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EDITOR-IN-CHIEFJorma Leppäniemi

EDITORSKlaus SusiluotoSini Pennanen

Piia ViljaJarkko RepoNina Garlo

Michael NaglerKalle Heino

Mervi LepojärviLiisa Leeve

LANGUAGE EDITORDarin NolanQuingbo Xu

DESIGN AND LAYOUTAivo Blum

MARKETINGJorma Leppäniemi

Tel. +358 9 42821012

PUBLISHER Kustannusosakeyhtiö

Perhemediat OyPurpuripolku 6, 00420 Helsinki

Tel. +358 9 42821000 Fax. +358 9 42821030

T he 1950s and ‘60s were golden decades of Finnish design. Many prestigious designers won awards and received international fame with their products. The success has also con-

tinued thereafter. But, it has been learned that not all design need the label “Finnish design”.

A great deal of modern-day design is not national, but linked to innovative companies, international life-style and functionality, rather than visual appearances.

However, it is of no use underestimating the national aspect. Finnish Design raised our country at the edge of Europe to international awareness, onto the world market, to fairs and museums.

Some Finnish design objects have become symbols of Finnishness.”They are our common cultural heritage and evoke personal memories and images”, as the minister for culture, Paavo Arhinmäki, says in our interview.

In January 2012, Helsinki began its year as World Design Capital 2012 (WDC), together with the cities of Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen and Lahti. The World Design Capital is an initiative of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID).

The Finnish central government is strongly involved in the project. The Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Employment and the Economy are providing joint financial support.

The World Design Capital 2012 is naturally just one way of increasing the recognition of Finnish design abroad. The WDC also takes local inhabitants into account, wishing to activate them in design issues and in making their everyday environment more comfortable and functional.

There is every reason to believe that the Design Capital year will leave a lasting mark on Finnish society and the everyday life of people living in Fin-land. Design and culture can also create jobs. This is why it is important to support cultural entrepreneurship and the creation of cultural jobs, as well as promote cultural exports.

Many Finnish companies have also entered other creative branches, in addition to design. The best example might be the Finnish-originated Angry Birds, but there are also other success stories in computer/mobile games, movies, literature and music. Broadly speaking, arts, design and entertain-ment can also be successfully made in smaller countries like Finland.

Jorma Leppäniemi

EDITORIALDesign, culture and entertainment

Jorma LeppäniemiEditor-in-Chief

23Twenty three

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Business Finland,

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2 WDC–SuccessfromFinland8 TheDynamicLegacyofFinnishArchitecture14 TheFinnishGlassMuseumPraisestheStoryofFinnishGlassDesign20 NewlyEmergingOlympicStadiumSpirit24 TheSportsMuseumofFinland28 FinnishModernArtatEMMAMuseum32 Honkatalot–TraditionalorModernEco-friendlyLiving38 ErlundHouse–Individual,WarmandHealthyLiving42 StylishPremises–EssentialPartofCorporateBranding48 Woodnotes–UniqueCharacteristicsofPaper54 UrbanLivingbyBoConcept60 BoknäsBuildsClassicFinnishFurniture66 PohjanmaanKalusteManufacturesQualityFinnishFurniture72 PunkalivesInnovativeFurnitureisGainingReputationAbroad78 VallilaInterior–Continuity,ReliabilityandConstantRenewal86 FamilonStrongPartofFinlaysonConcept94 CariittiIlluminatingtheWaytotheFuture100 Good-heartedHaviCandles106 NannaSusi–PassionandSoul-likeCruelty112 ReflectionsofNorthernNature118 Andiata126 It’sAllAbouttheFamily–IvanaHelsinki134 AnnikkiKarvinen:FinnishQualityClothesforPeopleatAllAges140 SustainableJewellerybyOfelia144 WoodJewel–StrongFaithinLocalMaterialsandMotifs150 Pyroll–Flexible,FairandForward158 LeadingtheWaytoInternationalMarkets162 CELindgrenFoundItsNiches166 CaviarFromtheTopoftheWorld172 Oversol–LightingtheWay176 NovoplastikOy–ContinuousImprovement,InnovativeMaterialSolutions180 M/SVikingGrace–aCompletelyNewKindofExperienceontheSea186 ChainCompetenceofSokosHotels194 SeinäjokiLeapsForward198 GuidanceforBecominganEnterpreneur200 FramiProvidesandActivates203 SouthOstrobothnia–aProvinceofUniqueness206 EntrepreneurshipfromSouthOstrobothnia

cont

ents

2 Business Finland 1/2012

3Business Finland 1/2012

WDC Helsinki started its year as World Design Capital 2012 (WDC),

together with the cities of Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen

and Lahti. The World Design Capital is an initiative of the

International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID).

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: WDC Helsinki

Finnish Design has raised our country at the edge of Europe to international awareness, to the world market, to fairs and museums."

The Finnish central govern-ment is strongly involved in the project. The Ministry of Education and Culture and

the Ministry of Employment and the Economy are providing joint financial support.

The Minister of Culture and Sport, Mr Paavo Arhinmäki, is responsible for

matters relating to culture, sports, youth, copyright and student financial aid. Arhinmäki says that design has played an important role in Finland.

“The post-war heroic tale of Finnish Design is virtually a myth already. Finnish Design has raised our country at the edge of Europe to international awareness, to the world market, to fairs and museums.

Some Finnish design objects have be-come symbols of Finnishness. They are our common cultural heritage and evoke personal memories and images.

“The classics are still going strong. Alongside them I would like to see new Finnish design emerge, exert influence more widely and bring income to Finn-ish designers. A better everyday life has

Success from Finland

culture & design

Business Finland 1/20124

always been the goal in our design.”In Arhinmäki’s view design is more

than beautiful objects. “The designer's input is needed to de-

velop material and immaterial products and services and to solve problems, such as the improvement of hospital services. The methods used in design are fit for many purposes.”

It is also important that the objects around us promote sustainable develop-ment and responsible culture:

“We have to conserve natural resourc-es and therefore produce high-quality, adaptable, durable and easily repaired object made from local and recyclable, preferably renewable, materials.”

Stronger SME efforts

Good design helps enterprises and the public sector to take better account of user (consumer) needs. There is much to do, still, says Arhinmäki.

“Design should be utilised more broadly, particularly by the SME sector. In the first national design policy pro-

gramme, which was prepared at the turn of the millennium, it was seen indispen-sable that SMEs use more designer ser-vices. We have excellent designers and producers (businesses), but unfortunate-ly these do not always meet.”

The participation of the central gov-ernment in the World Design Capital project is based on a Government reso-lution.

“The project of the City of Helsinki is important for the Government because it seeks to embed design into the devel-opment of people's living conditions, international interaction and economic progress. The aim is to step up the use of design in different walks of life.”

Do you think that the Design Capital year will increase the utilisation of design and improve the employment rate and livelihood of artists and other creative professionals?

“I have every reason to believe that the Design Capital year will leave a lasting mark on Finnish society and the everyday life of people living in Finland. Design is being used more widely and designers'

employment and income are improving. Finns get better services and products. Culture has a lead role in the construc-tion of society.” The subsidies allocated to culture must focus on helping create and distribute artistic and cultural content.

“We need to support cultural entre-preneurship and the creation of cultural jobs and promote cultural exports. The use of design is in everybody's interest, as well as an asset for us in improving Finn-ish competitiveness.”

Not only Helsinki

How has cities' work of 2012 been coor-dinated? (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Lahti, Kauniainen). What are the highlights in the program?

“The Ministry of Education and Cul-ture has worked in close cooperation with the Ministry of Employment and the Economy and other operators in pre-paring and monitoring the Government resolution on WDC funding. We aim to carry on this cooperation and to review the national design programme during

culture & design

Business Finland 1/2012 5

this year.”Paavo Arhinmäki believes that the

Design Capital year has a wide range of interesting events to offer.

“I find it interesting and relaxing to amble around in galleries and museums- I also really like the idea of bringing art – in this case design – to where people live.

Arhinmäki appreciates a variety of de-sign objects:

“My absolute favourite is Karhu run-ning shoes. Karhu Originals also weaved an interesting story around its history. I was once asked what I would bring to President Obama if I met him. My answer was: an Aalto stool and a Makia jacket.”

Design is not only objects. Architec-ture and public space count also much. “

The World Design Capital (WDC) designation is unique as it aims to focus on the broader essence of design’s impact on urban spaces, economies and citizens.

In the Design Capital application, Hel-sinki used the term Open Helsinki – Em-bedding Design in Life.

“Year by year, Helsinki is getting an ever more open and fun city. Lively

neighbourhood events have changed the atmosphere in Helsinki. The Restaurant Day, which is a one-day carnival, brings a new sense of belonging to people. I love street art and festivals.”

“There is much to do still. Helsinki must become still more cyclist-friendly. In the warm, light summer nights Helsin-ki has a particular flavour of its own. One of my favourite places is Pohjoisranta by the sea. I often leave my cycle leaning on the park bench and sit marvelling at the sun rising from the east and painting the skies pink behind sailing yachts.”

“I like old red-brick industrial build-ings. It is a pity that in their efficiency frenzy the decision-makers keep demol-ishing them to give way to a modern Hel-sinki. I don't think that every generation has to build Helsinki all over again. Old buildings must be protected and convert-ed to new uses”.

Culture brings tourists

Apart from our famous pure nature, what foreign tourist look for in our country is

culture. For many, culture and the Finn-ish way of life are the primary reason for coming here. Abroad our art and culture are largely known for design and archi-tecture. I have heard Finland praised as a brilliant design destination. Asian tour-ists are well-informed about our design and architecture and have a special affin-ity with Alvar Aalto.

During the Design Capital year, de-sign will naturally have a stronger role. For example, the New York Times had Helsinki on its list of the most interest-ing destinations in 2012. This year boasts an exceptionally rich range of events. De-sign is also a highlight in events outside the capital city. Design tourists coming to Helsinki often have a visit to Lapland in their itinerary. In Lapland, too, design is solidly in evidence. The strong design themes and unique culture in the North interest foreigners, as does the active and functional everyday life in natural condi-tions that vary from the deep darkness of the Arctic winter to the overabundant lush light of summer.

culture & design


Good design in not elitist

Is design sometimes too elitist? Finnish design has not been elitist. It has always had usability and functionality in mind, which is why it is central to everyday life. Do you think these features will prevail also today?

“Alvar Aalto stools and Fiskars axes need no explanation. They are everyday design. I think Finish design has kept its functional character, itis generally quite straightforward and practical.

“Two examples of this are the Karhu running shoes and the Makia coats I mentioned earlier. Our northern country needs practical design. Of course, we also have and need the other kind of design. But it is not for a minister to determine what content art has or should have.”

“One thing I would like to say is that

it would be nice if at least some Finnish design was accessible to all people, also the least affluent. This is why we need to invest in public art. The Government Programme contains a policy line to pro-mote the "one per cent into art" principle in construction.”

In Arhinmäki’s view architecture, art and design support each other.

“Design and art add the finishing touch-es to architecture. This is where the one-per-cent principle comes in, both in new construction and in renovation. We have some complete architectural works of art, such as Hvitträsk, the Parliament House and Mäntyniemi, in which architecture, de-sign and art form a superb whole.”

culture & design


Arhinmäki’s WDC favourites: Among the wealth of interesting events in the Design Year 2012 programme, Arhinäki has spottedand recommends the following three:

1. Design Your Own City and Urban Stage is a project conceived by the City of Helsinki Youth Department in which young people shape municipal properties, parks, local neighbourhoods and other places

of interest to them with their own creations using recycled materials. This allows young people in Helsinki to bring their own contribution to the development of their environment and to the planning and execution of plans.

2. Hands that draw the future, which is the centenary exhibition of the Finnish Association of Designers Ornamo, presents contemporary design and designers, as well as looking back at the history of design. At the heart is the designer, his or her skill and work. The objects

and designs are accompanied by interview material, which gives a voice and a face to the artist. There is also a series of events and discussions. The hands that draw the future are seen in the cityscape and as a satellite exhibition at Lasipalatsi square.

3. Shapeshift is a three-part thematic whole. The aim is to generate a critical social dialogue, bring together makers of art and the public, activate Helsinki residents and bring contemporary art to the public space.

www.wdchelsinki2012.fi

MinisterofCultureandSportPaavoArhinmäki

The Dynamic Legacy of Finnish ArchitectureThe Museum of Finnish Architecture will par-ticipate in the World Design Capital Year with the greatest possible scale of design.

As Helsinki celebrates the World Design Capital Year, there is one field of design which could too easily be bypassed: architecture.

That is the reason why the Museum of Finnish Architecture, situated in the cen-tre of Helsinki, in the Design District of Kaartinkaupunki, is proud to be crucially

involved in the WDC year.”We are glad that design is seen in a wider perspective, in which architecture is also included.

