical, while Benjamin's was more retro.)

In order to start work on their first car since the foundation, Gurgel BR1, they managed to acquire some patents, including the Activa suspension system (electronically controlled hydropneumatic suspension combined with an active anti-roll bar) as well as did R&D work for graphite and fiber-metal laminates. They intend on sticking with a rounded version of the famous Gurgel BR-800 car design, though will tweak it slightly based on aerodynamics research.

Though Tesla and the new Gurgel are essentially rivals, Salovaara is friends with the former's figurehead Elon Musk, and they usually interact through Twitter. While Salovaara has regarded Musk as "sometimes a hothead ready to explode, almost like [himself]", confirmed by arguments spawn out of some interactions on the platform, he still affirms that he is "one of the greatest friends [he's] ever had", next to Watson, Benjamin and Glass. Their friendship allowed Gurgel and Tesla to collaborate on development of new car parts and new features to their OS, as well as resulted in Gurgel's involvement in autonomous car development.

They have dual headquarters in Hyvinkää (within Vuori's offices) and Sao Paulo (which also serves as their factory).

Vuori Forestry
Vuori Forestry is the division specializing in pulp and paper products as well as research and development of alternative solutions to palm oil, and forest preservation.

Joint ventures and stakes
Gurgel Motors established China Gurgel Motors Corporation, a 50/50 joint stock partnership with the Chinese government (through state-owned companies BAIC Motor, SAIC Motor, FAW Group, Dongfeng Motors and Changan Automobile) to distribute Gurgel's cars in China, as well as manufacture additional cars under the Gurgel brand.

Vuori holds an 8% stake in Styhon Battersea.

Corporate management
Kasperi Salovaara is both the founder and the CEO of Vuori. Oliver Watson of OWL Ventures has an executive position in the company as well.