Business Estonia 1/2010

1/2010

1/2010 www.business-estonia.eu ESTONIA

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Estonia- Striving to become a true ''Nordic'' economy

Competitive Estonian economy open to growth

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SPECIAL REPORT 2010GOLF IN ESTONIA

BEKANSI_2010_1.indd 1 6.7.2010 14.19

Editor-in-ChiEfJorma Leppäniemi

EditorsMaris Hellrand

Tiit KonsandMartin Palm

LanguagE EditorNordic International Ltd

dEsign and LayoutAivo Blum

Heidi Kiviaho

PhotograPhyAldo Luud

Jaak KadarikVillu Kraan

MarkEtingJorma Leppäniemi

Tel. +358 9 42821012

PubLishEr Peremeedia OÜPärnu mnt. 14111314 Tallinn

Estonia

ContaCt [email protected]

Tel. +358 9 42821015 Fax. +358 9 42821030

CovEr Photo:iStockphoto

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EDITORIAL

Finnish publishing company Perhemediat Oy Ltd has ex-panded in Estonia, where it is known as Peremeedia OÜ. The classic English-language economic publication of Business Finland has now come out in an Estonian

version, Business Estonia. The new Business Estonia offers a vast overview of Estonian business life and new business opportunities.

Business Estonia will be published three times a year. In addi-tion there will be special themed issues including current topics of the economy or politics. We also introduce the most attractive travel destinations from the viewpoint of potential international customers.

Apart from dealing with the economy, this first issue of Busi-ness Estonia introduces politicians from the top of the Republic of Estonia: President of Esto-nia Toomas Hendrik Ilves and economy and communications minister Juhan Parts. As well as regular business coverage, the magazine also contains a fresh and up-to-date view of Estonian politics, culture, lifestyle and sports.

Distribution of Business Estonia is mainly outside Estonia, for example through the country’s trade representations, chambers of commerce and foreign media. Foreigners working and study-ing in Estonia, and those visiting Estonia, are also target groups. This very first issue of Business Estonia will also be handed out at the Shanghai World EXPO 2010, in the Estonian Pavilion.

About publishing company Perhemediat

Business Finland, the leading international publication on the Finnish economy, has reached the age of 20. During its two decades of publication it has featured movers and shakers of Finnish business as well as a number of the country’s key decision makers.

The publisher of the Business Finland is Perhemediat Oy Ltd, a company owned by an active publishing family for two generations. Perhemediat Oy Ltd also publishes magazines, non-fiction books within education, guide books, as well as books on hobbies and lifestyle.

We are delighted to start supplying positive business news from Estonia too!

Jorma LeppäniemiEditor-in-Chief

New professional business publication Business Estonia

4 Business Estonia 1/2010 5

Photo: iStockphoto

4 5Business Estonia 1/2010




EstoniaEstonia’s president talks frankly about his country’s competi-tive advantage when it comes to logistics and high-tech crea-tivity. He dreams of a truly knowledge-based economy that will lead to a higher quality of life for Estonians and people throughout the world.

Text: Maris HellrandPhotos: Villu Kraan

- Striving to become a true ''Nordic'' economy


One aspect that in-vestors have found very appealing is the coun-try’s tax policy; Estonia has a flat tax rate and no corporate tax on re-invested profit.“

President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves


Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Presi-dent of Estonia, strongly be-lieves that his country is one of the easiest places to do

business today in Europe because it has the most friendly business climate, and he is not afraid to say it.

"To start with you can just register a company online," he says. "It's a matter of 10 minutes and you have your company established."

One aspect that investors have found very appealing is the country's tax policy; Estonia has a flat tax rate and no corpo-rate tax on reinvested profit.

On-time delivery

President Ilves believes Estonia's com-petitive advantage rests on two major

pillars. When it comes to the production of traditional products such as furniture the advantage lies in logistics, and in the realm of intellectual services Estonia has the advantage of providing creative soft-ware solutions.

"I'll tell you why countries in north-ern Europe have found Estonia particu-larly interesting to do business with. In this globalised world, where everyone is talking about cheap production in China, what has kept northern Europe function-ing is a new logistical model called 'on-time delivery', which clearly goes in the opposite direction of massive cheap pro-duction," he says.

It is clear that few companies can compete with Shanghai in terms of la-bour costs. Products are produced in bulk at low cost, and are then shipped

over for three months and stored in a big warehouse.

As Estonia's labour costs cannot com-pete with those in China, companies have had to adopt the alternative model. In this model, companies produce things only when customers want them, they make them quickly to a much higher level of quality and bring them to customers quickly.

President Ilves illustrates this with a perfect example; a Finnish furniture com-pany, based in Võrumaa, Antsla, which is completely computerised.

"They have showrooms all over north-ern Europe. So a customer goes into a showroom, says 'I like that chair but I'd really like pink polka dots on it, not green leather'. The order goes to Antsla. The chair is tailor-made according to the


customer's choice, the next morning it's on a truck, goes to the ferry in Paldiski and arrives a day after in Jonköping in the showroom."

He believes this will be a major part of Estonia's competitive advantage, as the labour costs are still somewhat low-er than the rest of northern Europe but the quality: price ratio is very favourable. Customers get well-manufactured goods delivered quickly at a lower price, be-cause they do not have to bear the cost of massive warehousing.

High tech

President Ilves clearly considers the high-tech innovative side of business to be an-other area in which his country is highly competitive. The internet phone service

Skype, in particular, has become Estonia's trademark in the IT world, but it is not the only example. One of the most suc-cessful public mobile phone parking sys-tems used in the world was also invented in the country.

"There are a lot of creative people here thinking of new ways of doing things," says President Ilves. "Regio, based in Tartu, started out 20 years ago as a map company which, in typical Estonian fash-ion, was probably the first map company in the world to go completely computer-ised. Today Regio is developing logistics systems for Latin American countries and India, among others. In cooperation with Ericsson there is a tie-in between high-quality maps and communication systems in the Ericsson network. If you want to drive a truck from Gujarat to

Chennai and find the best way of getting there, the highly computerised logistics system helps you do that."

Transparency in e-Estonia

President Ilves has been a keen supporter of everything related to IT ever since he came up with the idea of 'Tiger Leap' sev-eral years ago, which brought high-speed internet connection to the furthest cor-ners of Estonia. It is only fitting that he now emphasises the role of intelligent software solutions in the functioning of the country's government and adminis-tration.

In Estonia nearly everything can be done online – you can register your com-pany, administer your taxes, organise your healthcare, education and even ac-

The internet phone service Sky-pe, in particular, has become Es-tonia’s trademark in the IT world, but it is not the only example. One of the most successful public mo-bile phone parking systems used in the world was also invented in the country.

12 Business Estonia 1/2010

Business Estonia

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cess immigration services. This means it is very easy for companies to do business and everything is very transparent. The computerisation of all kinds of dealings with the government adds to this trans-parency.

President Ilves sees this as a very im-portant factor for the overall business climate. "As opposed to the unfortunately standard image of eastern Europe, Esto-nia is a very clean place when it comes to corruption. You will see that we don't have the problems that are not even re-stricted to the so-called east European countries. On the transparency list of international corruption we can see that there are quite a few of the so-called old European countries that Estonia is ahead of."

Considering a recent decision by the European Commission in May, the odds that there will be a political decision for Estonia to adopt the Euro are overwhelm-ing, which will make it even cheaper to do business here. In addition, Estonia and Sweden are now the only countries ful-filling the Maastricht criteria for public deficit.

Innovative creativity

The President sees the most positive scenario for the future of Estonia as a knowledge-based economy that increas-ingly relies on intellectual creativity. But

he admits that, in order to do this, Esto-nia needs greater investment in higher education.

"The education system is fine for what we have today but if we want to take a serious step forward in really becoming a knowledge-based society, we need to put even more money into education. My own vision is that our competitive advan-tage lies in the intellectual creativity of the population."

This is clearly a political decision, which will be relevant in future elections. But President Ilves sees that while the creativity is already there, the education-al base needs to be developed. Denmark, Finland and Sweden have all already moved in that direction.

"In the quickly changing world, edu-cation is something that needs to be life-long. To think as we did in the 20th century or even more in the 18th or 19th, that what you were born to do is what you will do your entire life, does not apply to-day. Up to the 19th century – for 1,000 years – if your father was a farmer you were a farmer. Maybe you had a better plough but nothing changed. In the 20th century things changed quite a bit but nevertheless if you studied to be a doctor in the 1930s you would still be operating with the same technique in the 1970s.

"Today, what you learned in university, especially in science or technically-relat-ed subjects, it may completely change 10

years later. When I was a child I couldn't understand how my parents lived with-out television; now my oldest child can-not conceive how I ever lived without the internet. In fact, I don't understand how I lived without the internet. Clearly educa-tion is the key factor."

President Ilves admits that Estonia also needs to devote more attention to quality-of-life issues, while will involve better infrastructure and more attention paid to life outside Tallinn.

"If we want Tartu University to be a place where people come to, we have to make sure that Tartu is an appealing place for people outside Estonia. It may be very charming to us but not necessar-ily to people from Tübingen."

Flexible labour market

President Ilves praises Estonia's flexible labour market. The country's employ-ment policy is much more flexible than the rigid systems in place in many other countries in Europe. In fact, in his view this is what has enabled Estonian com-panies to land on their feet during this international crisis. The flexibility has al-lowed companies to stay alive. President Ilves underlines the importance of ensur-ing the will of the government and the people to put up with very dramatic and serious cuts in expenditures.

Estonia's state costs were reduced in

The President characterises Estoni-ans as responsible peo-ple who do not spend more than they have and who are willing to make sacrifices and work hard.


2009 by 9 per cent. Nevertheless, the gov-ernment continues to enjoy support at a level that is higher than average in the European Union.

"We can compare [our situation] to developments elsewhere where there has been profligate spending, where cutting back on clearly unsustainable policies re-sults in riots. The Estonians have shown

a remarkable willingness to face difficult times stoically."

The President characterises Estonians as responsible people who do not spend more than they have and who are willing to make sacrifices and work hard. These are the same characteristics that built the success of Finland, Sweden and Den-mark, and will determine the future suc-

cess of Estonia. "As I have been saying for over a dec-

ade, we are fundamentally a Nordic coun-try with a somewhat unfortunate history but our values of behaviour and mindset are the same as in other northern coun-tries and differ substantially from those of other countries that underwent com-munism against their own will."

www.president.ee


Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications, Juhan Parts


Competitive Estonian economyopen to growth

The Estonian economy has proved its ability to succeed. Flexibility and openness are the characteristics and pervading principles of Estonian economic policy. We are an e-country with a favourable business climate and cost advantages, and open to growth. The objective of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications is to create over-all conditions for the growth in the competitiveness of the Estonian economy, and its bal-anced and vital development. It will aid this through the drafting and implementation of Estonian economic policy and by evaluating its outcome.

Text: Tiit KonsandPhotos: Jaak Kadarik


Business Estonia

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Minister Juhan Parts has led the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications since

2007. He has also been Prime Minister, a member of the Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) twice, Auditor General and Deputy Secretary General of the Minis-try of Justice.

Achiever of the Year 2009

Juhan Parts’s political party Pro Patria and fellow conservative party (with whom Pro Patria merged in 2006) Res Publica Union declared him to be the achiever of the year 2009 for getting things done. Parts gained recognition for protecting and supporting business-oriented pro-

grammes in government, helping to cre-ate jobs and creating conditions that at the end of 2010 means unemployment in Estonia will stop rising. Parts says it is a nice recognition, which definitely encourages harder work. And he adds that to work as the minister of economy during an economic recession is a major challenge for him.


We have implemented a stimulating programme for our economy in Estonia, equivalent in volume to the average of OECD countries apart from the United States. This has been done to create jobs and maintain and develop the exports of Estonian enterprises.”

“We have implemented a stimulating programme for our economy in Estonia, equivalent in volume to the average of OECD countries apart from the United States. This has been done to create jobs and maintain and develop the exports of Estonian enterprises,” explains Parts.

“Despite this the crisis has had serious consequences. An explanation for this is simple – credit volumes, which came to Estonia during the boom years were so large that to replace their effect with something else was unrealistic and prob-ably incorrect. As of now, payments from that period made by EU funds are around EEK 11 billion. This amount is large and definitely gives a boost to the develop-ment of our country, but it is not so large as to turn day into night or the economic crisis into growth. During the boom years much more money came into the econo-my with loans than is now coming from European support. For example in 2007 the increase in the loan portfolio of indi-viduals and companies was over EEK 60 billion, which is about the same as for the entire financial period that came from Europe.”

Economy rises gradually

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was more optimistic in its recent eco-nomic forecast for Estonia, predicting economic growth of 0.8 per cent this year and 3.6 per cent next year. The Ministry of Finance expects the growth to be 1 per cent this year and 4 per cent in 2011.

Parts admits that economic growth definitely makes him pleased, but in the first quarter of this year Estonia's GDP still decreased. “However, it is expected that if the world economy is not attacked by new setbacks and demand does not weaken on Estonia's main export mar-kets, the time when we’ll be talking about real growth is not far away.”

According to Juhan Parts decisions alone to adapt have led us to more reli-ability and adaptability, which we have shown is the argument for investing in Estonia.


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“Decisions on adapting are made by individuals and businesses, as well as the country. The initial reaction to the economic downturn and loss of reve-nue is that costs should be reduced. It’s not pleasant, but there is no other way. Decisions have been made to adapt and preserve. For many companies this has meant more work in searching for ex-port opportunities. The countries have handled it redirecting the money in-stead of supporting different business-es to export guarantees and support.

“Thanks to the conservative fiscal policy, we are producing stability in a world which is full of debt-stricken countries. Saying that, I somehow do not want to understate the problem of unemployment, which remains a major challenge for the Estonian state and people. The new jobs will require new investment and we are working for this.”

Estonia's attractiveness increases

Parts sees in his everyday work that the willingness to invest among entrepre-neurs has been gradually increasing. “This is for both domestic and foreign investors. Of course, this greatly affects

the overall economic situation in the economy, but not only that. When I com-pare the current time with the beginning of the 1990s, it is easier to get investment in Estonia today than it was at that time. We are known and trusted partners for our close neighbours. Over the years we have built up an environment that pro-vides a secure basis to act here. With the economic crisis prices and wages have fallen and, unlike better times, it is possi-ble to find qualified workers. So if some-one has a good business plan, Estonia may be a good place to carry it out. For instance in addition to latest investments in Estonia we can mention – in addition to Hyrles –Trelleborg and Ericsson too.”


Joining the euro zone would be the logical continuation of the successful monetary policy based on the currency board system. Particularly in the cur-rent global economic situation clear and specific prospects for the adoption of the euro provide assurance and increase the reliability of the business environment here.

“The introduction of the euro does not change night into day or loss into profit. However, it is certainly a good thing that the currency circulating in Estonia and the prices are easily understood by the half a billion people living in the Euro-pean Union, and actually probably by a lot more. For foreign investors there is no longer a need to explore and think about what kind of risks the local currency in-volves. For Estonia the euro is a predis-posing factor in the current economic situation, although not a panacea.”

Competitive in the world?

“Since the outbreak of the crisis, we see exports from Estonia to be the answer and the last few months have brought the first positive news. Estonia’s exports in January grew slightly more than a tenth. In February compared to the same time last year the growth was 24 per cent and the Estonian foreign trade balance was positive again after a long time. In Feb-ruary industrial production in Estonia also turned positive. In recent weeks the registered unemployment rate has fallen,” says Parts.

“The economic crisis teaches us con-servatism and although the figures listed above are positive, we must also take into account the fact that they are partly in-fluenced by one-off factors such as the cold winter, which increased power con-sumption and exports. However, I believe that the Estonian companies have chosen the right course in the new situation, and sooner or later, the work will bear fruit.”

www.mkm.ee

Thanks to the conservative fiscal policy, we are producing stability in a world which is full of debt-stricken countries.”


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Estonian pavilion at EXPO 2010 in

Enterprise Estonia’s director of marketing and communications, Erki Peegel


The EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, China, runs from 1 May to 31 October this year and the main theme is “Better city, better life.” It will highlight the global public attention on the rapid urbani-zation problems and tries to look for solutions. EXPO’s theme reflects mankind’s desire for a better life in the future urban environment – in 1800, 2 per cent of the world’s population lived in a city, 29 per cent did in 1950 and in 2010 the United Nations estimates the urban popula-tion share of the total to be 55 per cent. At EXPO, Estonia is portraying itself as a small and in-novative Nordic country that wants to help people arrive at better solutions through improving environments for living and creativity. The organizer of Estonia’s participation at EXPO 2010 is Enterprise Estonia.

Text: Tiit KonsandPhotos: Jaak Kadarik /EAS

Shanghai urges action to save the cities

According to Enterprise Es-tonia’s director of market-ing and communications, Erki Peegel, Estonia will

unveil an interactive pavilion (ca. 1,000 sq m) that calls on people to join in an initiative to "save" the world’s cities. "The pavilion will allow people to make their voice heard regarding urbaniza-tion, encouraging all visitors to think about and look for solutions to topics related to growing cities. The Estonian pavilion will literally be clad in bright folk costume, distinct from the other Nordic pavilions (Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian) and their more



Business Estonia

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modest shades of colour. An Estonian flag on the roof of the pavilion will wave on Google Earth. Inside, an art installation offers participatory possibilities. Situated throughout the entire pavilion are giant piggy banks that will fill up with good ideas from visitors for making the world’s cities better. The big screen in the pavil-ion will demonstrate to visitors what the world’s best city is like," says Peegel.

"The last few decades have seen an

increase in community-oriented think-ing worldwide. The greater level of civic association stems from a desire to do something to make living environments better. Community networking is facili-tated by modern information technology solutions – the Internet, and the online telephony application Skype, which was developed in Estonia and continues to be based in the Estonian capital, Tallinn," he says.

Seedbed of the global debate

Peegel points out that Estonia has put into practice a number of initiatives worth sharing with the world. Consider the "Let’s Do It" campaign in 2008, when 50,000 volunteers took part in a rubbish cleanup event nationwide. Valuable ex-perience has been shared on the global arena – similar actions have been car-ried out in India, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia


The Estonian pavilion’s seedbed for global synergy is an online interface called SAVECITY.ORG. It is dedicated to gathering good thoughts and ideas and sending them to different cities. Ideas and solutions will be posted on the portal for exchanging and developing experiences. For instance, a city with a problem of rubbish left on the streets might learn from the positive experiences of another urban area.”

and Romania, among other countries. In 2009, people turned out en masse for na-tionwide brainstorming sessions on how to improve governance and make life in society better – a valuable exchange of experience that instilled self-confidence and spawned many new initiatives.

"The Estonian pavilion’s seedbed for global synergy is an online interface called SAVECITY.ORG. It is dedicated to gathering good thoughts and ideas and

sending them to different cities. Ideas and solutions will be posted on the portal for exchanging and developing experiences. For instance, a city with a problem of rub-bish left on the streets might learn from the positive experiences of another urban area," explains Peegel.

"SAVECITY.ORG also provides a way for those who cannot make it to Shanghai to address issues concerning their home towns and other cities. And to allow visi-

tors to continue to communicate and ex-change positions, the portal boasts a fo-rum categorized by topic and city, where visitors can interact and comment," Peegel adds.

"One of the portal’s central goals is to use a community-based mindset to im-prove the situation in the world’s cities. Part of the interface focuses on offering a means for creating and administering ef-ficient communities of engaged people all over the world – people who will contin-ue to keep these virtual cities active even after the EXPO closes in October 2010."


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Increasing interest in Estonia?

"EXPO is not a trade fair, but is an event for introducing different countries. It will not put too much emphasis on what someone has to sell. Estonians, however, built a small conference room by their pavilion where universities or companies can look for customers and partners," Peegel admits.