As you think of the scale of different kinds of design, architecture is the largest possible scale of design,” Juulia Kauste, the director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture says.

Text: Kalle HeinoPhotos: Museum of Finnish Architecture, Antti Luutonen/NRT, Nina Kellokoski

The current permanent exhibition takes the visitors on a journey into the Finnish architecture of the 20th century."

culture & design


For Professionals and Non-Professionals

The fundamental task of the Museum of Finnish Architecture is to collect and distribute knowledge about architecture and increase its understanding among the general public as well as experts.

Kauste explains that the museum wants to have different layers in its activ-ity – the museum has primarily been pro-ducing information for professionals, but now it also wants to pay more attention to non-professionals.

”Many people think that architecture is something difficult. But, we live our everyday lives surrounded by it and this fact is easy to forget.”

The museum concentrates on Finnish architecture in the 20th century, but also gathers information from the present ar-chitecture as well.

”It is positive to see that there are a large number of architects of young gen-erations from Finland who receive lots of international attention. Finnish architec-ture is known worldwide through the old masters, but it is more about a dynamic legacy that lives on in the architecture,” Kauste says.

EmbassyofFinland,Berlin,1999/Germany/VIIVAArchitectsPhoto:JussiTiainen

culture & design


Exhibitions Popular Abroad

The current permanent exhibition takes the visitors on a journey into the Finn-ish architecture of the 20th century. The development of the architecture can be seen, from national romanticism to clas-sicism and functionalism.

The international fame of Finnish ar-chitecture started in particular in the

1950s, when there was a period of re-building after the war.

Names such as Alvar Aalto gave a touch to Finnish architecture that still attracts professionals and architecture students from all over the world to make pilgrimages to Finland.

This is also one reason why the Mu-seum of Finnish Architecture takes many

WuxiGrandOpera,2011ChinaPESArchitects

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MuseumoftheHistoryofPolishJews,Warsaw,2012,PolandPhoto:Lahdelma&Mahlamäki

culture & design


exhibitions abroad – and why they are ex-tremely popular outside Finland.

”We have ca. 20 000 visitors annually – but, for example, 300 000 people saw our exhibitions abroad in 2010.”

Rethinking the City

At the present time, the two great ques-tions in Finnish architecture are sustain-ability and the possibilities for the future.

An Upcoming exhibition, Transforma-tion: Towards a sustainable future concen-trates on sustainability in Finnish small-scale residential building operations.

The exhibition is based on the fact that the home that a person chooses may be the most important ecological decision that they ever make. The built environ-ment has been calculated as accounting for up to 60 percent of climate changes.

Finland will attempt to achieve a sig-nificant reduction in emissions and en-ergy consumption with the new energy-

KildenPerformingArtsCentre,Kristiansand2011/Norway.Photo:ALAArchitects

KUMUArtMuseum,Tallinn2006Estonia/VapaavuoriArchitectsPhoto:JussiTiainen

EmbassyofFinland,Washington1994/USA.Photo:Heikkinen-KomonenArchitects

culture & design


Exchange of Ideas in WDC PavilionThecentralmeetingpointandthehubofWorldDesignCapitalHelsinki2012willbeapavilionwhichwillbeopenednexttotheMuseumofFinnishArchitectureinMay.

Thepavilionwillbeavenuefordiverseprogrammes,includingwork-shops,presentations,openforums,discussions,filmscreening,designfleemarketsandpicnicevents.

TheMuseumofFinnishArchitecturewillorganizetheArchilabForuminthepavilion.Archilabisaseriesofworkshops,paneldiscussionsandopenforumsforanexchangeofideasonthemesrelatedtosustainabil-ityandarchitecture.SomediscussionswillberelatedtoShorelinesandTransformation: Towards a sustainable futureexhibitions.

Exhibitions 2012

• Permanent:DecadesofFinnishArchitecture1900–1970

• 28 Mar – 27 MayShorelines–Urbanwaterfrontliving

• 6 Jun – 22 Jul FinnishArchitecture2010–2011

• 6 Jun – 30 SepTransformation:Towardsasustainablefuture

• 10 Oct – 25 NovSnøhetta:architecture–landscape–interior

• 4 Dec – 24 Feb 2013UnbuiltHelsinki

MuseumofFinnishArchitectureKasarmikatu24,HelsinkiOpenTue–Sun11am–6pm,Wed11am–8pmwww.mfa.fi

efficiency requirements that are taking effect this summer.

The exhibition provides fresh per-spectives and ideas on how a potential negative can be turned into a positive by changing our old ways of thinking. It delves into the changes that are going on in the climate, lifestyle and environment.

”In Helsinki, there is, for example, concern as to how to rethink the usage of old parts of the city, such as the old har-bour areas. Architecture gives answers to the questions that are raised by this con-cern,” Kauste explains.

”We want to show a diverse selection of options and give visitors a chance to make their own conclusions.”

Helsinki from Another Point of View

The Museum of Finnish Architecture has a large collection of drawings and photo-graphs, a number of models and an ex-tensive library.

”Reserch is a remarkable part of our museum,” Kauste says.

In December, the exhibition Unbuilt Helsinki will show how Helsinki would look like with all the unrealised projects. Unbuilt Helsinki is a research studio and model workshop based on findings from the archive and beyond.

Chosen projects include famous land-marks such as Stockmann, unrealised projects such as the planned motorway by Smith-Polvinen, and also projects that are completely unknown to the wider au-dience.

MerenkulkijaHousing,Lauttasaari,Helsinki.NRTArchitects2008.Photo:AnttiLuutonen/NRT

The Finnish Glass Museum Praises the Story of Finnish Glass Design

Text: Kalle HeinoPhotos: The Finnish Glass Museum

culture & design


The Finnish Glass Museum, situated in Riihimäki, an old glass manufacturing town lo-cated 70 kilometres north of

Helsinki, captures the entire 300 years of history of Finnish glass design, as well as the history of glass dating back 4 000 years.

At the moment, Finnish glass design is going through a change and the museum would like to tell the story behind this change.

”When Finnish glass designers emerged after the Second World War, the field of glass production was protected from exporting. Now, everything is glob-al, the designers are more educated and glass is mass produced. Small operators want to do something special that gives more value to glass designs. This has also provided the designers with an artistic freedom,” says curator Kaisa Koivisto.

For the Finnish Glass Museum, living through this change means that it wants to provide every visitor with something that can be thought about.

”People are interested in stories about glass. The visitors will find something that is connected to their life,” Koivisto says.

”During the 1950s, Finland was recov-ering from the war and there was space for special design. This started to make Finnish glass design known worldwide.”

Space for Special Designs

This year, there will be several exhibitions which will provide this particular feel-ing of emphasis. For example, the work of Erkkitapio Siiroinen (1944–1996), a young promising name at the past Rii-himäki Glassworks, is currently being shown in the museum.

Siiroinen began his work with glass as a factory clerk in 1963 and, at the same time, began his studies in industrial de-sign at the Institute of Industrial Art in Helsinki. Alongside his studies, Siiroinen began to design for Riihimäki Glass-works, with a philosophical background for his work.

The museum collection was then based on 500 objects and artefacts collected by the students of the Häme Province Student Corporation."

NannyStill:Harlekiini,RiihimäenLasi1958

culture & design


Museumdesignvitrine,glassfromtheendof1950's.InkeriToikka,KajFranck,NannyStill,KajFranck,TapioWirkkala,HelenaTynell

Riihimäki and the History of Glass

As the exhibition of Erkkitapio Siiroinen proves, the Finnish Glass Museum is in Riihimäki for a reason, since Riihimäki has a long tradition of glass production.

The old Riihimäki Glassworks began its operation in 1910, but was shut down

in 1990. The Finnish Glass Museum was established in Riihimäki in 1961. The museum collection was then based on 500 objects and artefacts collected by the students of the Häme Province Student Corporation.

At the beginning, the museum oper-ated in a villa in the centre of Riihimäki, but moved into its present building in

1980. The museum facility was originally built as a ground peat mill in 1914, but in 1921, the Riihimäki Glassworks company converted the building into a glassworks.

Prior to the museum, the facility also served as a plastics factory and silk-screen-printing plant, and most recently, for the crystal polishing department of the Riihimäki Glassworks.

culture & design


Riihimäki Glass Is Sought After

TheFinnishGlassMuseumislocatedclosetotheoldRiihimäkiGlassworks,whichbecamefamouswiththeproductionofitshighqualityglassornaments.

Theglassworkswereclosedin1990,butthemanufacturingoftheartglasswasalreadyhaltedin1976andafterthat,thefactorymadeonlyglassandplasticpackaging.ThismeansthatRiihimäkiglassisnowsoughtafterascol-lectibles,especially.someoftheirvases.

Theproductsareavailableviasomeofthecollectors’websites.TheFriendsoftheFinnishGlassMuseumassociationorganizesaGlassDayeveryyear,anannualmeetingforcollectorsofglass,usuallyheldattheendofJanuaryattheFinnishGlassMuseum.OntheGlassDay,themembersoftheassociationselloldandnewglassandexpertsidentifyglassobjects.

TheassociationalsoorganizestheCollectors’EventandGlassMarketinJune.Attheevent,dozensofsalesstandsaresetoutsidethemuseumandmainlyfilledwithFinnishglass.

”Someoftheglassitemsthataresoldattheeventevenendupinthemu-seumcollections,”curatoroftheFinnishGlassMuseum,Kaisa Koivistosays.

The Collectors’ Event and Glass Market, 9 June at 10am–3pm, outside the Finn-ish Glass Museum

Retro and Environment ConsideredWith 20 000–30 000 annual visitors, the Finnish Glass Museum has its high sea-son in the summer. The typical visitor might be a middle-aged, but retro is one of the keywords today, and this also at-tracts a large amount of young people to the museum.

The other keyword is the question of the environment. During this spring, there has been an exhibition of the glass design-er Jukka Isotalo, who makes designs from recycled glass. Isotalo makes his utility objects and works of sculpture by grind-ing and polishing such foreign glass bottles that are not refilled in Finland.

Isotalo wants to contribute in his own small way to mankind still having the op-portunity to wonder at its own existence, even in the future.

TapioWirkkala:Kantarelli,Iittala1946 ErkkitapioSiiroinen:Pilvilinna,RiihimäenLasi1970-1975

Museumdesignvitrine,glassfromtheendof1950's.InkeriToikka,KajFranck,NannyStill,KajFranck,TapioWirkkala,HelenaTynell

culture & design


HelenaTynell:Sunbottle,RiihimäenLasi1963

Exhibitions 2012

• 17 Feb – 20 MayGralglasDürnau–GermanGlassDesign1930–1981

• 17 Feb – 20 MayErkkitapioSiiroinen–AYoungPromisingNameattheRiihimäkiGlassworks

• 17 Feb – 1 AprGlassDesignerJukkaIsotalo–De-signfromRecycledGlass

• 4 May – 1 JulGlassArtistAnuPenttinen

• 1 Jun – 23 SepGlassetc.

• 1 Jun – 23 Sep”Glassism”–StudoGlassArtistsfromRiihimäki

• 5 Oct – 30 DecGlassArtistTuijaSarantila

• 2 Nov – 30 DecAnaThiel–MexicanGlassArt

• 2 Nov – 30 DecGlassArtistSusanneKoskimäki

”The best thing with glass is that it can be recycled again forever. But melting glass takes a huge amount of energy and glass is a heavy material, so to be ecologi-cal, glass must be produced close by and long transportations should be avoided. This is the reason why Finnish designers respect that their designs are produced in Finland,” Koivisto says.

A Special World for the Designers

There is another interesting detail in Finnish glass design. Many of the most famous designers, including Kaj Franck, Timo Sarpaneva, Nanny Still and Tapio Wirkkala, designed in other areas other than glass, but made large contributions in the glass design.

”Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer designers who specialize in only one ma-terial,” Koivisto says. ”But glass is a fas-cinating material, which makes it a spe-cial world for the designers. Though the design process is similar, glass cannot be compared to any other material.”

Alma-Jantunen:Bonsai,2008

culture & design


Hyttikortteli Keeps Up the Traditions

HyttikortteliislessthanakilometreawayfromtheFinnishGlassMuseum.Thehousingareawasbuiltforglassworkersinthe1910s.Thehousesarenowprivatehomes,buttheareahasbeensoughttocreatealivingdistrictforart-istsandcraftspeople.

Atthemoment,glassblowerPekka PaunilarunshisglassblowingstudioandshopinHyttikortteli.Matti Okkolin’scrystalpolishingcompanyisalsocloseby.

IntheoldpremisesofRiihimäkiGlassworks,thereisnowanewgenerationofentrepreneurs,suchasGlassismCoopandVerstakkoCoop.

