diff --git a/pungi/util.py b/pungi/util.py
index e46d29aa..dc2cd62a 100644
--- a/pungi/util.py
+++ b/pungi/util.py
@@ -322,7 +322,10 @@ def get_variant_data(conf, var_name, variant, keys=None):
 
 
 def _apply_substitutions(compose, volid):
-    for k, v in compose.conf['volume_id_substitutions'].items():
+    substitutions = compose.conf['volume_id_substitutions'].items()
+    # processing should start with the longest pattern, otherwise, we could
+    # unexpectedly replace a substring of that longest pattern
+    for k, v in sorted(substitutions, reverse=True):
         volid = volid.replace(k, v)
     return volid
 
diff --git a/tests/test_util.py b/tests/test_util.py
index 1fe0fc37..ba60c79a 100644
--- a/tests/test_util.py
+++ b/tests/test_util.py
@@ -222,6 +222,27 @@ class TestVolumeIdGenerator(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertIn('bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb', str(ctx.exception))
         self.assertIn('aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa', str(ctx.exception))
 
+    @mock.patch('pungi.compose.ComposeInfo')
+    def test_apply_substitutions(self, ci):
+        all_keys = [
+            ('Fedora-WorkstationOstree-ostree-x86_64-rawhide', 'Fedora-WS-ostree-x86_64-rawhide'),
+            ('Fedora-WorkstationOstree-ostree-x86_64-Rawhide', 'Fedora-WS-ostree-x86_64-rawh'),
+            ('x86_64-compose_id-20160107', 'x86_64-compose_id-20160107'),
+            ('x86_64-compose_id-20160107-Alpha', 'x86_64-compose_id-20160107-A'),
+        ]
+        for volid, expected in all_keys:
+            conf = {
+                'volume_id_substitutions': {
+                    'Rawhide': 'rawh',
+                    'WorkstationOstree': 'WS',
+                    'Workstation': 'WS',
+                    'Alpha': 'A',
+                }
+            }
+            c = compose.Compose(conf, self.tmp_dir)
+            transformed_volid = util._apply_substitutions(c, volid)
+            self.assertEqual(transformed_volid, expected)
+
 
 class TestFindOldCompose(unittest.TestCase):
     def setUp(self):