The concept of the Estonian pavilion at EXPO 2010 was created by a team from the brand agency Identity, the ar-chitecture company AET-Arhitektid and the interior design firm Ruumilabor. The aims of the Estonian pavilion at the World Exhibition are: to create interest so visitors will want to travel to Estonia; to create an interest in Estonia as a place where you can do business or study; to organize special events in a closed area of the pavilion (to develop commercial, cul-tural, educational and other relations); to introduce Estonia in general on the global stage.

According to Peegel Estonia has an opportunity to at-tract attention among other pa-vilions thanks to its different form, and after the event as well with its content. "To serve people the things why we are there through surprising effect. After that the team’s work at the pavilion is to direct people to look at Estonian cultural, edu-cational and tourism opportunities and to turn initial interest into real business contacts."

"WORLD EXPO 2010 is the best op-portunity for Estonian innovative compa-nies and institutions to establish contacts with a rapidly developing Asia. In the so-called “closed workshop area” (for VIPs) various business and professional asso-ciations – and umbrella organizations – have expressed an interest in introduc-

ing themselves. A number of events have been planned in advance already. Most active are the logistics and transit sector with clear economic in-terests in China. They have planned a se-ries of events for June and the autumn. In early May an exhibition of the IT sector was opened in the pavilion area and semi-nars were held by the Centre for Informa-tion Technology and Telecommunica-tions Union (ITL), and the City of Tallinn. In late May events were organized by the tourism sector. In addition to the transit sector event in June, the Tallinn Tehnopol and Tartu Science Park seminar also took place."

Erki Peegel explains that EXPO presents a major opportunity to establish direct contact with major foreign part-ners. "Businesses or business organiza-tions themselves have to set specific ob-jectives and focus and I know that many of the industries already have their objec-tives. The Estonian state offers, through the pavilion at the EXPO, a unique op-portunity to create meaningful contacts with one of the world’s fastest growing countries. It can be said that the EXPO is a global meeting place for six months. I believe that the EXPO has been an in-spiration to businesses and active people.

"Enterprise Estonia’s EXPO team con-sisted of five members during the setup period. This was in addition to the serious


work over the past year done by a consortium, ‘savec-ity.org’ (AET Architects, Ruumilabor and Identity). From the beginning of the EXPO 2010 – 1 May – 21 people have been working at the Estonian pavilion every day, building stands, IT specialists and so on. They come from places such as China and Estonia."

The EXPO should see 70-80 million visitors dur-ing the six month duration, and the Estonian pavil-ion expects about 2-2.5 million people to visit it. Par-ticipation in the world exhibition will cost Estonia about EEK 60 million.

Good opportunities for the IT sector

Estonian IT entrepreneurs and representatives from the City of Tallinn introduced the country’s e-solu-tions at a seminar held in the Estonian pavilion at EXPO 2010.

Taavi Kotka, President of the Estonian Associa-tion of Information Technology and Telecommuni-cations, and chairman of the management board of Webmedia, says EXPO 2010 offers a good chance to promote various e-solutions. "The Chinese want to implement and develop various e-services in a number of areas, and yet Estonia’s experience and progress to this point came as a surprise to many of them," said Kotka. "I believe the businesslike meet-ings and major media coverage we have seen will end up generating a substantial cooperation project."

Jiang Yiqun, deputy head of economic affairs and IT of the City of Beijing, said he was impressed with the various e-solutions applied in Tallinn, especially the ID ticket and comprehensive strategy for devel-opment of e-services. And head of the Shanghai as-sociation of software companies, Yang Genxing, who delivered a presentation, said that given their calibre, Estonia’s innovative solutions such as e-school and m-parking deserved to be implemented in China as well.

According to Maria Alajõe, member of the man-agement board of Enterprise Estonia and organizer of Estonia’s participation in EXPO 2010, the semi-nars showed that entrepreneurs are developing good contacts by being active themselves at the EXPO. "What we are offering in the Estonian pavilion is a good place for entrepreneurs to organize various events; it is good that people have seized these op-portunities actively," added Alajõe.

www.savecity.org

The EXPO should see 70-80 million visitors during the six month duration, and the Estonian pavilion expects about 2-2.5 million people to visit it.


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Friends and neighbours

Estonia’s natural resources and fascinating culture make it the perfect tourist destination for Baltic and international travellers alike. Business Finland meets the country’s Tourist Board, which has the task of promoting Estonia as a top holiday and business destination.

- building Estonia's tourism industry


Next year Tallinn will be the European Capital of Culture, and the Tourist Board is tailoring some of its marketing activities on cultural events and cul-ture in general.”

Text: Tiit KonsandPhotos: Jaak Kadarik / visitestonia / Toomas Tuul / Tiit Mõtus / EAS

Director of the Tourist Board, Tarmo Mutso


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Creating a reputation for Es-tonia as a great international tourist destination effectively increases demand for all Es-

tonian products and services as well as the tourism industry itself.

The country's Tourist Board of Enter-prise Estonia is its former Tourism Office. It benefited from EU structural funds and, in order to become more efficient and for convenience, joined Enterprise Estonia.

Tarmo Mutso, Director of the Tourist Board, says his office's main task is to in-crease tourism revenue by presenting Es-tonia to the rest of the world and product development plays a very important part in achieving this.

The three pillars

He says that the performance of the Tour-ist Board relies on three pillars: promot-ing Estonia as a viable tourist spot, prod-uct development, and distributing and processing tourism information.

The promotion of Estonia as a travel destination in foreign markets, he says, is done by very traditional marketing, in which the Tourist Board shows what Es-tonia has to offer.

"We do this in selected countries and cooperate with professionals or turn straight to final consumers. We cooperate with travel agents and travel journalists.

For example, in Finland we have a nat-ural opportunity to go directly to tourists or potential tourists. In our marketing

process we use fairs, outdoor campaigns, social media and so on. By using all these different ways to promote our country, we raise the reputation of Estonia abroad.

Our second pillar is product develop-ment. How to create as many tourist at-tractions as possible in Estonia, so that people would come here for those, spend more nights, and make them keep com-ing back. The product development side is an excellent opportunity to use EU structural funds, which help make invest-ments in the creation of these products. On the other hand, we also have the op-portunity to improve quality. It is like the customer service and management of any attraction.

Our third principal is technical – the


distribution and processing of tourism information. Here the most important keyword for us is, of course, website. Our website www.visitestonia.com is the number one marketing channel, through which we turn to the foreign market.

Tourism information is also shared by manned tourist information centres, which are scattered across the country. They are for the tourists or customers who have already come to Estonia. The

development of various brochures, print-ing and distributing them, are also our responsibilities.”

Marketing concept and values

According to Mutso, the Tourist Board has developed a new marketing concept based on product development, as well as four main themes: health retreats, cul-tural holidays, city holidays and nature holidays. Cultural tourism is further di-vided into four sub-categories: architec-ture, traditional culture, modern culture and food. These subjects form the basis of what visitors of Estonia will be offered.

Next year Tallinn will be the Euro-pean Capital of Culture, and the Tourist Board is tailoring some of its marketing activities on cultural events and culture in general.

“For example, in Latvia we launched a new campaign called “Reserved”. This implies that our neighbours in Latvia are all welcome to cultural events. The same applies to Finland. We are well-known to the Finns and we can offer them our cul-tural calendar, which is one of the most popular tourism products.”

Mutso says the Tourist Board has to take into account that people want a vari-

ety of things from their holiday.“Health retreats and going to spas are

still very popular forms of holiday. But the future trend is that people do not come just to take care of their health emergen-cies. They want to complete it with some-thing else, whether it is a cultural event or something similar.”

Nature tourism is one particular area that is set to become more popular with events such as wildlife and bird watching.

“At first glance, it seems that this is an issue which only concerns a small number of people. In fact, the figures are speaking a different language. We also have a great geographic advantage. Estonia sees a very large number of migratory birds, which do not appear elsewhere. The state has put in a great deal of investment to make nature observation more comfortable for the client. For instance, in coastal areas large numbers of bird watching towers have been built.”

The country also boasts with swamps and marshes, and many different trails and boardwalks have recently been built.


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31

Business tourism

"Today we will talk about Estonia as the place for business tourism and confer-ence tourism. We have new hotels, in which a business tourist feels comfort-able, but for a change he wants to do something else. Estonia is in a good po-sition here, because it is relatively small and everything is available. When driving away from Tallinn, you are already in the middle of a bog. This is definitely a good combination of work and leisure that many of our visitors enjoy.

Of course our capital Tallinn is, and will certainly be, the main tourism ob-ject. Tallinn's Old Town is unique. This definitely has a great value and is a great attraction for visitors. He who has been here for longer and who knows us better, travels away from Tallinn,” Mutso notes.

Customer service

When it comes to customer service, Mutso admits that it is quite a complex issue – it is the taxi drivers and hotel ad-ministrators who make the first contact with tourists in a new country. He says the quality is variable but very important, and that attitudes to customer services are not the same everywhere.

"It is one of the areas, one of the sub-jects, which, together with our partners, we can and must improve. We want next year's Tallinn 2011 European Capital of Culture to be ready for good customer

service. Together with the Foundation Tallinn 2011 we are launching a hospitali-ty programme to improve customer serv-ice representatives' attitudes even more.

"On the other hand we can talk about quality in infrastructure. If we take, for example, our accommodation services, then I dare to say that good quality ho-tels in this price range are not very easy to find in Europe today. Principally, of course, they are mainly in Tallinn. We actually have so many new hotels that

are newly built or renovated. I think that we must not feel ashamed about quality," says Mutso.

The third quality issue is the fact that customers are increasingly interested in a hotel's values, not just its infrastructure.

"They appreciate the fact that the ho-tel, for example, abides by ecological be-haviour. A good example is the 'Green Key'. It’s good for people to know that here we are sustainable with nature, our shared resource.


Again, this is one issue that we all want to develop through our quality pro-grammes. We help entrepreneurs to learn more about green attitudes and how to be economically efficient at the same time. The number of participants in our train-ing programmes has risen dramatically in recent times."

Value for money

"We have a price advantage and we hope that competitive advantage will remain in all areas. It does not need to appear only in the nightclub entrance or in what you buy from there but it is reflected in the good price of all our tourism products.

To some extent, time makes Estonia a good buy as well. Estonia is a place where within a short time you can see so many different things; figuratively speaking, during a four-hour journey you can see the cliffs and the sea, bogs, slopes and hills, flat land and forests. This is not the case everywhere. Of course, we welcome all visitors, even those who come here

just to spend a relaxing city break. But we certainly have much more to offer."

Latest trends

Mutso says Estonia's nearest neighbours are now the most interested tourists.

"Depending on the current economic situation there has been a tendency in Europe as a whole for distances and the duration of tours to become shorter. People are not making travel plans far in advance and they are looking for more fa-vourable opportunities.

It should be noted that Finland's share has not diminished but increased. The Finnish market grew by two per cent last year and the Finns make up about 50 per cent of tourist numbers. The Finns, who previously drove somewhere far away, this time decided to make a trip to Esto-nia.

On the other hand, the number of tourists from Latvia, Lithuania and Po-land has also greatly increased. Here a lot is certainly connected with logistics. It is

comfortable to come by car from Latvia. And when more expensive flights have to be passed over because of economic con-siderations, it is possible to replace them with cheaper car trips."

The largest change has been in the number of Russian tourists, which in-creased by 48 per cent last year. During the first few months of this year, espe-cially in February, the number of tourists from Russia rose by 98 per cent.

“These are very large increases, and, again, I dare to believe that this has come largely from the fact that Russian tourists (mainly from St Petersburg), who first de-cided to go somewhere far away, replaced their trip with a trip to Estonia.

"In many ways, I believe that it is also connected with their trip to Finland. Technically, the Schengen visa area helps us a lot. The role of neighbouring coun-tries in our tourism revenues in today's economic situation has become even more important."

www.visitestonia.com


Next year the Estonian capital Tallinn and the Finnish city Turku will share the honour of being Eu-ropean Capitals of Culture. With a schedule of exciting independent and collaborative events, the pro-gramme looks set to invigorate Estonia’s cultural tourism industry.

S ince it was introduced 25 years ago, the European City of Cul-ture has given more than 40 cit-ies the opportunity to present

their distinct and diverse culture to mil-lions of people from all over the world.

The status of the event and the atten-tion it attracts give the city a great chance to transform the existing cultural scene – carrying out daring ideas, creating new cooperative projects, reinforcing existing organisations and structures, and includ-ing more people in cultural life as organ-isers or participants.

Text:Tiit KonsandPhotos: visit.estonia.com, istockphoto, Villu Kraan

Capital of Culture 2011 - TElling ThE STOry OF

ESTOnia


The Capital of Culture is formally different in different countries and this is perhaps on one hand the charm of it and, on the other hand, it is intended for experi-mentation and searching for something new.

The enterprise was a great success right from the beginning and its scope was extended. Since 1999, the selected cities have been called European Capi-tals of Culture and for the past five years two cities have been named as Capitals each year. In 2011, Tallinn will share the role with Turku in Finland, a city close to Tallinn and the nation to which Estonia has the closest ties.

Cultural foundations

The year of the Capital of Culture will be a great occasion for Estonia. The prepa-ration and formulation of cultural events is assisted by Foundation Tallinn 2011, which aims to encourage local people to participate in the creation of the pro-gramme and to help convert ideas into real events.

The Capital of Culture Foundation is an independent organisation tasked with planning the Capital of Culture pro-gramme by collecting, selecting and as-sessing ideas and proposals in order to ensure an exciting, extraordinary and so-phisticated cultural year. The foundation was established in April 2007 by the city of Tallinn and has been fully operational since spring 2008.

Tallinn was confirmed by the Europe-an Commission as the European Capital of Culture 2011 in November 2007. Every city bidding for the title must compile a comprehensive initial plan showcasing it-self and outlining how it would view itself as a Cultural Capital, any problem areas in the programme and how they would go about achieving the title. This plan is submitted to the European Commission.

“We want to tell stories”

Mikko Fritze, International Relations Ad-visor, says the experience shows that the main aim of European Capital of Culture is to raise the number of tourists. The sta-tistics show that participating cities nor-mally have a two digit increase in tourist numbers, but in some countries the in-crease is negligible. Fritze is realistic and


Business Estonia

35

must be prepared to tell them something. We do not just tell them that the philhar-monic is playing somewhere in the hall, but we want to tell stories.

“We want to tell stories about Tallinn in general, which are not known. Of course, all of our events are packed so that everything is as interesting as pos-sible. For example, we are making a straw theatre, which incidentally is the world’s largest straw building. We will attempt to set things so that when we already have the media’s attention, they start to talk about it.”

Sharpened attention

Fritze describes the Capital of Culture as a “unique opportunity” to get media cov-erage of the city, but says that this will not happen overnight.

“It is very, very important that we get more attention through the media coverage of this brand, this title ‘Euro-

believes numbers will rise by about seven to 15 per cent.

“Even from Estonia itself many more people will come to Tallinn to see what we are doing here. A person thinks, ‘I have not visited Tallinn for a long time – let’s do it now. We’ve been to Oslo and Tam-pere but not to Tallinn.’ And the better the programme is, the better the communica-tion is, the more people will come.”

Fritze says that another important goal is to send the message to people that Tallinn has its own culture and its own story.

“The fact is that the title Capital of Culture is a very strong brand since it is the only such cultural brand across Eu-rope. This is still an event and only two cities a year have this possibility. The cit-ies get attention in particular, of course, from the media and it is free. For exam-ple, when an Italian, Austrian, or even Canadian magazine starts thinking about what they are doing here in Tallinn, we

We want to tell stories about Tallinn in general, which are not known. Of course, all of our events are packed so that everything is as interesting as possible. “

International Relations Advisor, Mikko Fritze


pean Capital of Culture’. And anyone who reads something about us must not just appear in the same year. Maybe he comes in 2016 when he is on a business trip to Helsinki. He has seen or read somewhere that there is a town in which a song fes-tival was held and where they opened the seaside and they had a straw theatre. He remembered it somehow.

“You can’t underestimate that if you want to brand a place with conventional methods – if you want to buy ads in the media or articles – it gets very expen-sive, but now we get it all free of charge. Some people do not understand that this is a great opportunity for us. They want to immediately see that the hotels are full and every single event makes a lot of money. This opportunity is much wider,” says Fritze.

“Maybe a straw theatre is so exciting that everyone wants to talk about it. In fact, it is a very simple idea and I’m sure it works. Maybe people really talk about

the fact that the Capital of Culture is a symbolic cultural event, which is joining different communities. I think we have a number of such things. For instance the bottle mail festival is a very modern idea; we make a raft from old bottles and sail from Tallinn to Turku. Many innovative and exclusive things will happen.”

Although not everyone in Estonia un-derstands the importance of the Capital of Culture, Fritze is hoping to promote the programme with an information campaign next year.

“People all over the world will know that there is one country with its culture, its funny language, where a large minor-ity lives with whom they also have to be able to get along and their neighbour is Russia. I think this already has value of its own.”

The goal is not to show that one coun-try is better than another. “We show that we are able to do things together. Not to just show that we are the best and it is


Business Estonia

37

”

The beginning phase was very

difficult because everyone wanted to benefit from it

and you started to look at the square

– what kind of things are suita-

ble and what kind of things must be

created to make it a real Capital of

Culture..”


now the world’s best event. In the whole context, this is just one simple method to show that Europe is an interesting place.”

Creating the concept

“The format of the European Capital of Culture is not like the Olympic Games in which you know in advance that you need a stadium and so many people will come to take a look at the competitions etc,” says Fritze.

“The Capital of Culture is formally different in different countries and this is perhaps on one hand the charm of it and, on the other hand, it is intended for experimentation and searching for some-thing new. The beginning phase was very difficult because everyone wanted to ben-efit from it and you started to look at the square – what kind of things are suitable and what kind of things must be created to make it a real Capital of Culture.

Fritze says there was great pressure at the start of the process, because expecta-tions were high and people wanted to see the results very early on.

“Many people wanted to see some kind of programme within the first month, to see what to sell and have a clear picture of what we will have. It was difficult to cre-ate the right framework. The framework had to be such that, for instance, an op-era had a chance to create something that had not been done before.

“It was not easy to create the concept of the Capital of Culture. We did not want to just have slogans like ‘Tallinn is the most beautiful city in the world’ or ‘Love comes from Tallinn’. We wanted to find out what is really important in this city and what kind of things fit with its needs.”

Stories of the seashore

In order to find this out, the organisers held a public competition open to eve-ryone in the city, not just people already involved in culture. Residents were asked what they would like to see happen dur-ing the Capital of Culture year and were invited to come up with their own ideas.

The main themes that came up were

the sea and the environment, particularly the urban environment. A key idea was that Tallinn should be open to the sea.

“The sea just came out of it,” says Fritze. “It was one of my tasks to create a concept. It is painful to see that Tallinn does not have a real relationship with the sea – its whole history is linked with the sea. This place is unique and beautiful and, fortunately, this was also reflected in many of the propos-als. The message we have is poetic and full of fantasy because the sea is always nice. It can only be a benefit to Tallinn – it is a very good concept. But the whole programme does not revolve around the sea.”

Events and criteria

More than 600 ideas were proposed for a coveted spot on the official events calendar. A creative council made up of people re-spected in the cultural world went through the proposals, finally choosing 251 ideas to be developed. The criteria were that the events could not be too narrow, must be in-novative and have a European dimension.

Cooperation with Turku

Of course Estonia will not be the only Capi-tal of Culture in 2011. Fritze says the rela-tionship between Turku and Tallinn will be both cooperative and competitive, but the competition will be friendly and healthy.

“In the beginning, when I started to work, we thought together with Turku

about how to develop cooperation. We always had contact persons on both sides that watched what was happening. We thought that it should develop organi-cally and we did not forcefully organise any joint events.”

Fritze says a variety of proposals came up, some which could be further devel-oped together, some which could be divided and some which could happen simultaneously in both cities. Around a dozen joint cultural events have already been organised.