These famous Finnish designers are presented in the exhibition Glass etc., opening in June. The exhibition focuses on new work in glass, mainly from the period after 1990.

The designers have been chosen on the basis of their work in glass, although their other work – including textiles, fur-niture and ceramics – will also be shown in the exhibition.

This exhibition will also be a flavour of the Finnish Glass Museum for the World Design Capital Year, celebrated in Hel-sinki.

The Finnish Glass MuseumTehtaankatu 23, RiihimäkiOpen Tue–Sun 10am–6pm

www.finnishglassmuseum.fi

HelenaTynell:Sunbottle,RiihimäenLasi1963

JohannesRantasalo:HornMachina,Balkanoffroad

CamillaMoberg:Bamboo,2006

TimoSarpaneva:i-lasit,Iittala1956


Newly Emerging Olympic Stadium Spirit

There is a strong commitment to renew Helsin-ki’s functionalist Olympic Stadium. “One of best-known landmarks in Helsinki will be a gorgeous renewed multi-functional mega arena by the year 2018, says Maija Innanen, managing director of the Stadium Foundation.

The Olympic Stadium is a national monument. Hel-sinki Olympic Games were held in this marvelous functionalist style venue in 1952. For decades the “Stadion” – Stadium in Finnish - has been a place

to arrange some of Finland’s largest sports events, and more recently, pop and rock concerts.

However, at the same time the condition of this large arena does not correspond to future standards.

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Stadium Foundation

MaijaInnanen,ManagingDirectoroftheStadiumFoundation.


“Even to cope with today’s challenges is not easy. It has been estimated that the operating age of Olympic Stadium in recent condition is only 5-10 years,” tells Maija Innanen.

“Our mission is that the renewed Olympic Stadium would be Finland’s most important arena for mega-events as well as a meeting point for sports, cul-ture, entertainment and tourism.“

“The stadium could also act as a home base for several sports associations and organizations. A special Olympic coach-ing center could be built in connections of the stadium. The pleasant Olympic Park would surround the stadium.”

Maija Innanen says that at the mo-ment these goals are still visions – no actual decisions on funding have been made – but general plan is made and ex-penses estimated.

Stadium Foundation’s Future Project of Olympic Stadium was launched in spring 2009. Results of the future project were announced in the beginning of Feb-ruary this year.

“The large condition survey linked to the future work concretized the situation clearly. The precast concrete structures un-der spectator seats are quite good, but else-where at the stadium there is much to do.”

Several new entrances should be con-structed and old structures thus demol-ished in some parts of the stadium.

“Most of the basic structures will re-main, and the outer appearance of the stadium does not change.”

In all likelihood the stadium’s specta-tor parts will be covered, but not the ac-tual sports field, as stated in the report.

“To cover the whole stadium would require quite advanced and expensive technology. But the roof above stadium’s spectator part would protect to building, and ensure that spectators in large events would not have to suffer from rainy weather.”

At the moment 14 000 seat are cov-ered. It would cost about 26 million euros to cover the rest of the seats. The actual field level was renovated in 2010, and is in relatively good condition.

Functionalism prevails

Maija Innanen emphasizes that the over-all architectural form will change only minimally:

“The building was safeguarded in the Building Protection Act in 2006, so vis-ible changes are small. The outer appear-ance will be almost 100 percent the same.

The northern entrance will be rebuilt, or at least the flow of people will be di-rected also from the north.”

“Today there is too much pressure only from the southern entrance. Also, the site around the stadium is quite small nowadays. With bigger plot it would be easier to handle masses of people enter-ing or leaving the stadium.”

“In the future project proposal the site around the stadium would be enlarged. There is even an idea to create an Olym-pic Park. The Swimming Stadium is just next to the Olympic Stadium and is in use in the summertime.”

There could be a separate Sports In-stitute on the north or south side of the stadium. The gross floor space for the in-stitute was estimated at 3500 m2.

The famous Stadion Hostel will move away, but the city of Helsinki has prom-ised that new premises will be found to the hostel.

Underground space

In the future project proposal underground construction plays an important role.

“When it comes to inner parts and underground construction, this project is not renovation, but a total renewal.”

Our mission is that the renewed Olympic Stadium would be Finland’s most important arena for mega-events as well as a meeting point for sports, culture, entertainment and tourism.“

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Olympic Stadium premises today are about 20 000 square meters. There will be almost twice as much space measured in gross square meters, if the plan realizes.

After renovation and new spaces the stadium could offer 36 160 gross meters.

Restaurant, catering, sales and other service spaces would be enlarged. Tech-nical spaces, logistics field and ware-houses would be increased by more than 10 000 m2.

There could be as much as 6500 m2 of space to be let, envisages the report.

Media would get premises 1200 m2. There will be new office and museum space. (See the adjoining article for Sports Museum).

Many premises will be built for multi-purpose uses.

“For example gym rooms can be changed to meeting facilities, or vice ver-sa,” says Maija Innanen.

HVAC technology and electric wires should be renewed. New elevators are needed.

Sound reinforcement system and lighting solutions should be improved.

By the year 2017 the main part of the construction would be carried out.

Benchmarking with Berlin

The Stadium Foundation has been study-ing other projects to find new ideas and solutions to be utilized in Helsinki.

“The main benchmark stadium has been the Berlin Olympic stadium, which

is from the same period. It became ready in 1936 and the Helsinki stadium was fin-ished in 1938.”

In Berlin only the basic structure was saved from the old Olympic stadium.

“We have also visited Munich Olympic Park. Of the new arenas, we took ideas from Allianz Arena, but the concept there is different. Football is so big business in Germany, while in Finland it is only na-tional teams that use the Olympic stadium.

In Stockholm Swedbank arena is tak-

To cover the whole stadium would require quite advanced and expensive technology.“

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ing shape and will be finished in the sum-mer 2012. The arena in Solna, near Stock-holm, is a football arena first of all.

“Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium does not fulfill all UEFA norms. After the renova-tion we would not hopefully need some special arrangements for approval.”

Urgent decisions needed

Even in Finnish Government Program it is stated that “The nature of the renova-tion of the Olympic Stadium as a national project will be taken into account in its funding”.

The estimated price for the renewal would be 197 million euros (without value-added taxes). The state would be paid half and the city half. Maija Innanen hopes for quick decisions from the City of Helsinki as well as from the Finnish government.

“The main purpose of the stadium-foundation is the development of the stadium building and events in all forms. The City of Helsinki, Ministry of Educa-tion and the essential sport organizations are represented in the administration of the foundation.” Olympic Stadium’s at-traction arises from the interesting sports activities and inspiring events.

The new stadium can house 35 000 spectators. The recent number is 39 000.

“There are average 15-20 mega events per year. This summer we will have Bruce Springsteen and Madonna concerts” says Maija Innanen.

In June-July European Athletics Championships 2012 will be arranged at

the Olympic Stadium, and two football World Cup qualifications add to sports mega events.

Stadium history

The Olympic stadium is administered and managed by the Stadium-foundation. The Stadium-foundation was set up in December 1927. The key role in founda-tion was played by essential sport organi-sations, the city of Helsinki and at a later stage the government of Finland.

The most important objective of the parties was to have such a stadium built into Helsinki, so that the city could apply for the summer Olympics. The great functionalist style stadium was designed by arhcitects Yrjö Lindegren and Toivo Jäntti.

Finally Helsinki got the 1940 Olympic games, which, however, were cancelled due to the war in Europe. Fundrais-ing was difficult after the World War II, but citizens gave private donations and the state and many companies also par-ticipated to finish the stadium and other sports venues.

In 1952 the Helsinki Olympic Games were finally arranged. Stadium was a symbol for reconstruction after the Sec-ond World War – the games showed also the unity and determination of Finnish people.

Let’s us hope that also the government of Finland and the city government now have the “Stadium Spirit so that the great venue would be ready for future chal-lenges!

www.stadion.fi

MarjuPaju,MarketingDirector


I believe that sports museum is exceptional even worldwide. Th e Sports Museum off ers its customers information, experiences and entertainment," says Pekka Honkanen, Director of Sports Museum.

PekkaHonkanen,DirectorofSportsMuseum


The Sports Museum of Finland

The Sports Museum Foundation of Finland consists of three units: the Sports Museum, the Sports Archives and the Sports Library.

The Sports Museum is a national specialized museum dedicated to the preservation, re-search and putting on display items relating to the history of sports and physical culture in Finland.

In addition to museum there is an archive and library under the same roof.

“The Sports Library of Finland is a spe-cial research library open for everyone. Ar-chives are large. For example, we have some 300 000 photographs. We started digitiza-tion process three years ago, and now we can manage 8000-10 000 photos a year. It is not even necessary to digitize all the photos,” says Honkanen.

An interesting part of the museum is the object database, which currently contains data and pictures of about 250 objects. These are divided into two main sections: Helsinki 1940 (the original year for Olympics, which were cancelled due to the war) and Helsinki 1952 (when Olympics finally took place).

“We belong to Olympic Museums net-work, which has 13 members. We get ideas in discussions with other museums.”

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Sini Pennanen, Urheilumuseo

culture & design


Online and other visitors

Pekka Honkanen tells that the museum webpage has 50 000 separate visitors every year and the amount is increasing.

“Quite many are particularly inter-ested in object database. Most of these web visits are from Sweden, the USA and Russia.”

Th e actual museum building is visited by about 23 000 people each year.

“Th ey mostly come in the summer time, especially in May-August. Th e share of foreigners in the museum is 20-25 percent, a fi gure somewhat higher than an average in Helsinki museums,” notes Pekka Honkanen.

Th e most visible part for sports muse-um visitors is the permanent exhibition. Th e texts of the permanent exhibition are available in Finnish, Swedish and English. Th e permanent exhibition is divided into two parts. Th e downstairs section con-centrates on the history of Finnish sports, while the upstairs area is dedicated to the Olympic Games. Th e Virtual Virén run-ning simulator is also found on the sec-ond fl oor.( Lasse Virén won four Olympic gold medals in 1972-76)

“Th e museum also produces every year 3-4 special exhibitions. We have educational lectures and programs in the museum premises.”

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The museum publishes several books each year. During 2012 five books will be published.

“We get income also from selling our information services, which produces texts and statistics for books, magazines and other publications. For the media the Information Service offers a wide range of historical and up-to-date background.”

New space

The Sports Museum of Finland forms a kind of west wing to the stadium. In the future the museum will have some new space, mainly underground, in connec-tion of the Olympic stadium renewal by the year 2018.

“The recent premises are 2000 gross square meters. More than 1000 m2 would be added, if the renewal plan is approved,” says Honkanen.

The permanent exhibition will remain more or less the same.

“We have more than 500 m2 in use. The changing special exhibitions would get more space, about 200 m2 extra space would be built, if the plan realizes.”

Enlarged lecture hall as well as new education rooms are also in the initial plan. The new warehousing space would comprise 400 m2.

www.urheilumuseo.fi

EMMAFinnish Modern Art at

Museum

The Espoo Museum of Modern Art, EMMA, is among the largest art museums in Finland. EMMA is the only Finnish museum where a visitor can view a wide range of Finnish and international contem-porary and 20th century art.

Th e EMMA museum exhibits many types of art forms, from paintings to videos and sculptures."

Text: Nina GarloPhotos: EMMA

EMMA displays both its own permanent collection and changing exhibits. EMMA’s collection consists of the art

collection of the Saastamoinen foun-dation, which has been deposited to EMMA. In the permanent collection, the galleries are presented decade by decade and by walking through the galleries, a visitor gets a glimpse of how Finnish classical modernism has developed throughout the century. “Our permanent collections are more about the history of modernism and they consist mainly of Finnish art. Our changing exhibits are often interna-tional and represent both art forms: modernism and contemporary art. They work together to illustrate to the visitor how art has transformed during the 20th century.” Hannele Savelainen, a researcher in EMMA, tells.

The EMMA museum exhibits many

types of art forms, from paintings to videos and sculptures. Inka Laine, exhi-bitions curator at EMMA, tells that the museum possesses the special equip-ment and the space needed to accom-modate multimedia art.

EMMA’s foundation is to manage their collections professionally and they aim to maintain the cultural heritage by making sure that the art is well preserved.

“We aim to be ecological when and where we can. We are carrying out extra steps to ensure that the art that we have is well taken care of and that it will last for generations to come. All of the preserva-tion material that we use is environmen-tally friendly. Our gallery space is very open and we have movable walls where we display our art, we try to use the same walls in different exhibitions and instead of throwing them away, we recycle and shape them to suit the needs for our next exhibition,” informs Hannele Savelainen.

PilviKalhama,Director

EMMA

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EMMA’s art collections

Th e art that is displayed in EMMA con-sists of the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection. Art from EMMA’s own col-lection is not displayed in the museum, but it is located in city offi ces, institutions and outdoor areas. Th e remainder of EM-MA’s collection is stored away. EMMA’s own collection compromises some 2 500 art works. Th e collection was set in mo-tion during the 1950s, when the Espoo Primary School Board and the national Art for Schools -project began to col-lect art for schools. Before EMMA was opened in 2006, the art works were on show in the Otso-galleria.

Th e art collection of the Saastamoinen foundation was established by an industri-alist family in Kuopio, who at fi rst acquired a few paintings for their home collec-tion. Th e collection now consists of 2 000 works and presents a broad cross-section of Finnish painting. Although most of the art is Finnish, some of the Saastamoinen collection is international art.

“When EMMA was opened fi ve years ago, we received the art collection of the Saastamoinen foundation, in addition to our own. Th e art collection of the Saas-tamoinen foundation is one of the most remarkable art collections in Finland and

it really adds depth to the EMMA-muse-um. Art foundations usually have more capital to buy art and they can aff ord to obtain international art,” Hannele Save-lainen notes.

EMMA displays 400-500 art works from its permanent collection. At the moment, the Saastamoinen collection has its own two changing exhibits: one exhibition is themed Red and the other is an exhibition from the Finnish artist, Juhani Harri. For the Red exhibition, the starting point for the collection has been

colour and it presents the scale of the col-our red in selectively shown modern and contemporary sections. Juhani Harri’s exhibit is called the World in a Box, and it displays everyday objects from life and nature that have been transformed and given a new life.

Of EMMA’s exhibition space, half is dedicated to changing exhibits. Tiina Penttilä, exhibition assistant, explains that the exhibits are often international and they are borrowed from other muse-ums, private owners or from the artists.

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“We borrow art from other museums and other museums borrow art from us. Th e art is moving and we are glad that it does,” Tiina Penttilä mentions. Changing exhibits are often displayed for a period of three months, although it takes years of work to put them together.

Th e EMMA museum has chang-ing exhibits from all over the world and Hannele Savelainen states that it is an important aspect of the museum’s work to maintain good international relations. Foreign museums have been interested in having exhibitions from the EMMA museum, but Hannele Savelainen men-tions that the museum does not have the resources at the moment to arrange ex-hibits abroad.

Funding

EMMA receives around 80 percent of its funding from the City of Espoo. Th e re-mainder of the funds come from the gov-ernment, ticket and shop sales and from sponsors. EMMA does not receive any funds from diff erent art foundations, al-though they are working closely together with the Saastamoinen foundation.

EMMA has four sponsors at the mo-ment. EMMA’s sponsors either give them funds or support EMMA’s activities in another way, for example, by giving ad-vertising space. For the sponsors, EMMA off ers publicity, tickets, promotional op-portunities and events. “We are working this year in exceptionally large coop-eration with BMW Finland, which will brings six BMW art cars to Finland and we at EMMA will organise the exhibition. Our collaboration works at every level, from marketing to actual events,” Leena Joutsenniemi, EMMA’s communications manager, tells.

Th e recession has had an impact on government funding. “Sponsors have been less interested in supporting art due to the recession,” Leena Joutsenniemi adds. EMMA’s situation is very stable however. Whereas other museums have been laying off their staff , EMMA has made many jobs permanent.

Helsinki World Design Capital 2012

Th e EMMA museum and Wee Gee exhi-bition centre host together three design exhibits relating to the Helsinki World Design Capital 2012 -project. “From July to September, we have an exhibition on Nordic design. Th e collection comes from the Röhsska Museum in Gothen-burg, Sweden. Th e exhibit contains award winning designs from several Nordic art-ists and designers. All kinds of art forms are represented. We have a Finnish de-signer, Harri Koskinen, whose design is part of the Röhsska Museum collection and who will add some more of his works to our exhibit,” EMMA’s exhibitions cu-rator, Inka Laine, informs. Th e exhibit displays, for example, fashion, furniture, lamps and glass. Th rough the diff erent objects, the exhibit attempts to study in which way the Nordic design identity is transforming.

In addition to Nordic design, the EMMA museum will present a BMW Art Cars exhibition from September to October. BMW has produced completely unique design cars from 1975, which fa-mous artist have been able to use as their canvas. Artists who have added their touch to the unique cars are, for exam-ple, Alexander Calder and Andy Warhol. Tiina Penttilä explains that the collection tours around the world are taking part in diff erent design events and will arrives in Finland from the London Olympics.

“Th e WeeGee -centre is the central

location where the WDC activities of the City of Espoo mainly concentrate. In ad-dition to EMMA’s exhibitions, the Futuro –house (acquired by the WeeGee Exhibi-tion Centre) will permanently move to our yard in May and the City of Espoo has opened a space in the centre where Espoo will display its urban development design projects,” Leena Joutsenniemi adds.

WeeGee exhibition centre

Th e EMMA museum is located in the WeeGee exhibition centre in Tapi-ola, Espoo, on the south coast of Fin-land. Th e museum is occupying the old Weilin&Göös printing house, designed by the Finnish architect Aarno Ruusu-vuori. “Many visitors come to the mu-seum for purely architectural reasons,” tells Inka Laine. Th e history of the build-ing can be seen when walking through the museum: the exhibition space is very wide, the windows are large and airy; and large heavy pillars support the roof. EMMA’s exhibition area measures 5 000 square meters and it is one of the largest in Finland. Th e WeeGee exhibition centre as a whole consists of other museums and galleries, of which EMMA is the biggest.

Th e EMMA museum arranges guided tours and other events. Tickets are 10eu-ros per person, 8 euros when in a group. Free admission for people under 18 and over 70. Additional information can be found from their webpage:

www.emma.museum/en.

Every house is unique and planned and produced in our modern factory in Töysä, located in Central Finland."

Honkatalot

– Traditional or Modern Eco-friendly Living

As a family-owned business, Honkatalot has a long tra-dition in the Finnish wood-processing industry. For over a century, the company has taken pride in offering families environmentally sustainable log houses and wooden homes that are always manufactured with the highest quality of craftsmanship.

The product selection of Honkatalot is the largest in Finland. The company pro-duces log homes, green-built

wooden homes as well as post and beam constructions – also known as timber frame structures, especially outside the North American market.

- Honkatalot manufactures both log and frame construction homes – these solutions are interrelated and provide in that way an advantage to the company. Traditionally it is thought that log houses and frame construction houses are dif-ferent products, but thanks to our exist-ing production technology we are able to

manufacture all models with all construc-tional solutions, says CEO Honkatalot Harri Vainionpää.

With roots of the company laid al-ready in 1907, when the first saw-mill was established and the first log home be-longing to the family company was built, Honkatalot has flourished into an inter-

Text: Nina GarloPhotos: Honkatalot

Harri Vainionpää, CEOHonkatalot

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national company recognized world-wide. In addition to domestic sales, the most extensive markets of Honkatalot are Central Europe and Japan. Furthermore, the company has also entered the sales markets of the United States as well as promising Russia.

- Export has always formed an integral part of our business. Currently nearly 75 % of our production is exported. As a company we focus, in particularly, on carrying out architecturally and techni-cally highly demanding individual build-ing projects, says Mr. Vainionpää.

-Every house is unique and planned and produced in our modern factory in Töysä, located in Central Finland. We use the most modern wood processing technology available which ensures the quality of each house down to every lit-tle detail.

Although competition can be intense, in particularly, in the export market, Mr. Vainionpää notes that using northern high-quality wood raw material is one key factor that gives the company a clear competitive edge over its many rivals.

Building trend going “green”

Recent studies show that log homes and timber frame properties may have the lowest carbon footprint of any other kind of development. A carbon footprint is the measurement of carbon dioxide launched as an end result of employing a certain item or activity. Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas released into the environment and a significant contribu-tor to global warming.

One report prepared by the Edin-burgh Center for Carbon Management

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(ECCM) shows that there could be up to an 88% reduction of greenhouse gases by replacing steel and concreted structural elements with those made out of log or timber. The study also indicates that the power consumed to approach a tree into a finished sawn timber is about a single-tenth of steel production.

There is a clear, globally recognized up-ward trend in the use of wood as a build-ing material, says Mr. Vainionpää. This is not only due to its ecological qualities, but also because wood, as a natural building material, provides a safe environment for

Using wood as a raw material for building homes is an ecological and environmentally friendly choice."

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families and generations to live in.- Using wood as a raw material for

building homes is an ecological and en-vironmentally friendly choice. There is a general trend towards favoring sustain-able development and the use of renewa-ble resources, such as wood. Using wood as a building material is becoming in-creasingly familiar also in many countries where stone construction has prevailed for decades.

According to Mr. Vainionpää, wood "breathes", unlike other building materi-als. A breathable wall structure of a log home provides a healthy indoor climate

that can have a positive influence on vari-ous allergy and skin problems.

- When you want clean fresh air in your home or if you suffer from aller-gies or asthma, the best health-conscious option for you is a home built of wood. Central Europe and parts of Scandinavia, home construction has shifted to build-ing homes with no plastic or artificial ele-ments. This is the way to attain a natural and healthy style of living.

Mr. Vainionpää estimates that the manufacturing process of a log house binds an average of 150 tons of carbon di-oxide from the atmosphere. A well main-

tained log house may last for centuries and at the end of its long life cycle, wood is still useful as a recyclable material. A stone, brick or concrete house, however, releases an equivalent amount of green-house gases already during the manufac-turing process.

When it comes to future growth expectations, Mr. Vainionpää sees the strongest growth coming from Fin-land’s Eastern neighbor Russia where green values and energy considerations are continuing to spread among many home buyers.

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When you want clean fresh air in your home or if you suffer from allergies or asthma, the best health-conscious option for you is a home built of wood."

- Our growth prospects look good both in the domestic market as well as in our export markets. Russian markets have evolved over the years and there we still see the biggest growth poten-tial for us. Although high customs du-ties on exports has slowed down some growth in the past, Russia’s fresh mem-bership in the World Trade Organiza-tion (WTO) will undoubtedly facilitate the future situation.

www.honkatalot.fi


Erlund House

– Individual, Warm and Healthy LivingText: Michael NaglerPhotos: Erlund House

Based in Mellilä, southern Finland, Erlund House has manufactured prefabricated log houses with its unique patented wall system since 1993. ”Such a building is three times more energy efficient than an equiv-alent laminated log house,” says Er-lund House's CEO Timo Erlund.


Since 1978 Erlund House has constructed and exported high quality log houses around the world. Indeed, foreign markets

have always been a cornerstone of the company's activity. ”Over 90 per cent of our production is geared towards ex-ports. Half of this goes to Germany, but we also do business with Central Europe, China and Japan, among others,” says Mr. Erlund. Being the company's largest ex-

port market, Germany has always been important for Erlund House. ”We have operated there since 1978. The reunifica-tion in 1990 expanded the German mar-ket, which was naturally good for us.”

In 2005 the company gained promi-nence in the UK when it was featured in an episode of Grand Designs, a British television series which features unusual and elaborate architectural homebuilding projects. Erlund House is so far the only

Nordic manufacturer of detached houses to have been featured in the series. ”It was a fun experience, seeing profession-als working up close. Their camera crew was in Finland for a few days. They were friendly and took great pains to be impar-tial, going so far as to pay for the petrol at the petrol station. The programme also opened up the British market for us.”

All in all, Erlund House has built log houses in over 30 countries. Noteworthy examples include a convent in Belgium, a school in England, several churches and a hospital in Germany, as well as an Er-lund log house in West Boldon, England that was nominated the most ecological building in England in 2009.

Unique patented wall system

Behind the company's success is its unique patented wall system. In 1993 Er-lund House developed a new thermally efficient and natural log wall structure. Although such a technique remains faith-ful to the old log building traditions of

Finland, it also enabled the company to meet Germany's stricter thermal

insulation regulations. The new wall system soon became popular.

”An Erlund log house is an incredibly warm building with

excellent thermal insulation values. This is thanks to

the wall structure, which

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consists of a tight double tongue and groove log wall, which in turn is pro-tected by an external panelled wall from heart sawn spruce panels. Between them is ekovilla (eco wool) insulation, which is made from recycled paper. This cre-ates a totally natural breathable log wall structure,” says Mr. Erlund. ”As a result less wood is used in construction, which also leads to the building being consider-ably cheaper. Also, since the structure is very sturdy and can withstand all sorts of weather, the building requires less renovation than usual and has a very long lifespan. All of this combines to contrib-ute to a very small carbon footprint.”

Erlund House's wall system has also proven to be healthy for the inhabitants of an Erlund log house. Moisture is un-able to form in the structure because the inner wall is thicker and denser than the external panelled wall. Therefore haz-ardous mold is prevented and the room air stays fresh. In a 2010 customer sur-vey commissioned by Erlund House it was revealed that a significant number of people who had moved into an Erlund log house had experienced a marked im-provement to their health. ”Over 20 per cent of all respondents said that their health had improved significantly after moving in. And we didn't ask whether they were ill or healthy, so you can imag-

ine how many ill people had gotten bet-ter,” says Mr. Erlund.