“It is very important to create a good relationship. Some ideas are developed with Russia, especially St Petersburg; the project’s name is ‘Baltic Sea Trialog’ and before it ‘Baltic Memories’. And there are some bilateral projects too.

“But we’ve always said that of course we are competitors with Turku. Of course we want to be better than each other. But this competition is not a bad thing. This will stimulate the situation.

“We both realise that it is wise to present ourselves together to remote markets. If someone comes here from Germany, for instance, it is good for him to know that he can visit two cities at the same time. We’ve always cooperated with Helsinki and they also want their share. So we know that if someone comes to Turku from abroad he will maybe come to Tallinn as well and vice versa. It is a unique opportunity in history.”

www.tallinn2011.ee


Eesti Energia

Maris Hellrand meets the Estonian company that boasts the world’s most comprehensive solution for processing oil shale.

Text: Maris HellrandPhotos: Villu Kraan / Eesti Energia

- creating new energy


We are now building a new factory that is twice as efficient, environmentally-friendly and that uses all the oil shale that it is possible to excavate,”

CEO of Eesti Energia, Sandor Liive


Estonian Solution

41

Eesti Energia is a state-owned Estonian company that man-ages the complete value chain from oil shale mining, electric-

ity and heat generation. This includes shale oil production through to electric-ity distribution and sales, as well as ad-ditional energy-related services.

In addition to operations in Estonia, Eesti Energia also sells electricity to retail customers in Latvia and Lithuania where it trades under the Enefit trademark. Eesti Energia also trades with electricity on the Latvian and Lithuanian wholesale mar-kets, and in the Finnish price area of the Nord Pool power exchange. The opening of the European electricity market brings new challenges to a company that is also the largest employer in Estonia with over 7,000 members of staff.

Unique oil shale expertiseSandor Liive, CEO of Eesti Energia, wants to concentrate on the unique as-pects of his company. First of all it has many years of experience of using oil shale. There is plenty of oil shale around the world that is not yet used commer-cially. The biggest deposits of oil shale are located in the USA, and there are also very big ones in the Middle East, North Africa, Australia and China.

Liive believes that the usage of oil shale to produce non-conventional liquid fuels has great potential, and Estonia is one of the few places where it is currently being used. In fact, the Estonian energy system is the only predominantly oil shale-based energy production system in the world.

"The usage of oil per day in the world is just under 90 million barrels; this can-


not be done without deep sea drilling in new wells and we have all heard what happened in the Gulf of Mexico. It is cheaper to produce liquid fuel from oil shale than to drill oil from deep sea de-posits," claims Liive. "As producing liquid fuel from shale oil is unique to Eesti Ener-gia, it will be a cornerstone of our future development."

Using its state-of-the-art technology, the company produced one million bar-rels of shale oil in 2009. It plans to pro-duce three million in 2012 and seven mil-lion barrels four years later.

When producing oil, nearly every part of the oil shale will be used; 85% is turned into oil and gas and the rest will be burned for electricity. Even the ash can be used in the construction industry.

"We are now building a new factory that is twice as efficient, environmental-ly-friendly and that uses all the oil shale that it is possible to excavate," says Liive, adding that the company does not have a competitor in this area.

Eesti Energia's development will therefore concentrate on increasing the production of shale oil and on exporting

the technology to countries that have big deposits of oil shale and wish to start us-ing it. The company has already signed a contract with Jordan to start research into Jordanian oil shale deposits and the possibility of using its shale oil produc-tion technology. Talks with Morocco, the USA and China are ongoing.

The company wants to use its global advantage in shale oil production by sell-ing its technology. Shale oil is currently produced in Estonia as crude oil, which is used in energy production and mixed into ship fuel. Liive says Eesti Energia


Estonian Solution

43

plans to build an after-treatment plant where hydrogen treatment produces synthetic crude oil, which can be treated in refineries in order to create products such as diesel and petrol.

Regional leader

The other key part of Eesti Energia's busi-ness is the retail of electricity in Estonia as well as in the Baltic and Nordic areas. "Of course our vision is to remain an im-portant electricity retailer in this region," says Liive.

Eesti Energia sees its role as a leading regional energy provider with a diversi-fied portfolio, which at the same time guarantees energy security for Estonia ensuring that the country will always have electricity. The company's success in generating electricity and heat is based on a diverse production portfolio that

conforms to the increasingly strict envi-ronmental requirements of the European Union and is competitive in the regional electricity market.

"We see clearly that the amount of re-newable energy is growing considerably in relation to fossil fuel-based energy," says Liive. Eesti Energia now has the most powerful wind farm in the Baltic States and is in the process of building new on-land wind farms, one near Paldiski and one near Narva.

It is also preparing its first on-sea wind farm project in the bay of Pärnu. This area has excellent conditions with low water levels and nearby network access points.

Eesti Energia also offers a 'green en-ergy' product with a higher retail price than normal energy. More than 3,000 clients are willing to pay more in order to use sustainable energy. According to Liive, if clients are prepared to do that it

will lead to faster development of renew-able energy.

The company also uses wood as bio-fuel for its power plants. This is a good source of renewable energy, says Liive, as it makes use of wood that would other-wise remain in forests and would not be used in timber production. It also lessens the environmental impact of oil shale en-ergy as it reduces the usage of oil shale, CO2 emissions and ash.

At present, 35 hydropower stations and 18 electric wind turbines across Esto-nia produce green energy, which amounts to about 2 per cent, or 100 million kWh, of Estonia's total electricity output. Eesti Energia renovated two of the bigger sta-tions; Keila-Joa hydropower station has been generating electricity since 2005 and Linnamäe hydropower station since 2002.

Another new beginning is the waste-


• EestiEnergiawasestablishedin1939

• Operating areas: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finlandand Jordan

• EestiEnergia’sbondsare listedon theLondonStockExchange

• Eesti Energia has nearly 470,000 private customersand over 26,000 corporate customers. Eesti Energia Jaotusvõrk OÜ (Distribution Network) is in charge of about 19,000 substations and about 49,600 km ofpower lines

• Totalrevenueandotherincomeof701millioneurosinFY 2009/10, assets 1.8 billion euros, operating profit of 131 million euros, investments 199 million euros

• Attheendofthefinancialyear2008/09,totalinstalledcapacity amounted to 2,380 MW in Eesti Energia Nar-va Elektrijaamad (Narva Power Plants), 190 MW in Iru Power Plant and 30 MW in Ahtme combined power production plant

• Atotalof185GWhofrenewableenergywasproducedin the financial year 2009/10.

• Televõrgu (Telecommunications Network) launchedthe provision of high-speed internet services at the be-ginningof2007

• At the end of the financial year 2009/10 total installed capacityamountedto2528,4MW.

www.energia.ee

to-energy co-generation block that Eesti Energia is planning to build in the Iru power plant on the border of Tallinn. It will be the first energy block in the Bal-tic States to produce electricity and heat from household waste that has so far been dumped in landfills – a technology that has been common in the Scandina-vian countries since the mid-1970s.

Ando Leppiman, head of Eesti En-ergia's renewable energy unit, says that when the plant becomes operational in two years time it will be able to turn up to 220,000 tonnes of Estonian household waste into electricity, heat and hot water. Today this waste ends up on dumping grounds although, perhaps surprisingly, it has the same energy output as oil shale. This will also provide a chance to use more oil shale more efficiently by produc-ing liquid fuels.

According to Liive, Eesti Energia's investment plan for the next 10 years is fixed and in order to finance it the com-pany will need equity in addition to cred-it. The company is 100 per cent owned by the Republic of Estonia, and the govern-ment has agreed to step in and provide capital if necessary. But because Eesti En-ergia will soon operate on a totally open and competitive market, Liive believes it is possible that at some point it will be open for private investment.

Nuclear option still open

Estonia needs to pass nuclear power leg-islation by 2012. Eesti Energia wants to prepare for and hold on to the possibility of investing in nuclear energy in neigh-bouring countries, such as Lithuania and Finland, and in Estonia itself. There are nuclear power plans in Lithuania and Finland that will have an impact but none of these projects is yet mature enough.

Eesti Energia has bought a plot of land on Suur-Pakri Island off Estonia’s north-ern coast, where it could be possible to build a nuclear power plant in the long-term future. Research and investigations are ongoing but it is too early to know what will happen yet.


SKanSKa EMV

One of the largest and oldest construction companies in Esto-nia, Skanska EMV, is well known through its landmark projects and today also acts as a bridge bringing high ethical business standards and “green construction” know-how to Estonia.

Text: Maris HellrandPhotos: Villu Kraan / Skanska

Building Bridges to and in Estonia

Everyone arriving in Estonia's capital by air will be greeted by one of the landmarks built by Skanska EMV - the Lennart

Meri Airport of Tallinn. The former pres-ident of Estonia, Lennart Meri was also one of the first customers Skanska EMV's current CEO Andres Aavik worked for when he first started his career in con-struction and real estate business some 15 years ago. At that time his own small company was contracted to build the president's guesthouse in Paslepa in just

five weeks. With a smile, Andres Aa-vik remembers the early starts and late nights when the president sometimes ar-rived after midnight and wanted to have a chat about the progress of the project. They did finish on schedule!

Today he leads one of Estonia's big-gest construction companies from a sleek office and faces challenges on a different scale.

Skanska EMV traces its roots back to 1949 in Estonia. During the Soviet era EMV was part of a big state-run con-

struction company employing more than 10,000 people. In 2000 Skanska Estonia, part of the 19th century Swedish Skanska AB, acquired EMV which by the end of the 1990s was a public company. So today Skanska EMV is the oldest construction company in Estonia. Some of the employ-ees have been working for the company for over 30 years.

The construction industry enjoyed an unseen boom at the beginning of the 21st century and has been hit hard by the eco-nomic crisis of recent years. Residential


Today Skanska EMV is the oldest construction company in Estonia.”

CEO of Skanska EMV, Andres Aavik


developments have come to a near complete standstill and cur-rently there are mainly projects in the public sector and infra-structure that all companies on the market compete for. So like many others, Skanska EMV has had to cut back its staff, from 430 two years ago to just 230. Today Andres Aavik sees a good chance to start hiring again as there are quite a few new devel-opments in the planning stage. In a way the crisis has a positive side as well - a few years ago it was literally impossible to find qualified workers whereas today, with many smaller companies out of work, there are highly skilled specialists on the jobs mar-ket again.

Skanska EMV offers services in four different business areas. General construction operates in Estonia as well as in Finland. In Finland though Skanska EMV usually works as subcontractor to the parent company Skanska OY. General construction makes up about 40 per cent of revenues. Apart from the Tallinn Air-port building there are some other landmark sites that have been constructed by Skanska EMV recently, like the Meriton Con-

ference and Spa hotel, Rocca-al-Mare shopping centre, Solaris centre in Tallinn and the University Clinic in Tartu.

Another large part - also 40 per cent - of the company's busi-ness is engineering construction - bridges, groundwork and en-vironmental projects. Two large ongoing projects in that area are the shale oil factory in Narva and concrete covering of the oil shale production waste deposits in north-east Estonia. Skan-ska EMV is also working at the reconstruction of the wastewater treatment plant in Põlva, south-east Estonia.

The specialised works division handles in-the-building tech-nical solutions like heating, ventilation, and canalisation. Real estate development, administration and maintenance forms the fourth part of the company's business. This was established to maintain residential buildings built by Skanska EMV and today administers over 1,000 apartments.

In 2008 Skanska EMV decided to wind up its road con-struction unit, keeping just the bridge construction part of it operational. Last year Estonian

Lennart Meri Airport of Tallinn Lennart Meri Airport of Tallinn

Lennart Meri Airport of Tallinn


Skanska EMV aims to pioneer green construction in Estonia and to be the first point of call for customers who value the environmental sustainability of their buildings.“

Meriton Conference and Spa hotel, Tallinn


Estonian Solution

49

Road Administration recognised Skanska EMV’s quality of work as the best bridge construction company, and Andres Aavik says today the company is considering en-tering the road construction market once again and is looking into ways to keep the risks involved under control. "Competi-tion is tough though and the profit mar-gins are not high. It is more about making sure who is still on the market when the economy picks up again," as he puts it.

Skanska EMV aims to pioneer green construction in Estonia and to be the first point of call for customers who value the environmental sustainability of their buildings. Rocca al Mare shopping cen-tre in Tallinn - built by Skanska EMV - is the first building in Estonia and the Baltic States that was awarded the LEED silver level certificate. In environmentally sus-tainable construction Skanska EMV is able to tap into the global experience of the parent company. Quite a few Skan-ska group projects in Scandinavia have been awarded platinum level LEED cer-tificates. Andres Aavik sees a very strong

Headquarters of Eesti Energia in Tallinn.

University Clinic in Tartu

Rocca-al-Mare shopping centre in Tallinn


in brief:Moto: Traditions and reliability together with mod-ern resources and opportunities.

Mission: We develop, build and service the physi-cal environment for living, working and travelling.

Vision: To be the client’s first choice in construction-related services and project development.

Skanska EMV 228 employeesSkanskaEMV2009turnoverEUR49.2millionSkanska AB 53,000 employeesSkanska AB 2009 turnover SEK 136.8 billion

www.skanska.ee

trend towards energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly construction worldwide. "With rising energy prices the cost efficiency of low-energy buildings is also rising," says Mr Aavik. He thinks the time is ripe to bring Skanska group's "green construction" experience to Esto-nia.

Although part of a globally operat-ing company, Skanska EMV's main geo-graphical area of business is Estonia. However in special branches of con-struction, like piling works, the company is even a market leader in Latvia. There are also ongoing projects in Lithuania and Belorussia. Skanska Group used to have subsidiaries in Latvia, Lithuania and Russia but stopped operating there some time ago, as it seemed difficult to follow the company's ethical code and do busi-ness successfully at the same time.

Considering Skanska Group's high ethical standards of business the com-pany's continuous presence in Estonia is a positive and highly reassuring sign for the business climate in the country.


Member of the management board of Ecovis Vesiir, Eero Käärik


leave the numbers to us!

The Company Vesiir Consultations OÜ began its operations

13 yearsago, in 1997.Itwasoneof the first

in its field. To-

day Ecovis Vesiir is one of the leaders among the providers

of accounting services. In 2008 Vesiir joined an international

group, Ecovis, which brings together companies dealing with

accounting, taxation, auditing and legal consultation in Eu-

rope, America and even Asia. In all, it has more than 60 units

in 30 countries.

Text: Tiit Konsand

Photos: Jaak Kadarik


Estonian Solution

53

Throughout its history Ecovis Vesiir has been a company based on Estonian capital and it plans to remain that way.

However, the membership of the inter-national chain gives it the opportunity to offer quality service to clients engaged in international business. Ecovis Vesiir has two offices in Estonia – its headquarters in Tallinn and branch office in Pärnu. In total, the company employs around 20 highly skilled professionals.

Innovative approaches

Member of the management board of Ecovis Vesiir, Eero Käärik, points out that at the time their company was found-ed the outsourcing of business services was a completely new idea, and they had to explain to people how it worked. “To-day the Estonian economy is highly devel-oped, so explanations are not necessary,” he says.

“After all, we had the monetary reform in 1992. Then five years passed. So in es-sence you could say that during the five years we experienced the kind of eco-nomic activity that we understand today. And to now this time is nearly four times longer. All things were emerging, taking shape.”

All from one place

“Our philosophy is that we want to be like a one-stop-shop. That the client might get everything from one place,” explains Käärik.

“Well, according to the law we can’t provide notary service, legal or auditing services. But at least we have a network of cooperation with which we can help our clients. A person who is starting busi-ness in his home country or coming here from abroad does not have to deal with any petty regulations, or think where to go about it. They all may come to us with their issues. Most of the things we can ar-range in our office. And if our client has some specific questions, where there are

some errors, we can solve those problems in conjunction with our partners,” says Käärik.

“We belong to the Ecovis chain, we can find very reliable contacts from a lot of countries, from which we can ask for advice. In cooperation with our col-

leagues we can analyze the interaction of Estonian and other countries’ tax and accounting systems, and tax laws. For a company operating internationally these are very important questions,” Eero Käärik notes.


Our philosophy is that we want to be like a one-stop-shop. That the client might get everything from one place.”

Customer base

“We cannot see the dominance of foreign customers yet. Approximately one third of our clients are currently from a for-eign background. Having a foreign back-ground usually means that those firms belong to foreign owners; foreign compa-

nies have their branches here, subsidiar-ies and agents. But as for the concept of jurisdiction those companies are usually registered in Estonia, and perform cer-tain functions in the interests of their for-eign owners. There are many sales offices,

regional sales representatives etc,” Eero Käärik says.

“Another very interesting group are those who have discovered that Estonia is just a very attractive place for holding companies and regional distributing cen-tres because here we have zero per cent corporate income tax, as long as it is not taken out of the company. This means that Estonia is able to generate capital accumulation. These structures are very efficient and we are able to create them in cooperation with our partners in oth-er countries. We are even able to create structures operating in several countries.”

The creation of an association

“Ecovis Vesiir signed, on 16 June 2010 together with other charter members, the memorandum of association of the Estonian Accounting Firms Association (acronym in Estonian: ERPEL). ERPEL’s main objective in its activities is to im-prove the quality of accounting services and raise the awareness of entrepreneurs about this service,” says Eero Käärik.

“In 2005 Ecovis Vesiir received its ISO 9001 quality certification. We sincerely


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hope that we can contribute to the de-velopment of Estonia's accounting stand-ards,” he adds.

Käärik also pointed out that one of the prerequisites is also the existence of liability insurance. “We have always con-sidered this as a self-evident warranty for customers. In the event of the accountant making a mistake, the insurance will off-set the losses incurred. This is mandatory in many countries and now it will also be-come a standard in Estonia.”

Helps to be familiar

“Times of rapid change continue in Esto-nia. Not everything is ready yet. Every-thing is still changing, and the new laws, new approaches and solutions are com-

ing and we must be informed,” says Eero Käärik.

“We have a relatively big local bureau. For us it is a very serious effort to keep up with everything new. I cannot imagine that a foreign company that is operating in our country and has a variety of inter-ests here, is able to keep itself informed about everything from a distance,” thinks Käärik.

“Our laws are similar to those in the rest of Europe and the rest of the world. But they are still our laws and sometimes different. Here I can mention a lot of ex-amples.

“For example, a typical Finnish busi-nessman knows that if you are in the restaurant with a client and you pay for a meal and drinks, then these are your

entertainment expenses. With Estonian laws, it is not quite that simple. Okay, the amounts of money are small, no big trou-ble. I can mention a lot of such examples. But it is clear that it is a good idea to re-tain someone who takes care of you here. To keep yourself up to speed with differ-ent local laws do not seem to be a very realistic plan.”

Upcoming euro

“The transition to the euro is now surely the case, which will provide us with a big amount of work. It is a difficult process. Well, we can ask advice from our good European colleagues who have gone through this already. We can consult with them. Probably we can do it. And after-


Our laws are similar to those in the rest of Europe and the rest of the world. But they are still our laws and sometimes different. Here I can men-tion a lot of examples.”

wards it’s much easier to operate, no dif-ferent currencies any more.

“Well, we are ready for it with our the-oretical knowledge. But there is a lot of state legislation. Different laws have pro-vided a lot of steps. They are fixed. For in-stance, six months before and six months after price lists must be produced in two parallel currencies.”

Joining Ecovis

“Joining Ecovis gave us a lot. It is impor-tant not just for us but for our customers as well. It means we have access to the in-formation we need. So, for example, if we need to know something about the Slo-vak laws then we should first of all work pretty much to find the right company to contact. It might not be interested in co-operation, it might not be competent.

“Belonging to the Ecovis chain defi-nitely gives us that opportunity to ask our colleagues there. We need to send only one little email or to make one phone call. If our client wants to expand his business to another country we have a good op-portunity to send him to our partners worldwide,” says Eero Käärik.