In addition to the aforementioned ecological, energy and health factors, it must also be said that log houses in gen-eral are visually and aesthetically pleas-ing. Although the general imagination might think that they are mostly suited for the countryside, such buildings are also very well suited for an urban envi-ronment. In that sense log houses also contribute to urban renewal.

Use of private wood

Erlund House is dedicated to the custom-ers and their wishes. Because of this the customers can provide input and influence the shape and form of the desired building. Each building is tailor-made according to the customer's needs and wishes. On its website the company provides models of one- and two-story detached buildings, ranging in size from 55m² to 136m². These are not strict limits, however. Rather, they

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are guidelines meant to assist the custom-er in the design of the desired house.

In addition to contributing to the de-sign, the customers can also provide their own wood for the construction. This is common practice for Erlund House, but the great Boxing Day winter storm of 2011 increased demand tremendously. Suddenly forest owners found themselves saddled with an immense amount of fallen trees. ”We were very much affected by the storm. Since Boxing Day we have re-

ceived over 200 orders. In this situation our automated production line gives us an advantage over our competitors,” says Mr. Erlund. According to him, it is more advantageous for private forest owners to provide the wood to Erlund House and have their houses built from that than to sell the wood to a forestry company. ”Even if you make 100,000 euros, you end up paying half of it in taxes, whereas if you subcontract us to manufacture a building from your wood you could save up to 80

per cent. We also benefit by saving storage expenses. In general, if you own forest, you should construct from your own wood.”

That Erlund House constructs houses from naturally fallen wood due to the Boxing Day storm episode also show-cases a particular trait in Finnish forestry and wood construction. Though the for-ests have always been an important part of the Finnish economy, or perhaps be-cause of it, the country is free from the bane of excessive logging that plagues many other parts of the world and results in environmental destruction. Great care has always been taken in ensuring that forestry does not spoil the clean and pris-tine environment for which Finland is re-nowned around the world. Erlund House contributes to this by purchasing their wood solely from private forest owners.

Future prospects

In the end, Tomi Erlund is confident about the future of the log house mar-ket. He sees great potential in its eco-logical aspects. ”A log house is very environmentally friendly. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, and wood is a renew-able resource, after all. With rising fuel costs, people will be looking more and more towards ways to save energy and resources. In that regard, the ekovilla insulation in an Erlund log house is like none other,” Mr. Erlund says.

www.erlund-house.fi


Stylish Premises - Essential Part of Corporate Branding

HeiniLehtoNooraKunttu


Kehrä Interior helps its customers in the areas from individual interior decoration challenges to large turnkey projects. The small interior decoration office has gained reputation and won both domestic and international customers.

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Sini Pennanen, Kehrä Interior

Kehrä Interior is a Helsinki-based interior decoration office, which has made tens of Finnish and international projects.

“When needed, the complete deco-rating services are available from the same address,” says Heini Lehto, the Managing Director and one of the two founding partners of Kehrä Interior.

“Customers are thus served efficiently. When a space needs a new appearance, we draw designs and implement them according to customers’ wishes. We make interior planning for homes, offices and public spaces.”

When doing the interior plan, Kehrä takes into account customers’ existing brands. “We can even help them create a new one, or reshape the existing one. With our help, the customer can concentrate on his or her core business.

“We want to offer services that give added value to customers. We sometimes call this a surplus service.”

“Naturally it is of no use to try to do everything by ourselves. We have a good network of specialists with whom we cooperate.”

Stylish premises and much more

Kehrä Interior has a strong expertise also in graphic designs.

“We do these designs by ourselves or in coopera-tion with an advertising agency.

However, we do not do advertising campaigns.”“We have also designed fair booths. It is quite

natural to do these kinds of projects, but certainly in these cases we would like customers to be ready to accept some different, high-quality solutions,” says Heini Lehto.

“Our focus is still in making interior decoration plans for different premises. More and more, compa-nies in the fields of heavy industry and logistics also want to invest in stylish premises. For the tow truck company Hinaus Sjöberg Oy, we designed not only their new office premises, but also their work uni-forms and part of their graphic outlook.”

“It is about companies’ brand promises. You will have to fulfill the promises that the brand includes, consciously or unconsciously,” says Lehto.

“It is also about ergonomics. Wrong type of chairs and tables can prevent efficient working. As such, lighting solutions naturally affect how you work.”

We want to offer services that give added value to customers. We sometimes call this a surplus service.”

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International projects

Whatever service the customer wants, the basic issue is the same:

“Styling or renewing a home or an offi ce more profoundly is to put a number of key elements together, such as space, proportion, composi-tion, lighting and texture, to create a personal signature and stimulate emo-tions in a beautiful and functional living environment amongst other things.

“In some cases we grow together with the customer. For example, the Finlandia Group today has offi ces in 10 diff erent Finn-ish towns, and all are designed by the Kehrä team,” says Heini Lehto.

“We have also had some projects out-side of Finland, for example, the Gold-Adam gold items dealer with offi ces in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.”

As to the question “how does Kehrä Interior get new projects?” Heini Lehto




“In some cases we grow together with the customer. For example, the Finlandia Group today has offi ces in 10 diff erent Finn-ish towns, and all are designed by the Kehrä team,” says Heini Lehto.







“In some cases we grow together with the customer. For example, the Finlandia Group today has offi ces in 10 diff erent Finn-ish towns, and all are designed by the Kehrä



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says, “The best marketing is to make your work as best as possible. We have even gained new projects by word of mouth.”

In addition to homes and offices, Kehrä has made several interiors for golf club houses.

“These have included large projects, where we have planned and supervised projects for golf pro shops, restaurants and locker rooms.”

One of Finland’s most renowned golf centers Sarfvik has used Kehrä’s services, so do Kultaranta Golf, Master Golf and Peuramaa Golf.

“Interior projects linked to golf have been interesting. One has to put much emphasis on durability of decoration ma-terials,” says Heini Lehto.

“Another very interesting project was to design the interiors of the Aranda research vessel. Fire requirements are strict, and the materials must have resist-ance to salted sea water.”

Heini Lehto and Noora Kunttu have also designed the con-cept of the Guardian of the Baltic Sea (GBS) jewels. Profits of the GBS go directly to the Baltic Sea Action Group, an environmental organization aiming to decrease pollution in the Baltic Sea.

The target is to collect 100 000 euros within one year. In November already 50 000 was handed over to the Baltic Sea Action Group.

Necklace is the most popular piece of GBS jewelry, but men’s shirt cuffs have sold pretty well too. All pieces are numbered. Names of the buyers will be published and listed after the numbers of the pieces on the Internet.

Roughly half of the products are sold to individuals, half to companies. All jewels are made in Finland. Material is recycled silver.

The Guardian of the Baltic Sea (GBS) jewels are sold in Stockmann department stores and on Viking Line ferries, as well as in Finnair shops and airplanes.

Guardian of the Baltic Sea

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Choosing the service category

Kehrä interior has divided its services into diff erent categories.

“Kehrä Concept brings into your use the whole Kehrä team: the interior de-signer, project manager, supervisor of the project, as well as carpenters, decorators and other interior construction special-ists at diff erent work stages, and logistics professionals,” says Noora Kunttu, the other founding partner of Kehrä In-terior.

“Kehrä Concept is a service pack-age based on a turnkey solution. In-cluded are drawings, material and product choices, work manuals, logistics supply chain, delivery of furniture – the whole interior is tailor-made and installed, ac-cording to an agreed sched-ule and budget.”

“Kehrä Pro” is an inte-rior decoration plan for individual as well as cor-porate customers. Th e cus-tomer can realize the fi nal stage of the project by him/herself, or the project can be carried out as a turnkey service.

“Kehrä Facelift” service can be defi ned as decora-tion or styling without any need for a larger renova-tion. “Th e facelift solution focuses on furniture, tex-tiles and lighting solutions. Th e customer can order only the facelift plan or the whole project on a turnkey basis,” says Noora Kunttu.

“We are also ready to help in solv-ing an individual interior decoration challenge. Th is is called Kehrä Drop In service. Just provide us with the facts like fl oor plan or a drawing, and we can think over a purposeful solu-tion.”

signer, project manager, supervisor of the project, as well as carpenters, decorators and other interior construction special-and other interior construction special-ists at diff erent work stages, and logistics

Noora Kunttuother founding partner of Kehrä In-

“Kehrä Concept is a service pack-age based on a turnkey solution. In-cluded are drawings, material and product choices, work manuals, logistics supply chain, delivery of furniture – the whole interior is tailor-made and installed, ac-cording to an agreed sched-

“Kehrä Pro” is an inte-rior decoration plan for individual as well as cor-porate customers. Th e cus-tomer can realize the fi nal stage of the project by him/herself, or the project can be carried out as a turnkey

“Kehrä Facelift” service can be defi ned as decora-tion or styling without any need for a larger renova-tion. “Th e facelift solution focuses on furniture, tex-tiles and lighting solutions.


Th e customer can order only the facelift plan or the whole project on a turnkey basis,” says Noora Kunttu.

“We are also ready to help in solv-ing an individual interior decoration challenge. Th is is called Kehrä Drop In service. Just provide us with the facts like fl oor plan or a drawing, and we can think over a purposeful solu-

and other interior construction special-ists at diff erent work stages, and logistics

Noora Kunttu, the other founding partner of Kehrä In-

“Kehrä Concept is a service pack-age based on a turnkey solution. In-cluded are drawings, material and product choices, work manuals, logistics supply chain, delivery of furniture – the whole interior is tailor-made and installed, ac-cording to an agreed sched-

tomer can realize the fi nal stage of the project by him/herself, or the project can be carried out as a turnkey

“Kehrä Facelift” service can be defi ned as decora-tion or styling without any need for a larger renova-tion. “Th e facelift solution focuses on furniture, tex-tiles and lighting solutions. Th e customer can order only the facelift plan or the whole project on a turnkey basis,” says Noora Kunttu.

“We are also ready to help in solv-ing an individual interior decoration challenge. Th is is called Kehrä Drop In service. Just provide us with the facts like fl oor plan or a drawing, and we can think over a purposeful solu-

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Paid to be honest

Facing the question “are there any differ-ent viewpoints from corporate customers on how to carry out the project or how to realize some details?” Kunttu answers, “In small issues to some extent there are. With private (home) customers there can be more different opinions. But not that much as one might expect. Actually we are paid to be honest. If we do not believe that some changes required by the cus-tomer will work out, we will tell it straight away.

“Being able to make functional sched-ules is one of the real cornerstones of our approach. We also give guidelines to cus-tomers on how to keep interiors in good shape, kind of maintenance tips.”

www.kehra.fi

KEHRÄ IN A NUTSHELL

The word Kehrä means “wheel” or “spindle”. The office of Kehrä Interior is located in Lön-nrotinkatu 39, in the central business district of Helsinki, also part of the Helsinki Design District.

Heini Lehto is an interior designer, graduat-ed from the Lahti Institute of Design. She is one of the two founding partners of Kehrä Interior. The other partner is Noora Kunttu. She was graduated from the Kymenlaakso Institute of Design, located in the city of Kouvola. Lehto and Kunttu have been co-operating for more than seven years.

The best marketing is to make your work as best as possible. We have even gained new projects by word of mouth.”


Woodnotes-Unique Characteristics of Paper

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Sini Pennanen, Woodnotes

MikkoPuotila,ManagingDirector


We believe that paper yarn is a valuable material for carpets fi rst of all. But it suits very well panels, chair and bench covers, diff erent blinds, other interior elements as well as bags, purses and even pencil cases."

Woodnotes is the first company in the world which uses paper yarn in a contemporary way in functional textiles. Today Woodnotes products are recognized around the globe for their elegant design and superior quality.

Mikko Puotila set up Woodnotes with his mother Ritva Puotila in 1987.

“My mother is a textile designer. In 1986 she had an exhibition in Otso Gal-lery. Th e idea of Woodnotes began to shape already earlier, but the Otso gallery exhibition gave the fi nal boost.”

“We believe that paper yarn is a valu-able material for carpets fi rst of all. But it suits very well panels, chair and bench covers, diff erent blinds, other interior el-ements as well as bags, purses and even pencil cases,” says Mikko Puotila.

Th e Woodnotes collection has thus expanded over the years from carpets to a multitude of products.

“However, the original concept be-hind Woodnotes products has survived. Th e idea was to combine artistic creativ-ity with Finland’s rugged nature to shape the very Finnish raw materials, wood and paper.”

Strength of paper yarn

Mikko Puotila was graduated from the Helsinki School of Economics, but through his mother, there has always been a sense for good design in his life.