Reasonable costs

“If someone is planning any commercial interests in Estonia it is important for him to know that he can get everything sorted without unnecessarily high costs and official matters must not be point-lessly frustrating. From us he receives everything with the highest quality and at reasonable cost. After all, this might not necessarily be a local branch office.

“Recently we had a consulting case. A foreign businessman wanted to buy a café in Estonia. He came to us and asked us to analyze this thing. It turned out that the café’s financial performance and its sale price did not match what is common in Estonia. And when he heard it from us he cancelled his plans. I think he also had very many benefits although he did not make a contract,” concludes Eero Käärik.

www.ecovisvesiir.ee


Two thirds of our production is exported and goes to our old and traditional customers.”

Chairman of the Board, Gunnar Kraft


You achieve more with good

quality shirtSangar was founded in 1956 and its main products have al-ways been high quality men’s shirts. In the meantime, they tried to make other products, a leisure collection for men and women. Then the company had a total of 15 stores in the Bal-tic countries. Today Sangar has again turned back to its main product, the men’s shirt. It also makes women’s blouses, boys’ shirts and uniforms. Sangar itself thinks that it is one of the best shirtmakers in the world. So do its clients.

Text: Tiit KonsandPhotos: Aldo Luud

Gunnar Kraft, who has been the Chairman of Sangar since 2002, says that in the best years of the Soviet era (when his father was the director

of the factory) 1,000 workers were employed and Sangar produced a million shirts a year. “And sell-ing them was not a problem. We sold all we could make. Today’s situation is a little bit different, we produce (during an economic crisis) around 400,000 to 500,000 shirts a year. The number of workers has now fallen and is around 270.”


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Exports

“Two thirds of our production is export-ed and goes to our old and traditional customers. We do outsourcing, full out-sourcing and private label. The most fa-mous name is Eton, to whom about half of our production goes. And they are try-ing to have the highest quality in world class. They do not have their own pro-duction at home any more. We are their main producer and our people are doing and developing all of this. Marimekko is also well known, and Filippa K. In a word, expensive brands in Scandinavia which require very high quality and rapid flex-ible production,” Kraft says. He is proud of the achievements.

“In addition to this we develop our own brand. We used to have stores in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, but today we have been forced to pull back a bit. So we only have stores in Estonia at present. We are doing pretty well compared with the previous year. We have once again turned towards growth and we hope, of course, to restore our sales in Latvia and Lithua-nia when the time is right.

“We are also a manufacturer of uni-forms,” he says. “The Estonian defence forces, police, uniform shirts for compa-nies of all types. We are also trying to do this business abroad – in Latvia, Lithua-nia and Scandinavia.”


A made-to-measure shirt is an exclusive shirt tailor-made to the cus-tomer’s wishes. Your made-to-meas-ure shirt carries your personality and is unique wherever in the world you go. If you feel that you deserve your own name on your shirt, then order Sangar’s made-to-measure shirt.”

Made-to-measure shirts

“It is smaller in volume but perhaps the most interesting project for us is made-to-measure shirts,” Kraft notes. “A made-to-measure shirt is an exclusive shirt tailor-made to the customer’s wishes. Your made-to-measure shirt carries your personality and is unique wherever in the world you go. If you feel that you deserve your own name on your shirt, then order Sangar’s made-to-measure shirt.”

“The price will depend quite a lot on the price of the fabric. The price range


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is from ca EEK 1,000 up to EEK 1,500. When compared to shirts made from the best fabrics in the shops, they perhaps cost some EEK 800-900. Interest in the made-to-measure shirt has grown and sales have actually grown abroad too. We definitely want to expand this project in Europe.”

Quality

Kraft says that they are offering a high level of quality. “Some of our clients who

were looking a few years ago for cheaper production sites in China and other plac-es, have at least partially come back.

“One thing is the quality, the second thing is reliability of supply and being able to dispatch on time. In fact, all this costs money. We are here in the Euro-pean Union, we offer top quality, we are able to produce quickly and we are ready to send in time.

“Maybe this is also a question of how you approach things. We can be faster and more flexible. The price can just be

undercut when you produce huge quanti-ties of similar things. But there is still a question of time and quality,” Kraft adds.

“Of course, expensive brands can use more expensive materials. But this again raises the price of the product. Here is more than one thing. But we are still at a very good level with our shirt.”

Sangar collection

“The collection is being developed all the time. I think there are about a hundred


Today we achieved our greatest success with our made-to-measure shirt project in the Netherlands and Finland, and we think that this market actually exists in many countries.”

different items in our shop. There are also different col-ours among them. Our main collection changes twice a year.

“We have studied the market thor-oughly, and in this price class we are the market leader in Estonia. The price range is somewhere around EEK 400-900.”

Kraft goes on to emphasise his com-pany’s product development and how product quality is world class. And so it automatically extends to its own Sangar shirt. “If we look at the cost of more ex-pensive brands in the shops and com-pare them with Sangar, then there is a big difference. But the product is no worse,” he says.

“Our main attention is still focused on men’s shirts, then comes women’s blous-es, schoolboys’ shirts in small quantities, and then ties, cufflinks, napkins. Well, the future will show, but today we do not have very specific plans to expand our ranges.”

Estonian Enterprise

“Sewn in Estonia by our own people. Only 15 per cent of our capital is held by foreigners – all the rest is Estonian. Es-sentially, that is our management plus former and current employees. We are a mainly Estonian company.

“The number of employees is, as I al-

ready said, about 270. All the shirts are produced in

Tartu. If we need larger quanti-ties, we have sometimes used other

sewing businesses.“For example we made 600,000 shirts

in 2006, 500,000 in 2007, but now the economic downturn made that number

drop to around 350,000 items per year. But if you look at the profitability, we haven’t gone into the red. Thanks to our management and cost savings, we are still in a small surplus. And I hope that it gets better,” Gunnar Kraft says optimistically.

“In what was a very good year, our turnover in 2006 was EEK 88 million, last

year it dropped to EEK 55 million. Now we can see that our sales are starting to

increase again and perhaps a slight in-crease in turnover at the end of this year may also be expected.”

Plans for the future

Kraft notes that Sangar does not have very big future plans in today’s conditions. “We certainly have some growth plans. Well, at the present moment our own brand is sold main-ly in Estonia. This market is clearly too narrow for our quantities. So we definitely want to go back to Latvia and Lithuania. In Finland, Sweden and Denmark we can see basic opportunities for selling made-to-measure shirts.

“Today we achieved our greatest suc-cess with our made-to-measure shirt

project in the Netherlands and Finland, and we think that this market actually exists in many countries. There you can sell it and we want to do it. The product is good,” he says.

“Today we perhaps make a little less than a thousand made-to-measure shirts a month, but I think we have the capacity to double this quantity.

“Made-to-measure shirts are not so unique. You can actually order your per-sonal shirt in larger supermarkets and shops all over the world. But it might not be so common. We see that this de-mand is actually greater than the service is available today.”

www.sangar.ee


Uniprint has developed and grown from a single machine company set up in 1992 into a well-established printing firm in the Nordic countries.”

Uniprint sales director André Abner


UNIPRINT

The Estonian printing industry has developed rapidly over the past two decades. Companies such as Uniprint and Unipress now compete with established European printers to provide high quality products and excellent customer service.


Setting the bar for quality

The private printing market first developed in Estonia with the establishment of co-operatives in 1987. As with

other areas of industry, printing was short of cash, suffered from being behind the times technologically and lacked staff with up-to-date training. But between 1991 and 1993 printing houses came into their own and it was during this period that the sheet printing company Uniprint emerged.

André Abner, Uniprint sales director, says the company went through a difficult time as it developed and grew from a sin-gle machine company set up in 1992 into a well-established printing firm in the Nordic countries.

Uniprint and the web printing com-pany Unipress, which was set up in 2003, are both part of UP Printing Group (UP),

which specialises in quality printing. Uni-press is a subsidiary company of and 100 per cent owned by Uniprint. UP Printing Group's turnover in 2009 was EEK 150 million.

"Unipress produces roll machine magazines," says Abner. "We have roll machines with downstream, glue bind-ing and wiring possibilities and there are printed periodicals, all kinds of cata-logues and customer papers."

Quality

Unipress, founded in 2003, was one of the first periodical printing company in Estonia with modern equipment on an internationally competitive level. With its new fully automatic web print machine, the company is able to provide periodical printing that satisfies the most demand-


ing clients. Unipress works efficiently and produces high quality work comparable to the best printing companies in Europe. In 2009, its net sales totalled EEK 150 million.

UP considers consistent quality to be its most basic value, which is made possi-ble through world-class printing technol-ogy and professional employees, as well as customer-focused service and flex-ibility. The company considers pollution prevention important.

According to Abner, these values have enabled Uniprint to remain one of the top printers for high quality publications.

"In the middle of the '90s, for example, all quality demanding publications (an-nual reports and art museum catalogues, other artistic works, works with high quality requirements from advertising agencies etc) were printed in Finland.

"It was a great challenge for Uniprint at that time to bring those works back to Estonia and show that we can also print correctly. From that time we have above-average quality requirements. Uniprint's product range is very wide, but at the same time we are still first of all the print-ers for high quality publications."

In order to secure the best quality and necessary equipment the company has invested EEK 110 million over a number of years.

Export

Having started its activity on the Esto-nian market, the company is helped by its staff in Sweden and St Petersburg to target Scandinavian and Russian clients.

"Today, especially over the past year, the proportion of exported products has grown considerably and is somewhere around 70 per cent," says Abner. "Thus, we have contributed a great deal to ex-ports. Of course, it is not easy to do with- In order to secure the best

quality and necessary equipment the company has invested EEK 110 million over a number of years.


out sales representatives abroad. We have our representa-tives in Sweden and in St Petersburg. In Finland, we have our own staff who offer Uniprint services directly. Service in the client's mother tongue is operationally much more significant than the coordination of it only from Tallinn."

Together Uniprint and Unipress employ 94 people."It is quite a lot," says Abner. "While we are talking

about turnover, for example, in 2008 it was roughly EUR 15 million. Many people are engaged in sales work, which is distributed across Europe. We have the local market, the markets of the Nordic countries as well as western Europe,


Holland, England, France and, of course, Germany, where we play an active role."

Wide range of products

"Compared to the printers, in the Nor-dic countries in particular, we stand out with a very wide range of products which we can print in-house. To this can be added very different post-processing op-tions so that we can virtually do almost anything in offset print. We do different post-processing jobs all in-house, which is certainly cost-effective and we are con-siderably more flexible than a printer, which needs to buy all those things from outside."

Financially, periodicals and adver-tising materials of all kinds provide the


most lucrative world. Uniprint customers are many well-known publishing houses and advertising agencies in the Nordic countries.

Future

"Investment is a particular point in our future plans," says Abner. "Of course, eve-rything that moves is getting older. In the upcoming years we plan to replace one of the sheet printing machines and also it is necessary to search for a new production area – it is already a bit too tight.

"These are investment plans in the coming years but we are not looking at completely new markets. Rather, we are trying to expand our operations in Scan-dinavia as well as in Germany and west-

ern Europe, where we are already present. "The Scandinavian market is like our

home market to us. Finland and Sweden are the places where Uniprint has already occupied its place, and we are already well known. We have lately made several changes to our structure and composi-tion, so that we have quite a lot of 'new blood'."

Charity

More than 10 years, the Citizens' Union EMSL has chosen for civil society actors. In 2009, the council gave the title to Uni-print.

Uniprint has supported the activities and creation of the NGO Own Fam-ily, including rooms, publications and

the CEO's salary, since 2007. Thanks to this partnership many children left have found a new home for themselves. In 2009, Uniprint supported 60 Lions Club's Charity Initiative projects, 'Welcome, friend! - Each child should have a home'.

The company and its partners are sup-porting young people from children's homes who want to go onto higher edu-cation. Company executives Sirje and Andrus Reinsoo are the creators of the foundation Star Child. In addition, the company supports the Good Conduct Foundation, Pelgulinna maternity hospi-tal fund, the Tallinn Children's Hospital Fund, the Cancer Union and the NGO Clinic Clowns.

www.uniprint.ee


One of the best known trademarks in Estonia

ThebirthoftheALeCoqtrademarkdatesbackto1807whenbev-eragecompanyALeCoq&CowasestablishedinPrussiabyafam-ily bearing the same name. They descended from the Huguenots, whoescapedfromFranceinthe17thcentury.Inthe1820s,AlbertLJLeCoqsettledinLondoninordertotradetheproductsofhisfam-ily’s wine estate. He soon started to bottle and export under the nameRussianImperialStout.Morethan100yearslater(1912)ALeCoq came to Tartu, where it has remained ever since.



One of the best known trademarks in Estonia

In 2009, all industries suf-fered from drawbacks and under such conditions, it is clear that you have won if you maintain your market position and sales volumes and can even increase them.”

Manager of AS A Le Coq, Tarmo Noop


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We talk with the manager of AS A Le Coq, Tarmo Noop, in a cosy meet-ing room along one

wall of which is a cabinet with glass doors full of drinks produced and sold by A Le Coq. There is a row of beer cans, beer in glass and plastic bottles, juices, soft drinks and other light alcoholic beverag-es. A Le Coq even sells wines in Estonia.

Well-known trademark

In 1941 A Le Coq Ltd was nationalized and renamed AS Tartu Õlletehas (Tartu Brewery), a name it retained during the Soviet era. Finnish beer manufacturer Olvi Oyj later acquired the shares of Tartu Õlletehas and shortly after the A Le Coq trademark was restored. In 2002 A Le Coq became the leading drinks producer of Estonia. A Le Coq is still the biggest drinks producer in Estonia, and leads the beer, juice and light alcohol drinks mar-kets. It holds second position on the soft drinks market.

How did it happen that in only 10 years the name A Le Coq became known to almost everyone in Estonia? More than anything it’s synonymous with beer. Tar-mo Noop says that it’s pretty difficult to answer that question very briefly.

“Right decisions first of all. The time was ripe for a n o t h e r

major manufacturer to enter the market. We sat down with the new owners of the brewery and created 10 principles ac-cording to which we would manage, we made investments and built a new and contemporary factory. Even in the cur-rent difficult times we have not distanced ourselves from those principles and we are still successful. The factory has ex-panded and the old premises has become too tight. A Le Coq Logistics Centre (built in 2007) is situated next to Tallinn Tartu road near Tartu.

“Over the past 10 years the Estonian drink and beer market has changed con-siderably. Small breweries have almost disappeared or their capacities are just marginal. Noop believes that fact has not directly affected their turnover, but it’s still a shame that so few real produc-ers are left here in Estonia. For example, there are almost 20 breweries in Latvia. Many of their beers are not high-quality products, but are quite variable and un-clean.” According to Noop, the former chief brewmaster Ilmar Kõrgesaar has said that good quality beer must comply with 15 different quality requirements.

Noop does not believe in mov-ing factories from Tartu to some-

where else. He is almost 100 per cent sure that the owners are not interested in this. They have invested quite a lot in the man-ufacture of drinks.

Successful despite the econom-ic downturn

A Le Coq increased the market share of its most important product segment, beer, in 2009 – at a time when the whole beer market fell by 7.1 per cent, accord-ing to Nielsen; at the same time, the com-pany’s total sales of ciders and soft drinks increased according to its trading report for the year by a remarkable 18 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.

In the opinion of Tarmo Noop the company has successfully managed to adapt in the conditions of a falling mar-ket. “In 2009, all industries suffered from drawbacks and under such conditions, it is clear that you have won if you maintain your market position and sales volumes and even been able to in-crease them.”


The entire large assortment of drinks is produced at the modernised factory in Tartu. Only juices are produced near Tar-tu in Reola.”


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Noop reckons the past year has been a successful one.

A Le Coq produces drinks mainly for the Estonian market. Only around 10 per cent of drinks go for export. Finnish Olvi Oyj owns 100 per cent of A Le Coq. The Olvi group owns factories in Latvia, Lithuania and Belorussia as well.

According to Tarmo Noop about 50 per cent of A Le Coq’s production consists of different beers. “The most popular of them are Premium and Alexander. For instance, A Le Coq is the first Es-tonian brewery that started to sell beer in green bottles, which is a symbol of high quality beer world-wide. Also, the shape of the bottle is new – it was designed especially for A Le Coq Premium Extra.”

The entire large assortment of drinks is produced at the modern-ised factory in Tartu. Only juices are produced near Tartu in Reola.

“A Le Coq has concluded a franchise contract for the pro-duction and marketing of Royal Crown Cola in Estonia with an American company, Cott Beverag-es Inc, the world’s third largest pro-ducer of cola beverages. The goal of A Le Coq is to have 20 per cent of the cola market within a year.”

A Le Coq is investing ca EEK 4.5 million in the produc-tion of RC Cola. Noop emphasised that from now on, A Le Coq is the only company in Estonia that is producing an international cola brand.

Distributor of Heineken

“We are known as the repre-sentative of the Heineken beer brand in Estonia. Maybe it’s a bit of global importance.

“We have raised Heineken to the number one imported beer in Estonia during our suc-cessful partnership. Previously, Heineken was practically non-existent here. Its market share has gone to somewhere near 1 per cent. This is, for instance, higher than the pretty well-known beer brand in Estonia, Puls, produced by the third largest brewery, AS Viru Õlu,” says Noop.

“Heineken is doing pretty well on the Estonian market. Well, we have really been mar-keting it. Cooperation with the international group gives us fresh ideas which we can use in our own manufacturing and product development,” con-cludes Noop.

A. Le Coq Beer Museum

“Tartu is the birthplace of the Estonian beer industry and has been a beer town for nearly a thousand years. In order to per-petuate the history of industrial

Tartu is the birthplace of the Estonian beer industry and has been a beer town for nearly a thousand years. In or-der to perpetuate the history of industrial brewing, the Beer Museum was opened on 1 July 2003. The Beer Museum is located on land belonging to A Le Coq in a malt tower built in 1898.”


brewing, the Beer Museum was opened on 1 July 2003. The Beer Museum is lo-cated on land belonging to A Le Coq in a malt tower built in 1898,” says Noop.

“The museum is on six floors and there are approximately 2,000 exhibits. The exhibition explains brewing tradi-tions worldwide and in Estonia, starting from the ancient Egyptian beer culture until the present time. You can see both the home brewing tools and old indus-trial beer equipment. Naturally, the mu-seum also includes beer corks, bottles, jars and barrels.”

Noop says the museum exhibits speak of students’ beer-drinking traditions. “We have also displayed the prizes and awards from various global exhibitions. All museum visits are concluded in the museum pub, where the visitors have a chance to taste drinks produced by A Le Coq. By special request, tours can be ar-ranged to see the production facilities.”

Tarmo Noop is sure that the old malt tower is a symbol of Tartu, just like the old observatory, arch bridge and the main building of University of Tartu.

www.alecoq.ee


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75

alTia

Finnish state alcohol producer Altia has gained a strong foothold in the Estonian market by combin-ing a century-old tradition with the enterprising spirit of local production, reports Maris Hellrand.


- Enterprising spirits

Altia Eesti's managing director, Ivar Aus,


Altia Eesti was established in 1991, the same year that Estonia regained independ-ence. The company, then

known as Ofelia, was the first alcohol producer to start production after the state alcohol monopoly was terminated.

In 1994, the majority of Altia Eesti's shares were bought by leading Finnish wine and spirits house Altia Corporation, which now completely owns the com-pany. Altia Corporation was established in 1888 in Finland, so through its parent company Altia Eesti is the oldest operat-ing alcohol producer in Estonia.

Altia Eesti is now the second largest alcohol producer in Estonia. It boasts flexible production facilities and a con-stantly improving portfolio, and was the first company to work out a balanced portfolio of both strong domestic and international brands in spirits and wines.

In terms of volume about 60 per cent is made up of own brands and the rest is imported alcohol; the own-brand spirits have higher profit margins. The company believes its key advantages are a wide pre-mium segment customer base and strong premium brands portfolio.

Strong spirits

Ivar Aus, Altia Eesti's managing direc-tor, says that the company has optimised its portfolio over the past year, retaining profitable products while lowering costs and focusing on important products like 'Saaremaa Vodka' and 'Koskenkorva Vodka'.

“Koskenkorva Vodka” from Finland has been the strongest imported vodka on the Estonian market for a long time; today with changed consumption hab-its some Russian and Ukrainian brands


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have overtaken it. Saaremaa Vodka is the strongest Estonian vodka brand in the Finnish chain store Alko.

Altia Eesti exports its own-brand products to Finland, Denmark and Latvia, where it is the largest alcohol importer. Over the past four years it has bottled the Finnair onboard wine, which equals Altia’s sales on the Estonian wine market. Altia operates in all parts of Scandinavia and between these countries through travel retail on ships and ferries, taking up the first or second market position in most of these markets.

Altia Eesti, together with Denmark, Latvia and the travel retail segment, be-longs to the 'open markets' department of the Altia Corporation. The other Scandi-navian countries have state alcohol retail monopolies that necessitate a different business approach.

In terms of export, Altia Corporation's main focus has been on marketing Ko-skenkorva Vodka and Maximus Vodka. Aus believes that Saaremaa Vodka also

has good export potential beyond Fin-land and he hopes to enter the Swedish market as well.

Branding vodka

Saaremaa Vodka, Altia Eesti’s most im-portant brand, is the leading local premi-um vodka. It was the first local vodka on the Estonian market since the late 1990s to be systematically built as a brand. Nowadays, it has a special place in the hearts of most Estonians with its own style of language and sense of humour, promoted by slightly offbeat advertising campaigns.

The main competitor on the Estonian market, Viru Valge, has been on sale for over 40 years. Saaremaa Vodka was cre-ated less than 15 years ago and within just five years has become one of the bestsell-ing premium vodkas. Today both brands compete on a more or less equal basis al-ternating between first and second posi-tion in the market.

The success of the brand, according to Aus, lies in its quality and marketing. Al-tia is the only alcohol producer in Estonia that produces spirits in its own distillery, which has been operating for many gen-erations. Aus stresses that this distillery ensures there is consistent quality.

Tourism

The tourism market is a very important one for Estonian alcohol business. Tour-ists buy about 25-30 per cent of the alco-hol sold in Estonia to take back home and Altia has the leading market position in the area around Tallinn harbour. It is es-timated that the alcohol sold to Finnish tourists in Estonia exceeds the amount sold in bars and restaurants in Finland.

Altia has a very strong market position as it represents popular Finnish brands as well. Finnish tourists used to buy just a few well-known brands. Today the selec-tion is much wider and they have start-ed to like more local brands. Saaremaa


Altia is the only alcohol producer in Estonia that produces spirits in its own distillery, which has been operating for many generations.”

Vodka is still very popular as the brand image appeals to Finns as well as Esto-nians; it has a strong connection to the beloved song 'Saaremaa valss' – it has a good story.

Altia has about one quarter of the Estonian market, which puts it in sec-ond position. Now, however, the market share is not enough to generate sustain-able turnover and profits. The habits of consumers have changed as a result of the overall weak economic situation of the last few years. People prefer cheaper products and supermarket chains are putting pressure on producers to offer considerable discounts.

As a result, Altia has been flexible and developed cheaper products for the domestic market such as Eesti Stand-ard, Ivanov and Aus Viin. The company has an internal ongoing joke, as the sales manager's surname is 'Viin', which means vodka in Estonian. So when Altia wanted to launch a new brand of vodka at the cheaper end of the market, it came up


Estonian Solution

79

Altia Eesti

• Limitedcompany• OwnedbyAltiaCorporationofFinland• 70employees• Sales2009–4millionlitres• Turnover2009–EUR11.4million• Profit2009–EUR1million

www.altia.ee

with the idea to call it 'Aus Viin', using the surnames of the general manager and the sales manager.

This happened during a period when another Estonian alcohol company was involved in a scandal for falsifying tax la-bels. As 'aus' in Estonian means 'honest', Altia took the opportunity to play with words and created 'Aus Viin' – meaning 'Honest Vodka' –at the same time refer-ring to two key figures in the team. "It was not done to serve my ego," Aus laughs, "For that I would have chosen something more expensive!"

An international portfolio

Among the international brands to have been successfully re-launched onto the Estonian market, and which are now among leading brands next to Koskenko-rva, are Finlandia, Jack Daniel’s, Amarula Cream and Codorníu. Wine portfolios

have also been in focus over the last few years with rapidly increasing sales vol-umes.

Wine imports have shown a steady growth and today Altia is the fifth larg-est of more than 60 wine importers in Estonia. Among the leading brands in Altia's wine portfolio are Gallo – the larg-est wine brand in the world – Tarapaca, Misiones, Distell, Codorníu, Fresita, La-roche, Vicente Gandia, Masi and Kend-ermanns. Members of Altia’s sales team have even gone through a junior somme-lier course in order to offer their clients excellent service.

Altia Eesti has a wide network and cooperates with various interest groups in order to bring its brands to the right target groups. It has become linked to organisations that choose their partners very carefully, including national organi-sations and companies such as Estonian Air, Estonian National Opera, Estonian

National Football Club, Tallinn Philhar-monic Society, the Finnish Embassy and the British Embassy (Altia being the sup-plier for the Queen's Birthday and Burn's Supper).

Several hotel chains and concert ven-ues also help build brands through opin-ion leaders and selected target groups. Altia Eesti's marketing team has been awarded the Golden Hammer, the Gold-en Egg and various other annual prizes for marketing.

Altia Corporation's ownership by the Finnish state means that it is a very safe employer so even during the economic downturn it did not have to cut staff, with the exception of a few redundancies due to restructuring. As a state-owned com-pany it has to have high business stand-ards and to operate in a transparent way; there is no possibility of using shortcuts even during hard times.

In spite of all the prejudices he en-counters, Aus says that even though it is a state-owned business, Altia Corporation is not rigid and slow but has acted in a very quick and brave manner. It has been able to gain market share and still has a healthy marketing budget at a time when many privately-owned companies have had to make cutbacks.

Plans for the future

Altia Corporation is the leading alcohol producer in Scandinavia and plans to stay that way. The corporation's main aim is


to increase its exports and for the Baltic States to expand operations to Lithuania when the time is right. In Estonia, it aims to work on its portfolio, increase export of own-brand products and keep the leading market position for own brands as well as imported brands.

Altia Eesti has the leading market po-sition in all product segments where it is actively involved, including premium vodka, American whisky, cream liqueurs and other liqueurs. As a result, Aus be-lieves Altia will emerge stronger from the economic crisis than it was when it en-tered it. He predicts that in the long term probably only three to four alcohol pro-ducers will remain operating in Estonia as it takes a strong backbone to survive.

Saaremaa Vodka, Altia Eesti’s most important brand, is the leading local premium vodka.“


Golf inEstonia isaveryyoungsport.TheEstonianGolfAsso-ciation(EGA)wasestablishedin1992andthefirstgolfcoursenear the capital Tallinn opened a few years later. However, in less than 20 years about 10,000“green cards” have been is-sued and there are currently seven golf courses in operation.

Text: Maris HellrandPhotos: Villu Kraan and iStockphoto

golf in Estonia – grOwing ThE gaME


Christine Marcus, the Gen-eral Secretary of the Esto-nian Golf Association, esti-mates that there are about

2,500 active golfers. Being a traditionally male-dominated sport, golf is surpris-ingly popular amongst women in Estonia who make up at least a third of all active players. Even the EGA’s president Anu Hanson is a woman with a single figure handicap – “there are no 100-year old gentlemen-only clubs to compete with here in Estonia!”, Christine Marcus quips.

The EGA has seen the number of players increase by 20 per cent annually, which is truly an achievement consider-ing golf in Estonia is only a recent devel-opment. Christine Marcus sees the main task of the EGA as making golf a compet-itive sport where successful players can be a good example to others. The Asso-ciation organizes the Estonian Amateur Championship and other competitions, as well as taking care of the national play-ers and teams that compete in tourna-ments abroad.

Since 2005 the National Champion-ship has been open to participants from countries around the world. This has helped host clubs become prestigious do-mestically and internationally. Estonia’s men’s team finished in 40th position out of 75 competing countries at the 2008 World Amateur Team Championship (the Eisenhower Trophy) in Australia. Considering the number of players and the relatively recent introduction of the game in Estonia this is an excellent result. As a comparison, our near neighbour Finland has 135,000 golfers.

The star of Estonian golf is currently Mari Suursalu, the first playing pro who has competed at the Ladies European Tour (LET) qualifying tournament. Two young men, Egert Põldma and Mark Su-ursalu, have also gained headway in the international arena.

The EGA is proud to point out that in this season’s diary the European Boys Challenge Trophy is to be held at the end of July 2010 in the EGCC in Jõelähtme.

In order to develop competitive play-

golf in Estonia – grOwing ThE gaME

General Secretary of the Estonian Golf Association, Christine Marcus


ers of an international calibre, Christine Marcus sees the need for more qualified PGA professional coaches. Com-petitive golf like any other sport needs hours and hours of hard work and commit-ment. She elaborates: “Your handicap represents the hours

spent in the office! Lack of time rather than money

is probably what makes golf less accessible for

most aspiring play-ers.”

The Estonian Golf Association is the governing body in Estonia that

holds the license of the European Golf

Association’s handi-cap system. It uses the

‘Golfbox’centralized handi-cap database system for all

Estonian golfers. Add to this


the responsibilities for the golf course slope and course rating and you have an overview of the primary functions of an amateur golf union. For Christine Marcus the paramount aim of the EGA is ‘to grow the game in Estonia’ by encouraging the member clubs to dedicate more attention to juniors, thereby ensuring an increase in their future memberships.

Even though golf in Estonia is only a young sport, the country has become an attractive golfing destination. The cli-mate puts its own limitations down to the length of the season, but opens up other opportunities as well - In the long sum-mer days you can tee off after 6 pm and still finish your 18 holes in daylight. Also, at least one club is open for ‘snow-golf ’in the winter. In just under 30 minutes, you can drive from central Tallinn to three courses which offer a good variety of land-scapes. Christine herself prefers to play on the natural, minimalist links courses, similar to those found in Scotland and Ireland and, just like most golfers, regrets not having enough time to play more.

www.golf.ee

In the long summer days you can tee off after 6 pm and still finish your 18 holes in daylight. “

•EstonianGolf&Country Club

•OtepääGolfClub•SaaremaaGolfClub•SuurestaGolfClub

•TallinnGolfClub•WhiteBeach

GolfClub

MEMBERS


EgCCInjustfiveyearstheEstonianGolfandCountryClubhas attracted hundreds of loyal members and host-ed international golfing competitions. Now the at-tractive location and the club’s good reputation are helping it to grow in a competitive market.

Text: Maris HellrandPhotos: Mati Hiis, Villu Kraan

- Modern golfing in an ancient landscape

The golf season starts two weeks earlier in Estonia than in Finland, so the Esto-nian Golf and Country Club

(EGCC) in Jõelahtme is full of Finnish golfers during May.

It is the busiest month of the year for the club but CEO Hanno Kross found a moment to talk to Business Estonia about the course's history and future.

The EGCC is still very young – it was only established five years ago – and will celebrate its fifth anniversary this year with a visit from golfers belonging to a 405-year-old British club.

However the club’s location in a natu-ral heritage area is full of ancient history. When the grounds were being built many 4,000-year-old stone burial sites were uncovered on the Rebala heritage area

which are now part of the nine-hole stone course.

Kross refers to this as a good example of cooperation between the government and the private sector as it is impres-sive that a golf course could be built on a site where the Vikings first came to Estonia and where there has been a vil-lage for over 5,000 years. In fact there is a small museum in the clubhouse with a


EgCC The variety of natural landscapes within this one golf club is quite unique. It lies open to the wind on a limestone plain between junipers, restored stone fences and 11 archaeological sites.“

6,000-year-old exhibit, which was found during the construction of the course.

The variety of natural landscapes with-in this one golf club is quite unique. It lies open to the wind on a limestone plain be-tween junipers, restored stone fences and 11 archaeological sites. The club hopes to extend the minimalist links-type stone course to 18 holes by 2013 or 2014.

The 18-hole sea course is a true cham-

Estonian Golf and Country Club (EGCC) CEO, Hanno Kross


Golf in Estonia

87

pionship course. Holes built among vir-gin forests reach out to the beach and the Jägala river. The natural landscape pro-vided Finnish architect Lassi Pekka Tilan-der, also a professional golf player, with excellent building materials. The course has it all – 40 m elevation differences, oak pathways, old boulders, natural ponds, winds from the sea and fantastic views. Its length and complexity makes it a real challenge even for low-handicap golfers.

The Estonian climate, with its mild summers, offers good conditions for playing golf. In June, EGCC hosted night-time golfing events where it was possible to play through the night as it does not get dark at that time of year. The club-house closes at 11 pm but it is possible to tee off up to closing time.

In the autumn of 2009, EGCC hosted the Omega Mission Hills World Cup Eu-

ropean Qualifier. Two-man teams from around the world battled it out for the three available qualifying spots and the chance to take part in the World Cup at Mission Hills in China.

Keith Waters, director of interna-tional policy for the European Tour, said: "Bringing a truly international event such as this to an emerging golf market such as Estonia can only serve to further acceler-ate the growth of the game in this country and also in this part of Europe."

EGCC is one of seven European Tour venues, together with courses in Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Germany and Finland. The European Tour is the second larg-est professional golf organisation in the world, which shows that EGCC is capable of hosting big international tournaments.

Kross believes that these kinds of tour-naments are a chance to promote golf in

As Estonia only has 2,500 players, the golf courses depend a lot on green-fee players. Kross says EGCC is convenient for Finnish players who can leave Helsinki on a ferry in the morning, play a round and get back home by the evening. However, players usually want to play on a few different courses during a four- or five-day trip.”


Estonia and give the sport attention from the media. He wants to counteract the myths and prejudices about golf being a past-time of wealthy old overweight men. In fact it can be very physically demand-ing; during one game a player might walk 10 km. He hopes that the big tourna-ments will change the public's mindset and present golf as an attractive sport to people who have never even thought about playing.

As Estonia only has 2,500 players, the golf courses depend a lot on green-fee players. Kross says EGCC is convenient for Finnish players who can leave Hel-sinki on a ferry in the morning, play a round and get back home by the evening. However, players usually want to play on a few different courses during a four- or five-day trip.

Golf is already generating good in-come for the Estonian tourism industry. In 2009, foreign tourists played 6,500 rounds of golf at EGCC compared to the 11,000 rounds played by the club's 250 members. Tourists also spend money on travel, transport, accommodation and food, thereby making a considerable im-pact on the Estonian economy.

There are attractive golf packages for corporate clients as well. Businesses can hold a meeting or seminar in the morning on the ferry from Helsinki, followed by a round of golf, and be back home by the end of a normal working day.

EGCC's 250 members have to be the club's shareholders. Kross hopes to see the membership grow to 500, but no higher, because he wants members to al-ways have a chance to play and to feel well looked after. However he thinks it will take 20 years for there to be enough play-ers in Estonia for all existing golf clubs.

"Golf currently really is a non-profit business in Estonia as all the profit has to be put back into the quality of the course," he admits.

EGCC has also started to develop five golf villages, with a total of 120 lots, between and by the courses. Each lot is bordered at least on one side by a golf hole and many have sea views. Thirty vil-las have already been sold and finished. All new villas will be built according to ‘passive house’ energy standards meaning that the total energy cost per year should not exceed EUR 1,000.

Kross only took over as CEO one year ago and has already become addicted to the game. For him the beauty of golf is that even a beginner can have a perfect shot and with the handicap system one always competes against oneself.

He believes that golf shows a person's true nature. "It might not be that many deals are made during a game but the rule for business people surely is that after a game one will know if he wants to do a deal with that person."

www.egcc.ee


Otepää GolfOtepää Golf

Manager of the Otepää Golf, Markku Valo


ThenewmanagerofOtepääGolfhasambitiousplanstogivethechampion-ship course a much-needed makeover. Its good reputation and great location in the middle of a stunning natural park will hold it in good stead over the coming summer season.


One hundred shades of green

Otepää Golf has had a brand new beginning this season. New ownership and new management took over the

business earlier this year and are hoping to re-awaken the golf course's magnifi-cent fairways situated in the rolling hills of southern Estonia.

Markku Valo, the new manager of the course, has 25 years of experience in the golf business in Finland as well as in Portugal. He has big plans and big hopes for the championship course which he describes as one of the most beautiful in the Baltic states.

The picturesque 18-hole course is situated just a few minutes by car from Estonia's 'winter capital' Otepää and was

designed by architect Pekka Wesamaa. It is near the centre of Otepää, with its many internationally famous sporting events, but far enough away from the noise and bustle in the middle of Otepää Nature Park.

The course is unique and permanently entertaining due to the nature that sur-rounds it and provides a panoramic back-ground, including cupolas, lakes, virgin forest and the animals of Otepää Nature Park – goats, hares and rare lesser spot-ted eagles. A cuckoo was a permanent companion on the day of Business Esto-nia's visit and the bright green croaking frogs in a pond were an amusing distrac-tion.

Valo admits that the course is a lit-

tle tough to walk – there are many hills, some of them quite steep – but it is pos-sible to rent carts and power caddies.

Otepää is different to most golf cours-es in Estonia, which do not offer activities all year round. Depending on the snow conditions, it holds an annual winter golf championship.

The new management started a lit-tle too late this year to have a major im-pact on the summer season, as all the big events have to be planned months in ad-vance.

"The busiest time for a general man-ager is autumn when you build the next season, make contacts and contracts, ne-gotiate with corporate clients and offer packages to tour operators," says Valo.


Golf in Estonia

91

Between 1997 to 2005, Valo was gen-eral manager of Nord Golf, a 1,800-mem-ber club in Finland. He came to Otepää in April after finishing the development of a golf course in Portugal. His work as the manager of Vida Vital in Vilamoura Golf in Portugal provided him with use-ful experience for re-developing a whole course.

Otepää Golf has hosted marvellous events in recent years but because of the change of ownership there are not many signed contracts for this season. It is a big challenge to build a new client base and, according to Valo, in order to develop the course Otepää needs to hold big events as well as attract tourists.

There are fewer than 100 active mem-bers in the club who pay the annual main-tenance fee, which only covers a fraction of the cost of running the course at a high level. Valo plans some small alterations to the course, such as re-opening the restau-rant by the start of the next season which he would like to see fully booked and suc-cessful.

Valo's main experience is in commer-cial courses that hold frequent corporate events in order to keep the annual fees for members down. He says he can guarantee the best customer service and conditions for corporate competitions and events with a big restaurant tent catered by one of the best restaurants south of Tallinn, as well as newly refurbished saunas, locker rooms and amenities.

Summer tournaments

Despite the change of management, Otepää Golf has managed to sign a con-tract for the Iberian Golf Tour Pro-am (IG Tour), one of the biggest golfing competitions in the Baltic region. The international tournament will be held in July. That Otepää is to host it is due to the lucky coincidence that the Finnish Chal-lenge Tour Open was cancelled and the week from 21 - 28 July became free for professional (pro) golfers to play.

The busiest time for a general manager is autumn when you build the next season, make contacts and contracts, negotiate with corporate clients and offer packages to tour op-erators.”


IG Tour is the fastest growing tour in the world with many Spanish and Portu-guese players, as well as players from the Scandinavian countries. It is considered to be preparation for players who aim to play on the European Tour. Pros will play two rounds with three amateurs, and on the third day amateurs play with amateurs and pros compete against each other. The event promises to be great fun for spectators.