“I believe in paper yarn, although the beginning was not easy. For the fi rst four years we made losses. Th ere was a suspi-cion among dealers and customers that products made of paper yarn would not endure. All suspicions proved wrong, and our business has lasted 25 years.”

Th e strength and durability of paper yarn results from wood fi bers: thus the name Woodnotes. Ritva Puotila wanted to use paper yarn because of its aesthet-ic properties – to make the most of its unique characteristics, not as a substitute for other materials.

“Paper has qualities that greatly diff er from other fi bers. Paper is light and pure in its whiteness, without bleaching. Pa-per’s rustled sound, its opacity and natu-ral qualities count much.”

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Sini Pennanen, Woodnotes

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“Paper yarn is a very challenging ma-terial. It does not stretch so it breaks eas-ily, if not handled in the right way. On the other hand it is a much stronger material. Anyway, paper must be dealt with re-spect. The machines manufacturing the yarn must be carefully modified.”

Safe and hygienic

The paper yarn used by Woodnotes has been spun from durable heavyweight paper that can be recycled or burned to produce energy.

“Our products are biodegradable. Woodnotes’s white paper is produced without the use of chlorine gas, and the dyes used to color our yarn contain nei-ther halogen-organic compounds nor heavy metals,” Mikko Puotila says.

Woodnotes and its partner compa-nies are continuously searching for new methods to improve its ecological com-petitiveness. Safety counts too:

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“Our paper material is quite fire-resistant. The surface of the products is tight, which means that flames do not get oxygen. In most cases, fire-prevention chemicals are not needed, but these can be an option.”

Paper is also both hygienic and easy to maintain. Due to the density of the fib-ers, paper yarn collects neither dust nor dirt – an important property, especially for those who suffer from allergies.

Design and technology

Today Woodnotes employs 11 people. Part of them are sales persons, but design-ers are also needed. Three persons work in design and Research & Development.

“We also use several freelance design-ers. My mother is still an artistic director in our company and she’s designing the carpets. Fabrics participate in design-ing to some extent. At the moment we work with six independent designers.

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expertise in weaving and sewing, and manufacturing of a unique collection of products through customized industrial production, Woodnotes would not be such a notable company in its niche.”

Th e spinning mill Suomen Paperilan-ka operates in Lapua, Ostrabothnia. An-other partner is Ojalan Kutomo, which is a weaving mill.

For example, with Harri Koskinen, we designed the ‘k’ chair.”

In addition to design, technological expertise of three partner companies has helped Woodnotes to win new customers.

“Th e production and technological know-how of these partner companies also stand behind Woodnotes quality. Without the mastery of spun paper yarn,

Our paper material is quite fi re-resistant. Th e surface of the products is tight, which means that fl ames do not get oxygen."

Network abroad

One cornerstone of success has been an effective partner network abroad.

“At the moment about two-thirds of the turnover comes from exports. The main export countries are Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and Great Britain, in this order.”

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“We also get revenues through projects. For example, if a new restaurant or a hotel is built, the interior architect may want to use our products. Just recently to the biggest hotel pro-ject we delivered 500 pairs of curtains, and to the Metropolitan Hotel in London we supplied 500 chain operated blinds. We have agents in several countries, and have found projects by visiting trade fairs too,” says Mikko Puotila.

“Japanese buy our products again, partly thanks to the strong yen and weak euro.

“To some extent we have regular exports to the United States and through projects to many other countries. The same concerns China. I do not think we will enter China through in-terior decoration stores, but trough projects in the near future. We want to follow our own strategy and ensure the quality of projects,” says Puotila.

Woodnotes products can also be found in some more exotic places like Dubai, the Saudi-Arabia, Gambia, New Zealand and Argentina.

“We have exported to more than 40 countries during 25 years, last year alone to 38 countries.”

Five product groups

Today Woodnotes has fi ve main product groups, altogether 70 diff erent products made of paper yarn. “Carpets and rugs form the largest product group in terms of sales. Curtains, shades and panels are important. Paper yarn suits well in making surfaces for pieces of furniture. Th e fourth product group is small items such as containers, purses and cases. Business gifts belong to this group.

“Th e fi fth product group consists of diff erent products that we sometimes call studio objects. Th ese are hand-made artworks, or other objects that require much handcraft.

“Interior decoration stores and some department stores like Stockmann sell our products. Of the special stores Artek is well-known, but Vepsäläinen also sells many products by us. All in all, Woodnotes has resellers in about 40 countries in special interior shops.”

www.woodnotes.fi

Urban Living by

The Northern European furniture style has been suc-cessful in the global market. IKEA has been taking over for years, but there are also other companies, with dif-ferent styles. One of these companies is Danish BoCon-cept, which offers fresh design and high usability.

Text: Jarkko RepoPhotos: BoConcept

One of the success stories for BoConcept has been in Fin-land. Th e country manager, Jesper Ekström, has a long

history within the furniture business. - I have been working in the furniture

retail business since I was 15 years old, go-ing through many diff erent steps in a Finn-ish furniture chain. Starting from ware-house and sales positions, then working

for an agent and fi nally as a country man-ager in Finland. I studied the restaurant business for 3 years and also took some courses in other fi elds, but always ended back in the furniture business.

However, it's not just the skilled per-sonnel, it's all about the company phi-losophy. To gain a status in the current furniture market, a company has to be doing things just right. Keeping the best

workers is important and BoConcept has been able to maintain the interest of the personnel in their business.

- I have been working with BoConcept for 11 years, starting as a sales rep. for an agent and when BoConcept off ered me a position as a country manager in Finland (2004), it was a natural decision to move on from being an agent and focus only on BoConcept, with the aim of developing

for years, but there are also other companies, with dif-ferent styles. One of these companies is Danish BoCon-cept, which offers fresh design and high usability.

Text: Jarkko RepoPhotos: BoConcept

the market according to the strategy set from Bo-Concept A/S. BoConcept hold many seminars in regards to their business and these have been help-ful and kept me updated with the current trends and actions within the company.

A modern company, in any business, has to see the diff erences between people. Not just because most customers are individuals, but so are the work-ers. BoConcept has provided the possibility to en-hance the personal interests of their managers.

- My interest has always been in interiors and one reason for this is that I have enjoyed the Bo-Concept working philosophy and the mental freedom of responsibility has kept me here. An additional great motivator is that working with an international expanding brand keeps you up

A modern company, in any business, has to see the diff erences between people. Not just because most customers are individuals, but so are the workers."

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dated on important matters and you get to meet a lot of colleagues from around the world. You therefore get to share the best practices around the globe. There are great opportunities in Finland that haven’t been used or tried out. It's very hard to compare us with IKEA, since we both have such different strategies, tar-get groups etc., but the benefits of being a franchise, compared to a totally inde-pendent retailer, is that you to experience the benefits of working for a large inter-national chain, but can still run your busi-ness as your own.

Personal business

BoConcept is a franchise. The company is always searching for new entrepreneurs to grow into new markets. The business plan, however, is not that different from any other franchise (Apple Stores, fast food restaurants etc.). The difference comes from the possibilities that are cre-ated through the BoConcept design and philosophy.

- We always compare ourselves with our competitors and we are extremely fo-cused on keeping our vision and mission and position in the market, as this is one of our most important competences. We offer customized and coordinated afford-able design furniture and accessories to urban minded shoppers.

The country manager, Jesper Ekström, regards competition as a good thing.

- I don’t consider competition to be a threat, more an opportu-nity. Remember when IKEA was established in Finland, all retail-ers were very scared and worried about their business, but actually, IKEA woke people up to interior design and from this, everybody has benefited. We've had so many new interior design programs on TV and sales of interior design magazines have tripled in Finland.

It's not only the competitors on the market who are raising fears. The current economical situation (in Finland and globally) has pro-vided furniture companies with new threats. Once again, the coun-try manager regards this as an opportunity.

- Of course, the recession is a threat, but it’s easier to react as

BoConcept / Concept

Customized = You can customize items of furniture to match your taste and needs.

Coordinated = The entire collection is coordinated, so you can mix and match as you like

Affordable = BoConcept can offer design and high quality at an affordable price

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a smaller independent franchisee than to turn around a large chain in a short pe-riod of time.

What is diff erent in the BoConcept is the mentality that negative situations should be seen as opportunities. It's all about the business culture and the people who are working to achieve the goals. Th e designs of the company arise in part from this culture.

People rarely buy more than two houses during their lifetime. Some might buy a new car every now and then - how-ever, a new kitchen or even a sofa may be one of the biggest purchases for a person. It's not uncommon for people to have to search extensively for the design they want. A good design is in part timeless, but also has some twists which can ei-ther make it a trendy object or personal in some other way. Northern European minimalistic design has been successful almost everywhere.

- In my opinion, the greatest chal-lenges in Finland are that consumers are too price focused, instead of focusing on

BoConcept off ers

Urban Danish design since 195260 years in the business, with a knowledge of what their customers want

•Extensivecollections,coordinatedcollections•BoConceptuniversitytrainingstaff,managersand

interior decorators•Fantasticcatalogue•Customizeddesigns•Affordableprices•3DdrawingprogramsontheInternet,wherecustomers

can plan a whole apartment or get help from skilled interior consultants.

•BoConceptfollowstheprevalenttrendsandupdatestheir collection every year, so the customer can always add more to their home in the same style and price range

•Itdoesn'tmatterwhereyouliveorwhereyoutravel,thecustomer will receive the same service and shopping experience in all of 56 countries where BoConcept is represented.

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the design and service. You don’t have to buy entire interiors at once if you can’t af-ford it. Save up and do it in steps to get the optimal result. It is your home, how you live and the most important place in the world. One great thing is that inte-rior decoration services are becoming a standard for almost all retailers and cus-tomers are using this service as the un-derstanding of the related challenges and time is becoming more accepted.

People, even in Finland, are starting to become more interested in interior design. It's partly due to the new pro-grammes on television, but even more so, it's about changes in lifestyle. It was typical for people to almost only sleep at home, but more and more free time is available in modern times.

- I feel that we are slowly transfer-ring back from huge retail parks with big shops to a more personal boutique cul-ture, where people get a personal service and fantastic shopping experience. I also think that we will progress towards a cul-ture where we invite friends over for din-ners and people want to show off a per-sonal home, not a copy of a mass-market home. I think that more retailers will have to either close down or change their strat-egy to be able to compete.

Urban Design

A picture tells more than a thousand words. Design and lifestyle are such concepts that one should never try to write them down. However, BoConcept does have a way of finding customers by telling us what they are looking for in a new person who walks into one of their stores. It's all about the urban design.

In Finland, BoConcept is mostly sold by a partner company, Vepsäläinen. Vepsäläinen is a franchise for Bo-Concept and they are expanding together, both through studios and stores.

The urban customer is also the key within the Vep-säläinen sales channel -.

- Many of our sales associates can assist you with your challenges and when you want to make bigger solutions (for example, whole room interiors with wall colours), a consult can help as they have a deeper and wider knowl-edge of interiors. Our catalogue is an inspirational source of information for customers, from which they can copy

Urban design

Urban is a mind-set, not a question where you actually live. Although you might live in the countryside, your state of mind is still Urban. You love design, modernity, energy in all aspects of your life, including items of furniture and interior design.

Urban is about the perception of our brand. Our products. About what the shopper experiences when they visit our Brand stores. It’s about our advertising. Our attitude, our language, our view of the world and the people in it.

The Urban state of mind of the shopper and the BoConcept is what makes BoConcept unique.

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a whole room set and just get ideas.The urban ideology behind the designs can easily

be seen. The items of furniture are designed to be somewhat minimalistic with high functioning. This Northern European design has been the key for a great many furniture companies. However, BoCon-cept has put even more energy into lifting the items of furniture to a new level.

- Since Danish style is well known for its func-tional design, we can offer fantastic space saving solutions for smaller apartments. Extendable tables, storage compartments in coffee tables and beds, customizing your sofa so that it will fit in best pos-sible way etc. By suggesting and adding accessories that will match your interior, we can update the cus-tomer’s space in a efficient and affordable way. One of our competences is functional design. Our items of furniture are supposed to provide you with value for money by functions that make your everyday life easier.

Country manager Jesper Ek-ström also had this to say about design:

- The word Design is used all over the world in whatever aspects. We however use designers when we sketch new pieces and all surveys show that the customers that are entering a BoConcept store have Design as their greatest interest. For example, we are collaborating right now with one of the best known designers, Karim Rashid, who is designing a high end dining room set for us. This will come out in stores around the world during March 2012.

- I also think that BoConcept is designing differently, since we al-ways have to think of the following aspects: design, affordable prices, functionality, comfort and everything must be coordinated to our collection and the needs of the customers.