As it is a 'pro-am' (professional-ama-teur) tour, companies have the chance to buy places for amateurs to play together with pros. The main sponsorship is still available so one lucky company has the chance to have the tournament named after it. This package includes the op-portunity for three groups of players to play with the best pros, 30-50 VIP tickets, transport, accommodation and a hos-


pitality tent, as well as having the team named after the company. Valo expects the IG Tour to be shown on Scandinavian television, at least in the sports news.

At the beginning of July, the famous White Nights Tournament will be held and in August Otepää will host the tradi-tional Äripaev Business Golf Open com-petition. Then in September the Gentle-men VIP Trophy will be held, to name just a few well-known competitions of the season.

Going to Scandinavia

Otepää's new manager is targeting the Scandinavian golf market while aim-ing commercial packages at Finland and Sweden. There are a few new products, including a pick-up service from hotels in Tartu and Otepää and one- and two-night packages in cooperation with local hotels.

He is also putting together a full pack-age for Finnish golf clubs. The bus leaves from their home club, so players will not have to carry their kit on the ferry, and they will be brought back home by bus as well. To develop this product, Markku plans to offer a free trip to Otepää Golf as a lucky draw prize at competitions in Finnish clubs.

Another curious product is a 'for-est sleepover' where players will tee off late in the evening, eat a three-course gourmet dinner after the 16th hole and sleep in luxurious silk-lined sleeping bags under the stars. The next morning they will finish the last two holes followed by sauna and breakfast.

Growing the local game

The third big challenge is to bring more Estonian players to Otepää and to intro-duce golf to more local people. In order to do that, Estonian Golf Association (EGA) players who have paid mainte-nance or similar fees to their home clubs,

Education is a big part of golf – big words but that is what golf has been about for 400 years.”


Facts about the course

• 18-holePAR73

• Total length fromwomen’s tee is4,936m, fromclub tee5,550mandpros'tee6,148m

• Course features: hill country adding length to the course, 60 percentcoveredbyforest,SaagjärvandMähalakes,manywaterhaz-ards

• Drivingrangewith19places

• Chippingandputtingareanexttoclubhouse,whichisopentoall

• Playersmusthaveagreencardtoplay

• NoHCPlimits

will get up to a 50 per cent discount on green fees this summer.

Valo draws parallels with Portugal; when he first started in 1985 there were about 1,500 Portuguese golfers but by the mid-1990s they had grown to 10,000. Clubs have managed to grow their num-bers with programmes aimed at juniors, which is exactly what Markku plans to do in Otepää by copying Portugal's 'Jo-vem 2000' model. This grass-roots youth programme offered free golfing intro-ductions to local schools, which inspired some pupils to become European Tour players for Portugal.

This season is also likely to see a jun-ior camp mixing club members together with young people from Finland. The

13-18 year olds will spend a week on the course practising and competing against each other.

"Education is a big part of golf – big words but that is what golf has been about for 400 years," says Valo.

He says that golf should not be seen as an elitist sport, adding that the more people who play, the more affordable it becomes. He cites studies showing that people who play golf save money for so-ciety in general; they do not tend to get ill when they get older, they keep work-ing longer and provide tax income for the state.

"Golf really is an everyman's sport - look at Sweden which has 800,000 play-ers!"

www.otepaagolf.ee



The golf season in Haapsalu begins with the arrival of swal-lows every spring. Maris Hellrand visits the town’s beautiful nine-hole course which has few amenities but manages to attract keen golfers from across Estonia and Finland with its stunning scenery and great value for money.

H aapsalu Golf on the north western coast of Estonia is operated almost like a one-man course, with the

manager Tõnu Merilo doing all of the day-to-day tasks from taking the book-ings, looking after the players, mowing the lawns, building the caddy station and developing the company.

The idea to build a golf course on this ancient seabed and former bog came from Heikki Simonen, a lifelong golfer from Finland, in 2004. The architect of the links-type course was the experienced

Text: Maris HellrandPhotos: Villu Kraan, iStockphoto

– a course with potential

Finnish golf architect Reijo Louhimo - Haapsalu was one of his last projects.

The area is very flat with a height dif-ference of only half a metre and is very soft to step on because the soil is made up of peat. The plot itself provided the build-ers with all the materials they needed as there was a thick layer of sand under the peat. While digging the lakes they also got the sand for the bunkers.

The operating company owns 160 ha of land and has plans already approved for a clubhouse, a proper 18-hole club course and a golf village on 109 plots.

However, these plans are still waiting for a business partnership or a major invest-ment.

Haapsalu Golf is a ‘pay and play’ course, as well as the home course for the 170 members of Haapsalu Golf Club, who are not necessarily shareholders of the course. Haapsalu certainly attracts cus-tomers with its ‘back-to-nature’ appeal – it has no clubhouse, no amenities, not even electricity – but it also offers very good value for money; the green fee for a whole day is only EUR 16.

In the last years the course has had sta-

Haapsalu GolfHaapsalu Golf


ble figures of 2,000 to 2,500 players each season. This year will see the fifth club championship as well as the fifth Läänemaa (west Estonia) championship being held.

But there are not many locals who play golf; Merilo says he could probably count fewer than 10 locals who play. In fact three quarters of the club members are Finns who are happy to travel the 100 km distance from Tallinn. There are also members from other parts of Estonia.

On the day that Business Estonia vis-ited, only Finnish golfers were playing on

the course. We spoke to Aarre Ruutuoksa who said that he likes playing in Haapsalu and goes there quite a few times every sea-son for long weekends. He also plays on other courses in Estonia and Finland but always likes to come back to the laid back atmosphere and ‘slow greens’ of Haapsalu.

Ruutuoksa praises the condition of the course at this time of the year and says it is great to have a course outside Tallinn as most of the country’s development is concentrated in and around the capital.

Today the number of players does

The operating company owns 160 ha of land and has plans already approved for a clubhouse, a proper 18-hole club course and a golf village on 109 plots. However, these plans are still waiting for a business partner-ship or a major invest-ment.“

Manager Tönu Merilo


potential for Haapsalu golf course – peo-ple visiting Haapsalu for a week-long spa break could also use the time to play golf – but so far not much has been done to get this partnership off the ground.

The local government supports many sports facilities but unfortunately has not helped finance the golf course, even though it brings visitors to Haap-salu who support local businesses. But Merilo remains hopeful that his vision to develop the course further will be real-ised one day.

www.haapsalugolf.ee

not generate enough turnover to make the necessary investments and improve-ments. But although times are tough, Merilo has refused to raise the price of the green fee, fearing that the lack of amenities would put potential players off.

Haapsalu has been a popular holiday town for over a century, attracting tour-ists with its therapeutic mud. There are a few well-established spa hotels, an ancient bishop’s castle with many cultural events all year round and a lovely seaside prom-enade. These opportunities are excellent

In Brief:

Par 34100 km from Tallinn9-hole links courseShare with 1 game permission EEK 32,000

Manager Tönu Merilo


The Billionaire of Peace of MindIf somewhere there were a Red Book for artists, then here’s a candidate for it. His name is Navitrolla and he is native to the wild jungles of southern Estonia. He is easily recognised by his clear and happy laugh, but even more easily by his naive paint-ings full of fantastic landscapes and absurd animals. Navitrolla is one of the unique species in the landscape of Estonian Art. So rare in fact that Estonian Art is still quite puzzled by his phenom-enon.Canoneartistaskformore?Let’sasktheartist.

Text: Martin PalmPhotos: Navitrolla, Heikki Leis

OPTIMISTIC COMPANY


Navitrolla


Science & Culture

101

Did you fall on your head in your childhood, making you decide to choose such an unpredictable and hard path for an artist?

It is clear that I did not choose it very consciously. My roots belong to south Estonian society, which is a pretty small tribe. These are the people who have their feet on the ground and who worry mostly about simple and basic things – that work would not kill you, but you’d still have enough money, that your wife would be great and not too lazy and the husband would not drink too much. These are the values that must be in balance in this society. When I was a little boy, my relatives always asked: “So tell us, what would you be?” and I always answered: “I’m gonna draw!” Then I was always ad-mired. “Oh what a nice boy, not drinking and smoking, but drawing! That’s a good thing! Even if you go into the Soviet Army you will be safe there as a painter!”

But years later, in my early twenties, when I met my relatives again – usually at someone’s wedding or funeral, they would ask me: “So, how have you been? What are you doing?” To their great sur-prise I answered that I was still paint-ing. Instead of being happy for me, they asked: “Yeah, well, but do you do any work or something like that?” It even got to the point that once my father asked my mother: “What is he doing there in the city? What is he living off? Is he stealing or something?” He simply could not be-lieve that I was painting and making a liv-ing from that. For him it was impossible.

As far as I remember I had always had a strong interest in painting and art-ists. But I never thought I could be one. I remember myself looking at art books or reading biographies of famous artists and thinking “Wow! This is something!” I probably felt a bit like the person who has shaken hands with the president and will not wash his hands after that. I had too much respect for this title.SHROOMEGIRAFFE


What about now?

I did not dare to call myself an artist, even in my early thirties. Several years ago I met one real blue-blooded aristocrat in France. The kind of person who owned many huge castles, but gave them away just like that and moved to Tahiti. My friends introduced me to him as an art-ist. He looked at me angrily and asked: “How dare you call yourself an artist?” I explained to him that I’d never said that about myself for simply having too much respect for that title. He finally under-stood that I really meant it and so calmed down, telling me: “You are an artist only when other people will say that you are.” At the moment I do not even think if am I an artist or not. Just like a plant or tree does not think what it is. They just exist.

SMALL MISCALCULATION

TRAVELLING MERCHANTS


Science & Culture

103

Have you ever regretted your choice?

I would love to say no, but this would not be true. I remember the moments of hesi-tation, while I was not sure at all that I’m on the right track. While I had used all my ideas and was thinking: “Oh no, what am I gonna do now. But when I think about how much joy I’ve felt thanks to walking this path, it is immeasurable. It sounds cheap, but this path has its own tor-ments. But torments can be pleasures if you are able to enjoy them. Only through those torments and pains will you learn to understand what you are capable of. And this is the way you will reach a new level. But if I had chosen some other path or become someone else, I think I would have been a very successful criminal (laughing). By the way, do you remember what was the name of this French poet who wrote his only poetry book when he was 19 and then finished with writing and became an arms dealer?

As far as I remember I had always had a strong interest in painting and artists. But I never thought I could be one.”

MESSED UP

HIDDEN TALENTS


Arthur Rimbaud

Exactly. Just think how he said all he had to say and then just quit. Though I have had many up and down periods, I have al-ways been able to find my rhythm again. You need to rest, it is not possible to hit the bulls-eye every day. I’ve faced many crises in my career. When your mind is blank and all your ideas and unfinished works feel like the most pointless crap. That is until you finally find that tiny clew and start sewing, and sooner or later you are back on track.

The older I get, the better I know the importance of immediately using all those great moments of inspiration and creativity. You should never be too care-less about them, because similar mo-ments may not appear again.

I recently quit most of my business contracts with different resellers of cups and T-shirts and calendars, so I could concentrate only on painting. Maybe I will make less money and there is a huge financial difference whether you are a pop artist in New York or a pop artist in the south of Estonia. But in terms of peace of mind I am definitely a billionaire.

BETWEEN TWO BRANCHES


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It is clearly visible through your paintings

There are some things I’m born with. Of course I’ve deeply analysed what I am do-ing. For example, the absence of humans in my art. I can draw them perfectly, but I simply see no point in it. What I want to do are those fantasy landscapes that will awaken your imagination. I like to create these compositions to trigger new ideas and connections in a viewer’s mind. I just try to help stimulate people’s minds to create new recognition and ways of thinking. Nothing else.

Why exactly all these animals? Was there a certain concept behind them?

Animals appeared accidentally in my art. From the simple need to keep the compo-sitions of landscapes alive.

CROSSROAD

A MEETING UNDER WOUNDED CLOUD THE ONE WHO SLIPS


And by now these animals have basically hijacked your art?

That is true. But they are great helpers too. For example, for a painting called “Stoned” I would rather paint a giraffe with its head in the clouds than some realistic portrait of a drug addict. In this way I can create much more symbolic as-sociations and new thoughts in a viewer’s mind. I believe this is the most important thing for me.

www.navitrolla.ee

THREE FAT TROUBLES


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João de Deus, Portuguese diplomat in SwitzerlandI was introduced to Navitrolla's paint-ings, and to Estonian culture in general, years ago when I met my wife, who is, you would have guessed, Estonian.

And even before I met the artist him-self (who has become a dear friend to both of us), I can say I had a “crush” on his artwork. I have always liked naive

style and the “childish” happiness that it brings to art as a whole, but Navitrolla goes way beyond naive, far too rich in de-tail and technique to be limited to a sin-gle style, unless books start using a new term: “Navitrolla's style”.

At the same time that the artist is so rigorous in perfecting, in a very scho-lastic manner, every single white puffy cloud, little piece of grass or tree branch – in contrast to naive's usual abstraction to perspective and detail – his paintings take us, on the other hand, to a kind of “parallel universe”, an enchanted king-dom of pure nature populated by strange, wild and fascinating animals, often in-teracting between themselves in a very intriguing (and most of the time, comic)

human manner. What makes Navitrolla different, and supports his success, is that his art is truly unique, and always able to “awake the child inside us”, the one we should never put to sleep. Navitrolla re-minds us that the amazement at nature in its most primitive forms, be it a golden sunset or an infinite forest, is the source of all true happiness, in contrast with our ever-growing contemporary consumerist society. That's why you never see a single human being portrayed in his paintings (a perfect world, with humans?). And even the animals are of a special kind, out of this world. I have the privilege of owning several of Navitrolla's pieces of art and, plainly speaking, they take me “somewhere else”.

Others about Navitrolla

FIRST LAY EGGS, THEN FLY AWAY


Teppo Vuoristo, Finnish publisher and art collectorI bought my first Navitrolla 15 years ago. It was an oil painting, with a buck on an autumnal forest meadow looking at a strange cloud. I liked it straight away and still do. After that I’ve bought his works for years. Although I cannot hold all Nav-itrolla’s work on my walls, I would not hesitate for a moment to buy a new paint-

ing again when I see some work I like in his studio.

We’ve been friends with Navitrolla for years, but actually we have never dis-cussed his work. And even though I work in the art sector, I’ve never even tried to analyse them. His works just have this something special that makes you stop.

I experience something that I can’t or even don’t want to explain. When I give a good look at the certain painting, I would like to go inside that painting, step into the other world where the distances, time and perspectives seem to take on a new meaning. I also know that I would like to understand something that is beyond my comprehension. Navitrolla´s work is the best artistic experience for me.

KING OF ANIMALS IN THE KINGDOM OF MUSHROOMS


Vivat academia, Vivant Professores

The University of Tartu was founded in 1632 by the Swedish KingGustavusAdolphus.ItwasinitiallycalledAcademiaDor-patensis. The necessary preparations for creating a university inTartu(thenDorpat)weremadebyJohanSkytte,GovernorGeneralofLivonia.

Text: Tiit KonsandPhotos: Aldo Luud, UT

(Long live the academy!Long live the teachers!)


We cooperate with other universities. There is also a ques-tion of reputation. How well known and recognized we are. When your colleague knows that you’re from the University of Tartu, and you can prove that you’re a good scientist, the insti-tution is respected as well.

University of Tartu is Estonia’s leading centre of research and training. It preserves the culture of the Estonian

people and spearheads the country’s reputation within research and provision of higher education. As Estonia’s national university, UT stresses the importance of international co-operation and partner-ships with reputable research universities all over the world. The robust research

potential of the university is evidenced by the fact that it is the only Baltic university that has been invited to join the Coimbra Group, a prestigious club of renowned research universities. In 2009 UT became the first Estonian university to be rated as one of the top 5% in the world by Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings.

UT includes 9 faculties, five colleges and several regional development units,

The Rector of the University of Tartu, professor Alar Karis.


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of which the latter two are situated in dif-ferent parts of Estonia. To support and develop the professional competence of its students and academic staff, the uni-versity has entered into bilateral agree-ments with 49 partner institutions in 19 countries.

As of the end of 2009, the university employed more than 3,500 people, of whom approximately 50 per cent are members of the academic staff (includ-ing 180 professors). In 2009, the propor-tion of full-time lecturers and researchers holding a PhD was close to 60 per cent. There are a total of 17,500 students study-ing at the university’s 9 faculties and five colleges. This includes about 670 visiting and International students. The number of doctoral students is 1,300, with about 100 doctoral defences taking place each year.

Old and dignified classics

The Rector of the University of Tartu, professor Alar Karis, says that the univer-sity is Estonia’s most senior and respect-ed university. “Estonia is a small country and this limits the number of universi-ties here. The general concept of uni-versity has become broader nowadays. Many former technical schools also have ambitions to achieve university status. It makes no sense to create another univer-sity here along the lines of the University of Tartu. Now the question is, what are the functions of the other universities? What are the purposes and mission of one or another university?

“Well, for example, Tallinn University of Technology is oriented to technical studies. But if we look today, the majority of students study at social and humani-tarian faculties. And, for example, there is also Tallinn University. What, then, is Tallinn University's role and mission here in our university landscape? But right now if we look at the country’s small size, you must clearly also think about what the priorities of the country and our na-tional interests are.”

“Over 60 per cent of science is done in the University of Tartu, doctoral defences the same. Approximately 25 per cent is based at Tallinn University of Technol-ogy. It is clear that Tallinn University of Technology and the University of Tartu cover the majority of areas and science resources. Everything else is like a bonus. It’s also important to look at our demo-graphic situation,” admits Karis.

University can attract when it has something to offer

“The university has its contents today. Without substance it definitely could not exist. But we can always make the

content, quality and level better. And to-day we have a situation where we have an open world where the boundaries do not actually exist. This competition, with Oxford and Cambridge for example, does not mean that we should compete with them in one area or another. But we com-pete on the fact that we are visible and the students know that there is at least one university in Estonia where they can get the best education without having to move away from home. This is important. If we don’t have it, then the country is not competitive,” says Karis.

“And I said to our minister of educa-tion as well, that the task of the minister is to stand up for it. If you look at the


maps of research funding in Europe, you can see that the boundaries of the Cold War are re-emerging. The task of the minister and the state is to stand up for Estonia having at least one science uni-versity – and it must be financially sup-ported according to its status.”

How to ensure stable quality?

“We cannot close areas which do not pay off. The University of Tartu has clearly distinct priorities. To preserve the Esto-nian language and culture is our obliga-tion. Today, it is really just an obligation and responsibility. We do not have indi-vidual resources for it.

“Liabilities are very difficult for us to cope with alone. We have areas that we think are important, but they do not make economic sense. This does not mean that they must be restricted. If something is strategic, we must find resources for it.

“We must also make choices as a clas-sic university. We must be able to com-pete with the rest of the world. I have also told that universitas must not be turned into omniversitas – in other words, a uni-versity dealing with everything.

“The classic university has its limits. This shows that we have very clear areas in which we deal. We do not have to deal with everything. The university is not a profit-generating company. Of course, we

do have elements of business. The situa-tion has changed with the number of stu-dents. One thing is the same competition, something that we did not speak about 20 years ago. Today, it clearly exists. We now have 17,500 students instead of 6,000. This means that there is a need for cer-tain changes in the funding and decision-making process.”

International University

Karis goes on: “Tartu University has al-ways been international. Even during the Soviet times, it was international. Our people went abroad. True, this was very limited. And scientists from other coun-

It has been a great advantage for the University of Tartu that we have been opened to various or-ganizations and our scientists in many fields have been very well net-worked.”


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tries came here too. The university is nat-urally international in any case. And if we do not have lecturers from outside and foreign students, we cannot take univer-sity seriously,” Karis says with certainty.

“If we are talking today about the demographic situation, we have people with very different cultural backgrounds and this is this internationalization of the university. They inevitably bring dif-ferent thought patterns. This is the idea of internationalization. And our own people also have many different possible backgrounds.”