Items of furniture don't need to be boring and only functional. BoConcept offers a new world to those who have never seen any-thing else than IKEA. Urban design might not be for everyone, but that is the whole idea of design. Some will fall in love with it and some might hate it. BoConcept does not try to be to everyone’s taste and that is the reason why they should be loved by those who are will-ing to put a little bit extra into their living. Over the last few years, the world has changed and people now desire more personality in their homes. However, at the same time, people need to live in more compact areas and that's where urban design is the best way to go.

www.boconcept.fi

BOKNÄSBoknäs is a well known quality Finnish furniture maker. The family run com-pany has been in operation since 1991 and its Boknäs -bookshelf has already become a well known classic in Finland.

Text: Nina GarloPhotos: Sini Pennanen, Boknäs

Builds Classic Finnish Furniture

JokkoSalmevaara,ManagingDirectorofBoknäs.

Boknäs is well known for its traditional and classic style."BOKNÄS

Text: Nina GarloPhotos: Sini Pennanen, Boknäs

culture & design


“In a way, our company has an interesting history that at first we were an antique shop in Helsinki. We sold all kinds

of things: tables, chairs and paintings, but our main selling point was old books and graphics. My father had an idea of a bookshelf that he wanted for a store and asked an Estonian acquaintance of his to make nice bookshelves for the shop and our home. Our friends and customers started to ask about the bookshelves and where they could buy them, and so we came up with the idea to start to produce them for sale and that’s how our story began,” tells Jokko Salmevaara managing director of Boknäs.

The basic idea for the bookshelves came from an American company which, during the late 20th century, developed bookshelves that were made from wood frames and glass cabinets. The system al-lows its user to build their own shelves by stacking the elements either on top of each other or side by side, making it a creative and functional way to decorate a space.

Finnish Boknäs-cabinets continue this tradition. Boknäs build their cabinets

from hardwood, valuing traditional car-pentry work. Books and other valuable collections can be showcased in glass cabinets, where they will stay safe from the dust.

“Boknäs is well known for its tradi-tional and classic style. For me, design isn’t just something new and unprece-dented, design and product development are present in every aspect of our eve-ryday lives. For us, design is more func-tional. It is not just how the piece looks, but how it works. The bottom line is that a design needs to be practical and make our lives easier.”

Although the principle for the cabinet came from America, Boknäs has contin-ued developing the idea. They have cre-ated new parts, such as easily adjustable corner- and angle pieces. Jokko Salme-vaara tells that when they are creating their items, they listen to their custom-ers, who often provide feedback and re-quest new designs. Thanks to the invalu-able customer feedback, the series has expanded and become more versatile. All of the design work is made in house by Jokko Salmevaara, his father Seppo

Our product is very unique. We think that even internationally, the Boknäs product is the best cabinet on the market."

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Salmevaara and Hannu Saarinen. Boknäs stores do not just sell the clas-

sic bookshelves, but other high-quality items. “We didn’t just want to have a big shop full of wooden cabinets, since that would look dreary. We had the idea to soften the look by combining a nice reading chair next to the cabinet. We found one that we liked from Germany and when we took part in a design fair in Stockholm, displaying the chair next to our cabinet, an Italian man came and said that it is his chair. It turned out that the chair was made in a factory where the man used to produce his chairs, and that

he would like to branch out into the Finn-ish market. That is how we began to sell other furniture, in addition to our own cabinets.”

Boknäs now makes its own sofas, ta-bles, stands and lamps. They still con-tinue stocking other brands and spend a great deal of time finding good quality brands and products to uphold the stand-ards of the shop.

Boknäs values itself on being an eco-logical brand. At the Finnish Ekoteko-fair in 2002, the lifecycle of the Boknäs –book-shelves’ life cycle was estimated to be 200 years, which means the cabinets last much

longer than normal consumer goods.“Like any other artisan, we don’t want

to sell a product that we are not happy with. It seems to me that in modern so-ciety, the function of a factory is solely to mass produce and often, the quality of the product suffers. We aim to keep this in mind and ensure that what we do, we do well and that our products last.”

Jokko Salmevaara is positive about the future of Boknäs-products. Although books are now making way to electronic readers, he believes that decoration styles will not change rapidly and that many people still value books as an interior

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design element. “I believe that people will always have books. But, of course, we have to keep up with technology and put into practise the changes that it brings to our products. For example, we have created different television stands over the years to suit the changing size and shape of TV’s.”

The standards and values of Boknäs have ensured that its name in Finland is synonymous to a valued piece of fur-niture. The company makes their fur-niture in Estonia, where they produce several thousand bookshelf units every year. Boknäs has four of their own stores in Finland: two stores are located in the Helsinki metropolitan area, a third on the southwest coast of Finland in Turku and a fourth in the city of Tampere in inland Finland. Boknäs also sells their products through various stockists around the country. “We are not planning to open more stores in Finland, since we feel that we are able to reach a broad range of cus-tomers already. We have many retailers around the country and they are valuable to us,” Jokko Salmevaara describes.

However, he predicts that it is more likely that they might open new stores abroad in the future. Boknäs hasn’t ac-quired the same cult status abroad as it possesses in Finland; only around 17-18 percent of Boknäs’ turnover comes from foreign markets. The main export mar-kets are Russia, Sweden, Germany and France. However, Boknäs products can be bought almost everywhere in Europe from carefully selected merchandisers.

Jokko Salmevaara sees that in the fu-ture, the demand for Boknäs products will most likely increase abroad more than it will in Finland. “Our product is very unique. We think that even interna-tionally, the Boknäs product is the best cabinet on the market. We make our fur-niture from hardwood, our glass cabinets are dust-proof, modular and they can be custom made. There is no other product like this and I believe that in the future we will have a strong international market,” Jokko Salmevaara states. He does not feel that bigger and cheaper furniture brands

threaten their market, since they are two totally different types of manufacturers. In fact, he states that they receive visits from their competitors, who take inspiration from their store layout.

Jokko Salmevaara identifies that the recent economical down-turn has had a minor negative impact on the trade. However, he states that their customer base is usually people who value high standards and are ready to invest in good quality products. “We have less people on average coming into our stores, but the ones who come are more likely to buy than they used to be. I don’t think that the recession has hit Finland too hard and the average person’s income hasn’t changed drastically.”

Boknäs provides the classic bookshelf in 12 different colour options. The most interesting colour in the palette is Woodwash, which can be either grey or a slightly green colour shade depend-ing on the lighting. Woodwash is establishing itself as a classic colour, thanks to the soft natural touch it brings to decorations. All the Boknäs cabinets and their different parts can be custom made, enabling the customer to create individual designs.

Boknäs will take part in a design fair held in Italy in April and next February in Stockholm. In Finland, Boknäs products will be displayed at the furniture and interior fair Habitare, held 12-16 September.

Details for Boknäs stockists and products can be found from their website.

www.boknäs.fi


Pohjanmaan Kaluste Manufactures

Quality Finnish FurnitureText: Piia Vilja

Photos: Pohjanmaan Kaluste

The furniture that Pohjanmaan Kaluste produces is carried out with professional handcraft work and they make high quality products."

TimoViitala,ManagingDirector


Pohjanmaan Kaluste Oy is a family run company with long roots in furniture manufacturing. Their furniture is handmade and the company has launched the very first organic furniture range in Finland.

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Pohjanmaan Kaluste, trans-lates as Ostrobothnia (a his-torical province in Finland) furniture, has been operat-

ing in Kurikka, Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland for over 40 years.

“Pohjanmaan Kaluste was founded in 1964. Ostrobothnia is a traditional fur-niture area and it was there where Pentti Viitala saw other men selling their sofas from door to door. He decided to give it a go and began to also sell sofas. It was in 1964 when he started to actually manu-facture the sofas and the company was of-ficially launched,” tells Eira Viitala, COO

of sales and marketing in Pohjanmaan Kaluste Oy.

At first, Pohjanmaan Kaluste was just a family company which produced and delivered sofas from door to door with a van, but throughout the years, the company has grown steadily. Whereas, Pohjanmaan Kaluste started as a com-pany which employed one person in ad-dition to Pentti Viitala and his wife, today, Pohjanmaan Kaluste employs around 500 workers. Thanks to their hard efforts, in 2000 and 2003 they were awarded the title as a best supplier by the Sotka and Asko-furniture chains.

Pohjanmaan Kaluste-furniture ranges

The furniture that Pohjanmaan Kaluste produces is carried out with professional handcraft work and they make high qual-ity products. The company started of as a sofa maker but the product range now includes living room sets, dining groups, coffee tables and storage furniture. When it comes to their design, the leading idea has been structural integrity, as well as timeless designs. Excellent, ergonomic soft seating comfort, unique and diverse solutions, and ecological sustainability

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are the criteria when the company is cre-ating new sofas, recliners or dining room set designs. Their products range is divid-ed into two: Pohjanmaa(Ostrobothnia) and Luonto (Nature).

Luonto is a completely unique sofa collection. In 2010, the company released Luonto as the first sustainable sofa range known to the world. Natural products, materials as a result of long development are selected on a basis that their impact to environment is minimized. Today, the Nature-range also includes coffee tables and storage furniture. “We provide an ecological alternative to home decor and

for larger purchases. Despite the demand-ing materials, we do not want to compro-mise on the comfort or appearance of the products,” Eira Viitala explains.

The Nature collection consists of six different sofa ranges; one of them is designed by a famous Finnish designer, Ristomatti Ratia. The sofa range bears his name and it is consolidated with light wood and other natural materials where possible. The sofas can be either uphol-stered in Aino-linen fabric or leather. In addition, the sofas and armchairs in the Ristomatti-range consists of a long coffee table and multi-level stand. All of the Na-

ture-sofas can be bought in Masku-shops all around Finland and from the factory’s outlet shop in Kurikka.

The design for both of the ranges happens in Pohjanmaan Kaluste’s own factory. A team of seven people is work-ing constantly to create new sofas. “Of course, it is hard to re-invent a sofa, it is like re-inventing a wheel. But what we aim to do is to have timely varia-tions of the sofas. We are concentrating on traditional design and we don’t aim to create a sofa which is very different. Design is a great thing and it can be brought forward, but people still need

Our aim is to increase our international recognition and to increase our exports."

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to buy the product and find it useful.”Both of the Pohjanmaa furniture

ranges value the Ostrobothnian furni-ture maker’s traditions and skills. “Th e frames of the sofas are now mechanically made, but the remainder of the process is through professional handcraft work,” Eira Viitala notes. Th e sofas are provided with a guarantee of 20 years. 10-15 new models are brought onto the markets every year.

Pohjanmaan Kaluste aims to use Finn-ish materials whenever they can: some of the fabrics for the sofas come from An-nala, which produces high-quality Finn-ish interior fabrics. Th e rest of the fabrics come from Europe and the leather is from Italy. Th e metals for the sofas are bought from the Far-East and Europe. “Unfor-tunately, most of the material that we acquire is not produced in Finland,” Eira Viitala tells.

Among experts, Pohjanmaan kaluste is also known as an active developer of furniture mechanisms. For example, a brand new PLAY-sofa is designed by Ste-fan Lindfors. Th e sofa is equipped with a bed-mechanism and an exciting electri-cally adjustable divan.

Exports

“We began to export our sofas to Sweden at the beginning of the 1980s. It was, how-ever, during the 1990s, when Nordic coun-tries were experiencing a recession, when we had the idea to start exporting our fur-niture to Russia,“ Eira Viitala tells. It was in the nineties that the company actively began to expand the business. Th e pro-duction volume was increased drastically and Pohjanmaan Kaluste received interest from domestic furniture chains.

“Th roughout the past 20 years, our ex-port operations have developed and our business has expanded. Th e growth has been strong and it continues that way. Despite our growing size, we are still a family run company”

Th e main export market for Pohjan-maan kaluste is still Russia. Smaller markets exports markets are: Sweden, Norway, Es-tonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Kazakh-stan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and the USA.

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“Due to the recession in 2009, our ex-ports drastically declined. Prior to 2009, half of our turnover came from Russia and other countries. Now, 35 percent of our turnover comes from exports, it is growing slowly again. We will have to work hard to get it back to the pre-2009 level,” Eira Viitala discloses.

In relation to the declining exports, the domestic market has been grow-ing, since Finnish retailers have began to concentrate on Finnish produce. Eira Viitala explains that many large retailers do not want to bring furniture from fur-ther away and have the need to stock it to warehouses, only to realise that the prod-uct doesn’t sell well. Pohjanmaan Kaluste products are ordered by the retailers and then made for the customer at their fac-tory in Kurikka. Th is way, the retailers do not have to keep large stocks of the fur-niture items and it enables the customer

to add personal touches to their product. “It is not easy to be a furniture manu-

facturer in Finland. Th e production is ex-pensive and labour costs are high. But we have a strong will to carry on. We’ve had some diffi cult years, but we consistently aim to uphold our standards and remain part of the price competition. We always keep in mind what our consumers want.”