Being competitive by being open

“We're open to new ideas and new peo-ple. New people come with new ideas. Very high risks are to be limited. You may be in a closed circle, a circle of protection sometimes. Certain so-called mediocrity is protected. It can only be changed by new perspectives coming from outside. And then we are open, international. It has been a great advantage for the Uni-versity of Tartu that we have been opened to various organizations and our scien-

tists in many fields have been very well networked. Because of limited resources you can only achieve such a result by be-ing a part of a larger system.”

“We cooperate with other universities. There is also a question of reputation. How well known and recognized we are. When your colleague knows that you’re from the University of Tartu, and you can prove that you’re a good scientist, the in-stitution is respected as well. If you look at our university publications, there is still a great deal of cooperation between different institutions. Scientists still se-lect the best possible partner. In larger countries your partner is somewhere near you. Smaller countries must look for a partner all over the world,” notes Karis.

According to Alar Karis one advan-tage of the University of Tartu is that Tartu is a university town itself. “When

Tartu University has always been international. Even during the Soviet times, it was international. Our people went abroad. True, this was very limit-ed. And scientists from other countries came here too.


you are here you understand that uni-versity is everywhere. The students are 20 per cent of the population and they are on the streets, you can see them. In larger cities such as Tallinn you can by-pass some university and you will not no-tice it at all. Here you are like part of a community. And it must be stressed that students are awaited here, they are vis-ible and they can operate freely. Pirogov Square (behind the Town Hall of Tartu, near the university main building), is one of the only public places in Estonia and the only in Tartu where you are allowed to drink beer. It may seem ridiculous, but in fact, this is another indicator. You can open your laptop and watch or listen to the latest lectures. It does not replace real lectures, but it creates an added value.

“Competitiveness today does not only mean with other universities, it means

Wikipedia, Google, You Tube etc, from where you can get information as well. And that potential keeps our lecturers on their toes. For instance, if a student is sitting opposite you, and opens the latest issue of a scientific journal and he asks something specific of you about a new article that was just released. You cannot say: ‘I have not had time to read it.’”

Greeting to the future

University Rector Alar Karis wrote last year “a greeting to the future” for the 800th anniversary of the University of Cambridge. Cambridge chose more than 800 people from all over the world, among them 150 academics, and the Vice-Chancellor, Alison Richard, asked them to write a vision of the future 100 years from now. The letter will be opened

after 100 years.Alar Karis says that choosing him to

write that letter indicates that we are in-ternational, we are networked. “It really shows that we are partners with Cam-bridge. And we are partners through the so-called Coimbra Group, which is the association of old universities including about 40 countries.

“When you’re talking with your col-league from the wide world you recog-nize immediately whether she/he talks to you like an equal or just out of politeness. Thankfully, my experience shows that the Rector of the University of Tartu is still taken very seriously as a partner in each sense. We are well known. It’s good but we must not be satisfied with it. This means that we must make much more ef-fort,” concludes Karis.

www.ut.ee


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Cultural highlights in the summer of Tallinn

Birgitta Festival was created in 2005 and takes place this year for the sixth time. The idea cameinDecember2004whenthedirectoroftheTallinnPhilharmonicSociety,JüriLeiten,and artistic director Eri Klas went to the ruins of Pirita Convent. They had a plan for a long time to create a great music festival in Estonia. They wanted it to have opera as well as bal-let. The island of Saaremaa had an opera festival once but it was not their vision.

Text: Tiit KonsandPhotos: Jaak Kadarik, Birgitta Festival


Cultural highlights in the summer of Tallinn

And there is still one impor-tant thing. We want to experi-ment, we are never going to look for best sellers or the most popu-lar shows. Rather we consider things such as the environment, producer, music etc. It’s easy to take Traviata and put it up for sale. But the organizers are look-ing for solutions appropriate to the environment.”


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The main organizer and direc-tor of the festival, Jüri Leiten, recalls that the historic con-vent in Pirita led them to

interesting ideas and plans. “We built the roof to the ruins and the tribune for the people. We managed to create there really such an environment that really has Estonia’s best acoustics. We have an opera hall for 1,500 customers. And of course the historic 600 year-old walls. It’s a very good environment,” notes Leiten.

Thinking and content

“We did not want to copy the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland and we thought a little bit wider. And the result we ar-rived at is that the thinking behind our

festival is theatrical music. This always gives the possibility to create something new and innovative.

“Five years has seen all sorts of ex-perimentation. We have done opera-jazz, modern ballet, we have also had a Spanish flamenco theatre and kong players from Taiwan. So the audiences have seen a real variety of performances,” says Leiten.

“And there is still one important thing. We want to experiment, we are never going to look for bestsellers or the most popular shows. Rather we consider things such as the environment, producer, mu-sic etc. It’s easy to take La Traviata and put it on, but the organizers are looking for solutions appropriate to the particular environment.”

Director of the festival, Jüri Leiten


Well-known festival

“The Birgitta Festival has become known for sure in Estonia’s neighbouring coun-tries such as Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania. Well, of course, it’s quite well known in Russia (especially in St Peters-burg and Moscow). Many top Russian musicians have visited us over the years,” says Leiten.

“We’ve gone to tourism fairs, and there has always been the Savonlinna Opera Festival. We are competing with them. The battle is mainly over the audience, which is located in the Helsinki region. There is a choice for Finn to drive 370 km north from Helsinki or take a 90-minute boat trip over the sea to Tallinn,” he adds.

“I've been in many opera houses to ask, check and make deals. Then thanks to doing that, our festival is also well-known. And it has become known more widely thanks to all those directors who have been here,” Leiten says with an air of certainty.

C. W. Gluck Orpheus and Eurydice


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This year's festival (12-21 August)

“My friends ask for suggestions all the time. I’m always in terrible trouble. It’s a very complicated question. All of our performances are very good. This year we have lots of music and performing works, which can be characterized by the word ‘new’.”

“Orpheus is a production of our own. Every year we have one production we do ourselves. A very international crowd is performing. It is directed by Georg Rootering from Germany, and we

have Swedish and German soloists with opera-physical Pan-Optikum. This is a very attractive show; the actors are like stuntmen at the same time. In short, we combine baroque opera with a modern approach,” says Leiten. The artists of the physical theatre are not operating merely on the stage but also use the audience area, walls and windows.

“The Kyiv Modern Ballet theatre is a very high level group. They are ballet dancers of innovative thinking who sepa-rated from the Kyiv National Ballet and created their own troupe. The perform-ances are very humorous and very clever-

ly resolved. They use music by Arvo Pärt and Peteris Vasks in one of their perform-ances. The second one is a very interest-ing solution – G Bizet’s opera Carmen. People will hear music from the opera and see only dancing. The main theme is ‘how I saw Carmen on TV’.”

Leiten goes on to say that Lohengrin is a big Wagner opera. “Moscow Novaya Opera actors discovered that the histori-cal Pirita convent walls are very suitable decorations for the opera. The opera leaves three quarters of its decorations at home and only takes the most necessary accessories. And the novelty of Lohen-grin lies in the fact that in this production our famous bass Ain Anger from Vienna takes part. This opera is conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig from the UK,” explains Leiten.

“C Orff’s Carmina Burana is a good tradition of ours. The same night our au-dience can see E Tamberg’s ballet Joanna Tentata. The stage director and choreog-rapher for it is Teet Kask. Stage designer is Kisa Kawakami, an architect and de-signer from Japan who lives in London.

“Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville is important to us. It was staged by the world famous director Elijah Moshinsky and is a relatively new production,” says Leiten.

“We will finish our festival with op-era@pop-jazz. It is our own fantasy,

Ballet Joanna Tentata, music by E. Tamberg

Ballet Underground, music by P. Vasks


PROGRAM

12.0820:00

C.W.GLUCKopera-physicaltheatreORPHEUSANDEURYDICE

13.0820:00

C.W.GLUCKopera-physicaltheatreORPHEUSANDEURYDICE

14.0820:00

BalletsBOLERO,UNDERGROUNDandWARDNO6

15.0820:00

G.BizetballetCARMEN.TV

18.0820:00

R.WagneroperaLOHENGRIN

19.0820:00

E. Tamberg ballet JOANNA TENTATA

C. Orff CARMINA BURANA

20.0820:00

G.RossinioperabuffaILBARBIEREDISIVIGLIA

21.0820:00

OPERA@POP-JAZZ

which has already been working very well for several years. The main idea is that opera world’s top arias are first presented as they are in original and then jazz arrangements are made from them.”

Tallinn 2011 European Capital of Culture

Jüri Leiten says next year, when Tallinn is the Eu-ropean Capital of Culture, they will commission a completely new Estonian opera based on one of the well-known Estonian literary works.

“I hope we will meet maestro Neeme Järvi at next year’s Birgitta Festival for the first time. Wagner is a musical theme.

“We have agreements with the world famous St Petersburg Maria Theatre and the world-famous conductor Valery Gergijev that they will visit our festival next year, while they are on their Scandinavi-an tour. Then there is an agreement with the Latvian Ballet. And certainly we do not forget to surprise our audience,” Leiten says.

www.birgitta.ee

Artistic Director Eri Klas


TartuTartu,withitspopulationof101,246(PopulationCensusdatafrom 2000) in an area of 38.8 sq km, is the second largest city in Estonia. Tartu, lying 185 km south of Tallinn, is also the centre of southern Estonia. The River Emajõgi (Mother River), which connects the two largest lakes in Estonia, flows for 10 km within the city limits and adds colour to the city. The first written records of Tartu date from 1030.

Text: Tiit KonsandPhotos: Meelis Lokk, University of Tartu

The best city for the world

When the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf signed the establishment or-der of Academia Gus-

taviana (University of Tartu) in 1632 Tartu had already been known as a city for six centuries. Tartu’s favourable, easy-to-defend and beautiful location did not go unnoticed for anybody on either side of the River Emajõgi. Both before and af-ter the creation of the University of Tartu, the city had played a very large role in trade, science and culture.

Promenade on the banks of Emajõgi River


If a city has so many values, good peo-ple, thoughts, glory and history, this city is the best city for the world and Tartu is happy to share it with everyone. Welcome!”

The head of the Tartu City Govern-ment Public Relations Department, In-drek Mustimets, says we have heard a variety of cities claiming to be the world's best cities. “But Tartu instead wants to be the best city for the world and thus fulfil its obligations, both historical and mod-ern. We have never measured how well known we are in Europe and the world. But thinking about this, whoever has found Tartu for themselves throughout the centuries is something we may be proud of.”

Every era has left its mark

“Every era has left its mark on Tartu. So, we may talk about the conquering of Tar-tu, repeated major fires, diseases and ra-pacious conquerors. But we can also talk about the huge military airfield that Tartu inherited from the Soviet era and in the direct vicinity of which is one of the most interesting museums in the world – the Estonian National Museum. The interna-tional architectural competition was won by the work called “Memory Field” and

which is full of symbolic meaning – Tartu has a large number of sources of Estonian folk and rich culture. Although Tartu was a closed city for half a century under So-viet control, good thoughts and spiritual-ity never disappeared for a moment,” says Mustimets.

“If one of the architectural jewels is built on an old military airfield in Tartu and the old airfield is permanently closed, it is symbolic that the civilian airport in Tartu is extended. Through it, Tartu has its connections with the rest of the world.

Town Hall Square


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123

Tartu, although the capital of southern Estonia, has been without a fast link to the rest of the world for a long time. Citi-zens of Tartu can now also talk about the progress of road traffic between Tallinn and Tartu, and Tartu and Riga. The lat-est news from the Estonian government confirms that the state is also vigorously planning a Tallinn-Tartu-Valga-Riga-Warsaw railway line, Rail Baltica.”

Colourful and international

Tartu is undeniably an international city – nearly 1,000 foreign students are studying in various educational institu-tions. Researchers work at post-doctorate level and senior lecturers from different universities work alongside each other. Numerous spin-off companies have in-

novators from all over the world sharing their knowledge. In the world of theatre, the Vanemuine ballet stage features danc-ers from 15 different countries. All year round this captivating city is well known by artists, musicians, writers and theatri-cal people, not to mention ramblers for whom Tartu is an integral part of a visit to Estonia.

Indrek Mustimets thinks there are thousands of reasons and people to ex-plain why Tartu is exactly like this and not a boring or colourless city. “City of good thoughts, it’s the slogan of Tartu, and it absorbs a lot of good and valu-able things. Speaking of Tartu, the cradle of the ethnic awakening of Estonia, we can be proud that the foundation stone of spirit was laid here. Here we have the Estonian Literary Museum, the Estonian

National Museum, Tartu University, Es-tonian University of Life Sciences, Esto-nia's first professional theatre, with opera and ballet. Tartu is the birthplace of song festivals and the national media. This di-versity and colour has given a great im-pulse to the whole Estonian culture, men-tal forces and statehood.”

Tartu = University of Tartu

“The heart of Tartu is the University of Tartu. There is probably no family with Estonian roots anywhere in the world that is not related to the university in some way. Through the independence years, the university has step by step re-stored and developed all of its legendary faculties, created new research centres, and supplied educational and research

Fashion and Leisure Center Tasku


institutions with modern technology. All of this creates an opportunity. A hundred years ago Nobel Prize winner in chemis-try, Wilhelm Ostwald, worked at the Uni-versity of Tartu. We all hope that another scientist from the university will one day win the Nobel Prize. But in the Univer-sity a lot of world famous scientists work,” says Mustimets.

“Being Estonia's leading university, it competes with European and global re-search institutes and centres, and must hold onto a reputation gained over the centuries. The most outstanding re-search areas of the University of Tartu include molecular and cell biology, gene technology, immunology, pharmacology, chemistry, biochemistry, laser medicine, material science, laser spectroscopy, en-vironmental technologies, computer lin-

Maarja Fair


guistics, psychology and semiotics. This list could go on.

“Tartu is a well-known educational and scientific centre and the achievements of its scientists generate interest around the world, and in biotechnology some of the projects promise a real breakthrough. So For example, researchers of Tartu have reached the final stage of HIV vaccine development. Estonia's largest biotech-nology company, called Asper Biotech, is also working in Tartu. It developed gene analysis detectors which are operating in the French Cancer Research Centre, at a genetic analysis company in South Korea and in Columbia University in the US. These are just some examples of the great potential of the university of a small country like Estonia,” Mustimets adds.

“Of course, the potential of Tartu re-searchers is also used by domestic com-panies. Estonia's largest dairy products manufacturer, Tere, has co-designed a unique product line that includes lactic acid bacteria ME-3, discovered by micro-biologists of the University of Tartu. Tere worked in collaboration with research-ers from the University of Tartu. Yoghurt and curd creams containing new bacteria are very popular among Estonians,” Mus-timets says.

“The Estonian Genome Project was born in Tartu about 10 years ago. The Ge-nome Project’s goal is to get – by the end

Hanseatic Days Emajõgi River

Panorama of the borough Karlova


of 2010 – the gene data of 100,000 Esto-nians. The collection of genetic data will allow the diagnosis of diseases, improved treatment and ways to determine cancer risk in the future.

“We may proudly name Tartu Uni-versity Hospital the flagship of Estonian medical sciences. It recently opened an excellently equipped new building on the Maarjamõisa medical campus.”

A favourable business and natural environment

“In the economy of Estonia's second larg-est city the rapid development of the in-formation and communications sector sticks out,” says Mustimets. “Tartu has about 125 IT companies, with an esti-mated total annual turnover exceeding EUR 75 million, and approximately 1,200 employees.

“A favourable business environment and several support structures help cre-ate and develop businesses. This includes the Tartu Science Park, Business Advi-sory Services Tartu, Tartu Biotechnology Park, as well as the recently established Centre of Creative Industries. Enterprise development organizations are providing support and advice – to established and start-up companies – and offering them a variety of services,” says Mustimets.

“Tartu is a fascinating city where the

modern infrastructure and industrial harmony is intertwined with a distinctive natural environment. So, for example, the downtown café surfer on the Internet (Tartu city centre is almost entirely cov-ered with a free Wi-Fi network) can go to Toome Hill with its ancient trees within few minutes by foot or take a walk on the riverside promenade. Within a 20-minute walking distance from the city centre are biggest meadow regions of Estonia. Their rich flora and variety of birds belong to the Natura 2000 areas list.

“Both the developers and planners have to take into account the unique na-ture environment. And urban planning has led to a unique set of ideas in Esto-nia – the proposed housing estate will in-clude islands for plants which are under protection,” adds Mustimets.

“If a city has so many values, good people, thoughts, glory and history, this city is the best city for the world and Tartu is happy to share it with everyone. Welcome!”

www.tartu.ee

The main building of Tartu University


Guide estonia

2010–2011

2009–2010

WHO’S WHO IN ESTONIAN BUSINESS

GuideGuide

www.kytaja .fi

A unique, top-quality residential area is being built in the grounds of the historic Kytäjä Manor. Kytäjä off ers life in a detached house in the peace and quiet of the

Finnish countryside, yet close to the services of the town. You can acquire your dream home in the picturesque landscape of Lake Kytäjärvi either as a plot or a ready-built house on a turn-key basis.

t h e b est t h i n gs co m e i n li m i t ed q ua n t i t i es

Kytäjä off ers:

- The highest-ranked golf course in Finland (Golf Digest 2/2007)

- Ponds, lakes, and rapids for fi shing enthusiasts- A varied game populations for hunters- The stables and indoor arena of the manor for riders - The Kytäjä-Usmi wilderness area with its trails, lean-

tos, climbing cliff s, and kayaking routes for enthusiasts of the great outdoors

P l ots for sal e

n ow !

Distances (from Kytäjä ->)

- 13 km and 15 min to the centre of Hyvinkää

- 50 km and 35 min to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport

- 60 km and 55 min to Helsinki Railway Station

Additional information on the sales and rental of the plots:

Mikko Koivunoro Tel. +358 (0)40 545 9966Tarja Ketonen Tel. +358 (0)50 572 7553Hannu Naukkarinen Tel. +358 (0) 40 543 1081

ESTONIA

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Magazine

2010 - 2011

CDInternet

Food and Packaging

About Estonian Business Guide

Estonian Business Guidecontainsmore than 1,000 items of important contact detail. The guide has plenty of information regard-ing business-to-business services provided interna-tionally by Estonian companies.

IT and Electronics

Metal and Engineering

Forest Industry

Energy and Chemicals

Food and Packaging

Construction

Transport and Trade

Finance and Investment

Communication and Media

Sports and Other Industries


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Huhtamäki OyjKeilaranta 10, 02150 Espoo

Tel.: +358 10 6867000

Fax: +358 10 6867992

Internet: www.huhtamaki.fi

Established: 1941

President: Jukka Moisio

Net sales: 106,8 million EUR (2007)

Net profit: -22,8 million EUR (2007)

Employees: 825

Main line of business: Pulp and paper products

Ingman Ice Cream Oy AbP.O. Box 33, 01151 Söderkulla

Tel.: +358 9 27200500

Fax: +358 9 27200555

Internet: www.ingman.fi

Established: 1988

President: Robert Ingman


Net profit: 2,4 million EUR (2007)

Employees: 539

Main line of business: Food products and

beverages

Jomet OyP.o Box 27, 30101 Forssa

Tel.: +358 10 404 6200

Fax: +358 3 422 5706

Internet: www.jomet.fi

Email: [email protected]

Established: 1977

President: Bruno Lespinasse



Employees: 43

Main line of business: Packaging

Karl Fazer Oy AbP.O. Box 44, 00101 Helsinki

Tel.: +358 20 5553000

Fax: +358 20 5553128

Internet: www.fazergroup.com

Established: 1919

President: Karsten Slotte



Employees: 81


beverages

Laihian Mallas OyLänsitie 372 66400 Laihia

Tel.: +358 6 475 2111

Fax: +358 6 476 2555

Internet: www.laihianmallas.fi


Established: 1992

President: Lasse Koski



Employees: 49

Main line of business: Food products

Leaf Suomi OyP.O. Box 406, 20101 Turku

Tel.: +358 10 30341

Fax: +358 10 3034650

Internet: www.leaf.fi

Established: 1998

President: David Nuutinen



Employees: 252


beverages

Liha-Saarioinen OyP.O. Box 122, 37601 Valkeakoski

Tel.: +358 3 2447111

Fax: +358 3 2447777

Internet: www.saarioinen.fi

Established: 1992

President: Kai Metsänvuori



Employees: 388


beverages

Lihel OyMänkimiehentie 21, 02780 Espoo

Tel.: +358 9 819 0110

Fax: +358 9 8190 1199

Internet: www.lihel.fi


Established: 1987

President: Dave Knaster



Employees: 40


Liljendals Bruk AbKrogarvägen 9, 07880 Liljendal

Tel.: +358 19 521 6100

Fax: +358 19 616 516

Internet: www.itw.com

Established: 1990

President: Juhani Liinamaa



Employees: 50


Lännen Tehtaat OyjP.O. Box 100, 27801 Säkylä

Tel.: +358 10 40200

Fax: +358 10 4024022

Internet: www.lannen.fi

Established: 1951

President: Matti Karppinen



Employees: 755


beverages

Metsä Tissue OyjP.O. Box 25, 02020 Metsä

Tel.: +358 10 4616

Fax: +358 10 4654199

Internet: www.metsatissue.com

Established: 2003

President: Hannu Kottonen



Employees: 3326

Main line of business: Pulp and paper products

Oy M.Haloila AbRuskontie 16, 21250 Masku

Tel.: +358 2 437 6111

Fax: +348 2 437 6211

Internet: www.haloila.com


Established: 1978

President: Jari Paavola



Employees: 72


Olvi OyjP.O. Box 16, 74101 Iisalmi

Tel.: +358 29 0001050

Fax: +358 17 8385215

Internet: www.olvi.fi

Established: 1925

President: Lasse Aho



Employees: 389


beverages

Osuuskunta Pohjolan MaitoTeollisuustie 4, 86600 Haapavesi

Tel.: +358 10 381 148

Fax: +358 10 381 6161


Internet: www.pohjolanmaito.fi

Established: 1963

President: Markku Hukkanen



Employees: 23


Osuuskunta Tradeka-yhtymäP.o Box 72, 00501 Helsinki

Tel.: +358 9 73 351

Fax: +358 9 733 5005


Internet: www.tradeka.fi

Established: 1918

President: Juha Laisaari



Employees: 11


Oy Panda ABP.o Box 3, 40801 Vaajakoski


Internet: www.panda.fi

Established: 1998

President: Ami Wardi

Net Sales: 52 million EUR (2007)

Net Profit: 0,23 million EUR (2007)

Employees: 318

Main line of Business: Food products

Oy Paulig Gustav AbP.O. Box 15, 00991 Helsinki

Tel.: +358 9 31981

Fax: +358 9 3198400

Internet: www.paulig.fi

Established: 1991

President: Pekka Pirinen



Employees: 187


beverages

Pernod Ricard Finland OyPanuntie 4, 00610 Helsinki

Tel.: +358 20 721 2200

Fax: +358 20 721 2229

Internet: www.pernod-ricard-finland.com


Established: 1999

President: Tarja Uitti



Employees: 209

Main line of business: Beverages

Polarica Finland OyRistijärventie 51 B, 88600 Sotkamo

Tel.: +358 20 775 1450

Fax: +358 20 775 1459

Internet: www.polarica.fi


Established: 1976

President: Tommy Innala



Employees: 19


Polttimo OyP.O. Box 20, 15141 Lahti

Tel.: +358 3 86411

Fax: +358 3 7522742

Internet: www.polttimo.com

Established: 1897

President: Katharina Stenholm



Employees: 34


beverages

In May 2005, Fazer Bakeries ex-panded its operations in Russia as it acquired the Moscow bakery Zvezd-

ny (OAO Experimentalny Konditersko-Bulochny Kombinat “Zvezdny”). Zvezd-ny is one of the biggest manufacturers of bake-off pizza and frozen dough in Rus-sia. The bakery also manufactures pas-tries and fresh bread. Today four Russian bakeries belong to Fazer Group; 3 in St Petersburg and one in Moscow (Zvezd-ny). The bakeries joined forces and be-came one operative company as of March 2008. The name and the identity of the new company is Hlebny Dom.

“In Moscow, our long-term goal is to achieve a central position in the bakery market. Being situated in Moscow, we have better opportunities for expansion to other locations in Russia,” said Berndt Brunow, former Group President, when interviewed by Business Finland in 2006. As delivering bread all over Russia from just one or two locations is logistically challenging, Fazer is interested in setting up bakeries in other cities as well.

Russian Brands for Russians In 2006 Fazer had 3,500 bakery employ-ees in Russia: 2,500 in the St. Petersburg area and 1,000 in Moscow. The employ-ees are all Russian and the bakeries man-ufacture and sell their own local brands. However, the Fazer brand, which has been visible in Russia since the Soviet era, has not been forgotten either:

“It is a part of our Group strategy to increase the visibility of the Fazer brand in Russia,” Brunow stated.

“But we would never want to spoil a legendary brand such as the Hlebny Dom which was the only bakery that kept go-ing through the siege of Leningrad during World War II and is clearly a part of the national heritage.”

Member of the Board of Directors of FazerBerndt BrunowPh

oto:

Sin

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“Panda’s vision is to be the most respected licorice brand in the world, recognised by

both the consumers and retail when the topic of licorice is addressed,” Jorma Alanen, former Vice President in charge of exporting operations, told Business Fin-land in 2006.

“In order to realise our vision, we must continue to increase our exports, but we must be patient and concentrate on setting long-term goals as we have done before,” Alanen states, adding that the company is not seeking a temporary sales spike from exports, but instead wants longevity from the foreign markets.

Global CandyThe licorice culture around the world is rather versatile. For the Americans, lico-rice is preferably red, and the British have their very own brand of licorice. In the Netherlands, licorice covers also a whole spectrum of wine gum candy.

“The definition of licorice varies from country to country. The Finnish version, soft and black licorice, is more rare out there. Outside Finland, this type of lico-rice is mostly manufactured in Australia

Phot

o: P

anda

and the USA,” Alanen says. The licorice Down Under seems to be

the closest – taste-wise – to the Finnish product.

But how did the rather exotic Panda bear come to symbolise the company in both name and image? Not exactly na-tive to Finland, the Panda was drawn up by a graphic designer back in 1952. The bear was meant to grace only a chocolate bar wrapper, but instead, the company – known as SOK − eventually changed its name to Panda Chocolate Factory in 1961.

Two years later the bear ventured abroad for the very first time, as a ship-ment of licorice was delivered to Paul Spiz in New York.

Food and Packaging62 63

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AAhlstrom Glassfibre OyP.O. Box 140, 48601 Kotka

Tel.: +358 10 88811

Fax: +358 10 8882510


Internet: www.ahlstrom.com

Established: 1991

President: Pekka Helynranta



Employees: 594

Main line of business: Mineral products

Are OyP.O. Box 160, 01611 Vantaa

Tel.: +358 20 5305500

Fax: +358 20 5305600


Internet: www.are.fi

Established: 1994

President: Aki Puska



Employees: 1424

Main line of business: Construction

Best-Hall OyYhdystie 3-7, 68300 Kälviä

Tel.: +358 6 832 5000

Fax: +358 6 835 0477

Internet: www.besthall.com


Established: 1975

President: Leif Kempas



Employees: 124


Cembrit OyP.o Box 46, 08681 Lohja

Tel.: +358 19 28 761

Fax: +358 19 287 6451

Internet: www.cembrit.fi


Established: 1991

President: Matti Tiivola



Employees: 142

Main line of business: Construction materials

Cramo Finland OyKalliosolantie 2, 01740 Vantaa

Tel.: +358 10 66110

Fax: +358 10 6611349


Internet: www.cramo.fi

Established: 2007

President: Tatu Hauhio


Employees: 564

Main line of business: Renting and leasing

services

Destia OyP.O. Box 73, 00521 Helsinki

Tel.: +358 20 44411

Fax: +358 20 4442297

Internet: www.destia.fi

Established: 2007

President: Jukka Laaksovirta


E Hartikainen OyP.O. Box 307, 80101 Joensuu

Tel.: +358 20 7545510

Fax: +358 13 2683102

Internet: www.hartikainen.com

Established: 1981

President: Arto Hartikainen



Employees: 515


Eltel Networks OyP.O. Box 50, 02611 Espoo

Tel.: +358 20 411211

Fax: +358 20 4113200


Internet: www.eltelnetworks.fi

Established: 1998

President: Juha Luusua


Employees: 1037


Fenestra OyP.O. Box 75, 01721 Vantaa

Tel.: +358 10 5254000

Fax: +358 10 5254199


Internet: www.fenestra.fi

Established: 1917

President: Kim Poulsen


Employees: 986

Main line of business: Wood and wood products

Finnlamelli OyP.o Box 68, 62901 Alajärvi

Tel.: +358 6 557 0300

Fax: +358 6 557 0333

Internet: www.finnlamelli.fi


Established: 1995

President: Esko Rintamäki

Net sales: 31 million EUR (2007)


Employees: 125


Finndomo OyÄyritie 12, 01510 Vantaa

Tel: + 358 755 0400

Fax. + 358 755 0417


Internet: www.finndomo.fi

Established: 2002

President: Pertti Lehti

Net Sales: 55, 8 million EUR (2007)

Net Profit: 0, 49 million EUR (2007)

Employees:

Main line of Business: House Construction

Finnsementti OySkräbbölentie 18, 21600 Parainen

Tel.: +358 20 1206200

Fax: +358 20 1206311


Internet: www.finnsementti.fi

Established: 2000

President: Kalervo Matikainen


Employees: 220

Main line of business: Mineral products

Formica IKI OyTehtaantie 2, 35990 Kolho

Tel.: +358 3 580 001

Fax: +358 3 531 6020

Internet: www.firmica.com


Established: 1988

President: Jari Kerbs



Employees: 200

Main line of business: Construction materials

Franke Finland Oy Vartiokuja 1, 76850 Naarajärvi

Tel.: +358 15 34 111

Fax: +358 15 341 1560

Internet: www.franke.fi


Established: 1993

President: Antero Asikainen

Net sales: 21,2 million EUR (2007


Employees: 134

Main line of bus1iness: Construction

Hartela OyP.O. Box 623, 20101 Turku

Tel.: +358 10 5612000

Fax: +358 10 5612001


Internet: www.hartela.fi

Established: 1989

President: Heikki Hartela



Employees: 483


Heikius Hus-Talo KbRiksåttan 981, 66710 Kaitsor

Tel.: +358 6 383 5633

Fax: +358 6 383 5651

Internet: www.heikius.fi


Output and Profitability

The output of the construction business

in 2008 was EUR 29.5 billion – housing

construction accounting for EUR 24.1

billion (-1.4 percent from 2007), of which

new buildings amounted to EUR 14.7

billion, while repair and maintenance came

in at EUR 9.4 billion. Earth and water works

output totalled EUR 5.5 billion (+5.2 percent

from 2007), which included EUR 4 billion

of investments; the share of maintenance

was EUR 1.5 billion. The profitability of the

construction industry companies worsened

toward the end of last year as the sales of

new apartments came to a standstill.

Employees

The construction business employed

around 184,100 people in 2008. The figure is

expected to decline to 160,000 in 2009 while

the number of unemployed is expected to

rise to 50,000 toward the end of the year.

International OperationsIn 2008, the Finnish companies engaged

in international construction business at

a value of EUR 3.2 billion, a figure which

is expected to drop to EUR 2.8 billion in

OutlookThe number of housing projects to be

commenced in 2009 is expected to fall

by 13 percent – there will be only 14,000

new projects this year – as the financing of

housing projects is in difficulty.

(Source: Confederation of Finnish

Construction Industries)

2009). The comparable figures for building

material industry are EUR 7.8 billion (EUR

7 billion in 2009) and exports of building

material EUR 6.5 billion (EUR 6 billion in

2009). New contracts amounted to EUR 671

million. The development was positive in

the Nordic countries and Russia, as well as

other countries, apart from the Baltics.

International operations of the Finnish Construction industry by country in 2008

GeneralAccording to the latest review of business conditions in the construction

industry prepared by the Confederation of Finnish Construction

Industries, the situation for housing construction is rather gloomy due to

bureaucracy and slow decision-making.

Estonian Business Guide is an Inter-net service site marketing and pro-moting Estonian companies on the globalmarkets. The Guide is alsoprinted on the pages of Business Estonia magazine and provides the reader with the same information. Supporting media is in the form of a CD that includes the same infor-mation about companies operat-

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anttila oy

P.O. Box 1060, 00016 KESKO

Tel.: +358 0 105343

Fax: +358 0 105340199

Internet: www.anttila.fi

Established: 1984

President: Matti Leminen



Employees: 2045

Main line of business: Retail trade

anttila oy

P.O. Box 1060, 00016 KESKO

Tel.: +358 0 105343

Fax: +358 0 105340199


Established: 1984




Employees: 2045


anttila oy

P.O. Box 1060, 00016 KESKO

Tel.: +358 0 105343

Fax: +358 0 105340199


Established: 1984




Employees: 2045


Anttila is one of the biggest non-food retailers in Finland and one part of the leading trading company, Kesko Corporation. As a multi-channeled retailer Anttila is your best partner for the Finnish market.

ing globally in different fields of business. The site gathers Estonian companies already operating glo-bally as well as companies striving to make the global markets.

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Transport and Trade

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Distribution of Business Es-tonia is mainly done out-side Estonia, for example through the country’s trade

representations and chambers of com-merce. Foreigners working and studying in Estonia and those visiting the country are also target groups.

The total print run of each Business Estonia issue is 12,000, of which 2,000 are estimated to reach international journal-ists. Business Estonia articles can thus generate many new articles through this channel.

Business Estonia articles are paid-for advertorials, which are done from com-panies’ own viewpoint. With Business Estonia you can secure high media atten-

tion. The magazine is also a visually well-designed read with good-quality photo-graphs and graphics.

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estonia

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Business EstoniaPurpuripolku 600420, Helsinki+358 9 [email protected]


Estonian Solution

9Business Estonia 1/2010

Estonia One aspect that in-vestors have found very appealing is the coun-try’s tax policy; Estonia has a flat tax rate and no corporate tax on re-invested profit.“

Estonia’s president talks frankly about his country’s competi-tive advantage when it comes to logistics and high-tech crea-tivity. He dreams of a truly knowledge-based economy that will lead to a higher quality of life for Estonians and people throughout the world.


- Striving to become a true ''Nordic'' economy

20 Business Estonia 1/2010 21Business Estonia 1/2010

The EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, China, runs from 1 May to 31 October this year and the main theme is “Better city, better life.” It will highlight the global public attention on the rapid urbani-zation problems and tries to look for solutions. EXPO’s theme reflects mankind’s desire for a better life in the future urban environment – in 1800, 2 per cent of the world’s population lived in a city, 29 per cent did in 1950 and in 2010 the United Nations estimates the urban popula-tion share of the total to be 55 per cent. At EXPO, Estonia is portraying itself as a small and in-novative Nordic country that wants to help people arrive at better solutions through improving environments for living and creativity. The organizer of Estonia’s participation at EXPO 2010 is Enterprise Estonia.

Text: Tiit KonsandPhotos: Jaak Kadarik /EAS

Shanghai urges action to save the cities

According to Enterprise Es-tonia’s director of market-ing and communications, Erki Peegel, Estonia will

unveil an interactive pavilion (ca. 1,000 sq m) that calls on people to join in an initiative to "save" the world’s cities. "The pavilion will allow people to make their voice heard regarding urbaniza-tion, encouraging all visitors to think about and look for solutions to topics related to growing cities. The Estonian pavilion will literally be clad in bright folk costume, distinct from the other Nordic pavilions (Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian) and their more



SKANSKA EMV

Today Skanska EMV is the oldest construction company in Estonia.”

One of the largest and oldest construction companies in Esto-nia, Skanska EMV, is well known through its landmark projects and today also acts as a bridge bringing high ethical business standards and “green construction” know-how to Estonia.

Text: Maris HellrandPhotos: Villu Kraan / Skanska

Building Bridges to and in Estonia

Everyone arriving in Estonia's capital by air will be greeted by one of the landmarks built by Skanska EMV - the Lennart

Meri Airport of Tallinn. The former pres-ident of Estonia, Lennart Meri was also one of the first customers Skanska EMV's current CEO Andres Aavik worked for when he first started his career in con-struction and real estate business some 15 years ago. At that time his own small company was contracted to build the president's guesthouse in Paslepa in just

five weeks. With a smile, Andres Aa-vik remembers the early starts and late nights when the president sometimes ar-rived after midnight and wanted to have a chat about the progress of the project. They did finish on schedule!

Today he leads one of Estonia's big-gest construction companies from a sleek office and faces challenges on a different scale.

Skanska EMV traces its roots back to 1949 in Estonia. During the Soviet era EMV was part of a big state-run con-

struction company employing more than 10,000 people. In 2000 Skanska Estonia, part of the 19th century Swedish Skanska AB, acquired EMV which by the end of the 1990s was a public company. So today Skanska EMV is the oldest construction company in Estonia. Some of the employ-ees have been working for the company for over 30 years.

The construction industry enjoyed an unseen boom at the beginning of the 21st century and has been hit hard by the eco-nomic crisis of recent years. Residential

CEO of Skanska EMV, Andres Aavik


Eesti Energia

We are now building a new factory that is twice as efficient, environmentally-friendly and that uses all the oil shale that it is possible to excavate,”

Maris Hellrand meets the Estonian company that boasts the world’s most comprehensive solution for processing oil shale.

Text: Maris HellrandPhotos: Villu Kraan / Eesti Energia

- creating new energy

CEO of Eesti Energia, Sandor Liive


UNIPRINT Uniprint has developed and grown from a single machine company set up in 1992 into a well-established printing firm in the Nordic countries.”

Although you might not see it, the air you breathe at the Finn-ish Expo Pavilion, Kirnu, is conditioned by Halton, an ambitious Finnish company that is now focusing on the wellbeing busi-ness.


Setting the bar for quality

The private printing market first developed in Estonia with the establishment of co-operatives in 1987. As with

other areas of industry, printing was short of cash, suffered from being behind the times technologically and lacked staff with up-to-date training. But between 1991 and 1993 printing houses came into their own and it was during this period that the sheet printing company Uniprint emerged.

André Abner, Uniprint sales director, says the company went through a difficult time as it developed and grew from a sin-gle machine company set up in 1992 into a well-established printing firm in the Nordic countries.

Uniprint and the web printing com-pany Unipress, which was set up in 2003, are both part of UP Printing Group (UP),

which specialises in quality printing. Uni-press is a subsidiary company of and 100 per cent owned by Uniprint. UP Printing Group's turnover in 2009 was EEK 150 million.

"Unipress produces roll machine magazines," says Abner. "We have roll machines with downstream, glue bind-ing and wiring possibilities and there are printed periodicals, all kinds of cata-logues and customer papers."

Quality

Unipress, founded in 2003, was one of the first periodical printing company in Estonia with modern equipment on an internationally competitive level. With its new fully automatic web print machine, the company is able to provide periodical printing that satisfies the most demand-

Uniprint sales director André Abner


Competitive Estonian economyopen to growth

The Estonian economy has proved its ability to succeed. Flexibility and openness are the characteristics and pervading principles of Estonian economic policy. We are an e-country with a favourable business climate and cost advantages, and open to growth. The objective of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications is to create over-all conditions for the growth in the competitiveness of the Estonian economy, and its bal-anced and vital development. It will aid this through the drafting and implementation of Estonian economic policy and by evaluating its outcome.


Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications, Juhan Parts

Documents

Business Estonia 1/2010