Future

Eira Viitala explains that they work to-wards a set of goals all the time. Th is is how, for example, the Luonto-range was created: the company wanted to be even more ecological. “We are in a process of setting targets to ourselves all the time; it is a continuous and permanent part of our work.” Due to their ambitions, the compa-ny was awarded the international quality and environmental certifi cation ISO 9001

and ISO 14001 in February 2012. Pohjanmaan Kaluste is hoping to ex-

pand more abroad. -Th e company is working towards the American market in particular. “Our aim is to increase our international recognition and to increase our exports. First and foremost, however, the domestic side needs to be well taken care of; our Finnish customers are our foundation.” Th e company has received a great deal of positive feedback from their customers and it will keep focusing on good customer care, as well as producing good quality furniture.

Internationality

Pohjanmaan Kaluste is a well known brand in Finland and among professional decorators internationally. “We are known at diff erent furniture fairs in Europe, but normal international consumers are una-ware of our product. Finland is a very small country comparatively and that is why we are not that well known. We know how to bring out our brands abroad.”

Pohjanmaan Kaluste is visiting several furniture fairs internationally. Th ey have taken part in fairs in Russia for several years, and in the future, they will also take part in a Stockholm design fair and the larg-est furniture fair in the world in America.

More information about the company and products can be found at www.pohjan-

maa.fi and www.luontoliving.com.


maa.fi and www.luontoliving.com.

PunkalivesInnovative Furniture is Gaining Reputation Abroad

Text: Piia ViljaPhotos: Punkalive

Punkalive is a Finnish design company which has achieved national and international rec-ognition for their innovative design and use of laminated veneer spruce in furniture.

culture & design


Punkalive’s products are de-signed to bring the Nordic landscapes to the consumers reach. The furniture com-

bines fluently warm wood and sturdy appearance. The material used in the products is untouched and both, the design and production methods, em-phasize the principle of ecology and sustainable production. The design is timeless and the natural look of Punka-live’s products makes it suitable to all interior styles. In addition to chairs, ta-bles and shelves Punkalive also manu-factures handy storage units.

In Punkalive’s furniture smaller details might be metal or fabric, but the prod-ucts mainly consist of laminated veneer spruce. Th e material is better known in construction industry and Punkalive is a fi rst known brand to use it in their furni-ture. “It was in 2008 when we were doing another project and I had a need to have certain types of boxes made. Th e factory I went to had experience on using laminat-ed veneer spruce. Although my intention was to use normal laminate, the factory recommended I would use laminated ve-neer spruce, a material which would suit my needs better. Th at is how the whole in-

novations chain started,” tells Jukka Ris-sanen, managing director of Punkalive.

Punkalive owns a patent to their prod-ucts in many continents. Jukka Rissanen explains that they way the furniture is made, the product is hard to plagiarise. Th at is why they have been very unique for so long.

Marketing and branding

“From the beginning we chose as our strategy to aim to the international mar-ket,” Jukka Rissanen explains. It was in 2009, when the company was two months

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novations chain started,” tells Jukka Ris-, managing director of Punkalive.

In Punkalive’s furniture

smaller details might be

metal or fabric, but the

products mainly consist of

laminated veneer spruce."

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old, when they launched their col-lection in a design fair in M i l a n o . “We presented our odd looking furniture in the fair. We had normal everyday stuff , but it just looked weird because of the design and material,” Jukka Rissanen re-members.

Since that Punkalive has been in many international design fairs; three years in a row in Milano and in Köln. In Finland they have taken part to Habitare-fair.

“We have done our marketing through these design fairs and brought our brand and the material to public knowledge.

Because of we use laminated veneer spruce in our furniture, we had to fi rst explain our material and tell how it is col-lected and prove that it is safe.”

Punkalive previously concentrated on the marketing and branding side and has now started to emphasise production and sales. Punkalive has opened pop up store in Helsinki Eteläesplanaadi. Jukka Rissanen tells that via the shop they have been able to connect to the consumers, designers and decorators in a very diff er-ent way since people can see the whole ensemble of products and values.

Punkalive started to sell their prod-

ucts to masses at the beginning of the year. Th ey are hoping that the year’s turnover would be around million Eu-ros. Jukka Rissanen is positive that they will hit their target.

Punkalive has united production. Pro-duction means and know-how is located in Punkaharju, in Punkaharjun Puutaito Oy. It is a family run company which makes Punkalive products. Th e product development, marketing and internation-al relations are concentrated in Helsinki. “We have a good working relation. Both production and marketing side have in-vested to the company in their own way,

old, when they launched their col-

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ucts to masses at the beginning of the year. Th ey are hoping that the year’s turnover would be around million Eu-ros. Jukka Rissanen is positive that they

lection in a design fair in M i l a n o . “We presented our odd looking furniture in the fair. We had normal everyday stuff , but it just looked weird because of the


Punkalive previously concentrated on the marketing and branding side and

old, when they launched their col-

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with money and time,” Jukka Rissanen enlightens.

Internationally Punkalive has small offi ce in Munchen, Germany. Th e offi ce manages eight diff erent agents who are representing and selling Punkalive prod-ucts around Europe.

“Our European section started to operate in February 2012. We have now started to take advantage of the market-ing work we did before and we have less-en our marketing eff orts and increase our production size. We also need to have re-tailers and agents who sell our products. Part of our work now is to learn how to provide good customer service.”

Ecological values

Punkalive products are developed in Punkaharju, an area after which the com-pany has been named after. Punkaharju is beautiful area in Eastern Finland and it is well known for its river landscape and a ridge. Nine kilometres long ridge was

formed during the ice-age and it is rare natural phenomenon.

“We want to tell people that Punka-live has a home where we come from. We want to be associated with a clean nature in Punkaharju and it enables us to have a rich story behind our products. It is im-portant to have a meaning when it comes to design, shapes, colours and materials. We also get our inspiration from the na-ture in Punkaharju.”

Punkalive’s carbon footprint is very small. Wood is naturally renewable re-source and all the wood comes within 100km from the factory in Punkaharju. In the factory the design is computer based and no material is wasted. Even the small-est pieces can be used.

Laminated veneer lumber

All Punkalive products are solemnly made from laminated veneer spruce. “We have aimed to that our furniture does not have separate legs, back rest or seats. Eve-

rything is one big piece. Th at is one of the stigmatizing aspects of our design,” Jukka Rissanen explains.

Laminated veneer spruce was invent-ed 30 years ago to meet the needs of con-struction industry. One veneer lumber plate is 23 meters long and 2.5 meters wide. Today CNC-milling machines have developed further and it has become pos-sible to create free forms and work thick-er material.

“Th anks to the development of mill-ing technology, the idea was born to use laminated veneer lumber in furniture and design.”

To create the furniture the laminated veneer spruce plate is milled to suitable shape and then diff erent components are glued together. Th is way enables the ma-terial to be used in diff erent shapes and forms. Punkalive produces chairs, boxes, tables and even walls using this tech-nique.

“Of course we are constantly develop-ing our products and design. Th is tech-

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with money and time,” Jukka Rissanen enlightens.

Internationally Punkalive has small

formed during the ice-age and it is rare natural phenomenon.

“We want to tell people that Punka-

rything is one big piece. Th at is one of the stigmatizing aspects of our design,” Jukka Rissanen explains.

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nique allows us to be very creative in our design and create many objects; you could say that at the moment we feel like we are Alice in the Wonderland. Th ere are pos-sibilities we aren’t yet even aware of.”

Th e products surface is a living ma-terial and Punkalive does not treat the wood, because they do not want to sup-press woods natural appear. Every item has an individual touch in them.

Designers

Punkalive has fi ve designers. Th ree of them, Jukka Lommi, Jukka T Tapio and Raimo Räsänen, are Finnish and have been with the company since beginning. Later on, the company has acquired two foreign designers; Russian Kristina Mag-nitskaya, and a world-famous industrial designer Egyptian Karim Rashid.

“At the beginning an architect Jukka Lommi designed the modular system and he has also created furniture. With a further the help from Jukka T Tapio and

Raimo Räsänen we have familiarised our-selves with the design and tried diff erent things,” Jukka Rissanen tells.

Foreign designers have come along to bring international touch to the Punka-live design. “We want to create diff erent products to diff erent markets. We don’t want to be necessarily tied to Scandina-vian functionalism. Th at’s why we have for example Kristina Magnitskaya, who is from St.Petersburg, designing products to Russian market. We see this as a ground work we have laid: we are prepared for our future in the Russian market.”

In 2009 Punkalive started collabora-tion with well known designer Karim Rashid. He has agreed to create a whole range of new products for the Punkalive collection. “We met Karim Rashid in in-ternational design fair and he was really fascinated by our products. He is now de-signing products for us and we are going to see where this collaboration takes us,” Jukka Rissanen informs.

Jukka Rissanen tells that the problem

with Finnish designers is that although they might be well known in Finland and very talented; internationally Finn-ish designers are still relatively unknown. Karim Rashid in the other hand is world-famous industrial designer who has suc-cessfully managed to translate his own style to Punkalive products. With his infl uence and celebrity status Punkalive hopes to gain even more international recognition.

Punkalive have many partners with whom they design partner products with. “Th e way it works is that we provide the design and our partner technology. Th is way we can expand our product range without needing to invest in technology, and it works the other way to our part-ners too,” Jukka Rissanen tells.

Punkalive has partner collaborations with PowerKiss, a wirless phone charger they have created Avanto PowerTray for; Innojoki-lamp makers, and Amphion-loudspeakers.

www.punkalive.fi

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nique allows us to be very creative in our design and create many objects; you could

Raimo Räsänen we have familiarised our-selves with the design and tried diff erent

with Finnish designers is that although they might be well known in Finland

AnneBerner,theManagingDirectorofOyVallilaInteriorAb

Vallila Interior

- Continuity, Reliability and Constant Renewal

Text: Finland of Networks Photos: Sini Pennanen, Vallila

Oy Vallila Interior Ab has steadily grown into one of the best-known interior decoration brands in the Nordic countries. The company has combined profound interior design experience with the know-how in materials to its fullest.

Vallila’s collections are mainly designed and created by its two in-house designers, Tanja Orsjoki and Matleena Issakainen. In addition to these two, Vallilla uses 3-8 guest designers from different branches of expertise."

Vallila Interior

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The company’s selections in-clude soft furnishing fabrics, ready-made curtains, cush-ion covers, wallpaper and

rugs. The collection is renewed twice a year, in spring and autumn, and it has an average of 300 products.

“We want to offer more inspiring spaces in which people live or work,” says Anne Berner, the Managing Director of Oy Vallila Interior Ab.

“We are absolutely and genuinely pas-sionate about spaces, making them more beautiful. We work in a manner which

every time draws closer to perfection. I believe we are able to refine our services according to customers’ needs.”

The company operates in Helsinki in its own premises, which cover around 4 500 square meters. Showrooms of Vallila Interior are amongst the most stylish in the business. There is an aura of profes-sionalism from the very first lobby and reception space onwards.

The company has been operating in the same premises since 1939 – for more than 70 years. Naturally there have been enlargements and renovations, and the

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stylish premises reflect what is behind Vallila’s success.

“We believe in continuity, reliability and constant renewal,” says Anne Berner.

“Continuity and constant renewal do not exclude each other. Having a pio-neer role, with reformation and innova-tion, is our value. In addition, reliability is a key to long clientele relations and an extremely valuable reference to get new customers.

“We are committed to what we do, that is, being a responsible and reliable partner.”

Design from Finland

Vallila has been awarded the “Design from Finland” – a label of origin.

“The ‘Design from Finland’ label in-dicates that Finnish design, innovation, research and product development is of high importance to the company. As a label of origin, it also indicates that prod-uct planning and design take place in Finland. Vallila was one of the first com-panies that receive this label of origin for their in-house designed patterns.

Vallila’s collections are mainly de-signed and created by its two in-house designers, Tanja Orsjoki and Matleena Issakainen. In addition to these two, Val-lilla uses 3-8 guest designers from differ-ent branches of expertise.

“For example, in our spring 2012 col-lection freelance designers Elizabeth Sa-lonen, Erik Bruun, Caj Bremer, Markku Piri, Zoltan Popovits, Howard Smith, and for the first time, Saara Eklund and Riina Kuikka participated,” lists Anne Berner.

qHelsinkiBlackbyRiinaKuikka

qHelsinkibyRiinaKuikka

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For the year 2012, Riina Kuikku de-signed Helsinki ready-made curtains to honor the World Design Capital year 2012.

A turn-key provider

Vallila designs are available as meter-goods and ready-made products, such as curtains, cushions and rugs. Anne Berner says that the company is ready to expand further internationally:

“We started exports to Sweden, Swit-zerland and England in January 2011. Re-

sults have been rather satisfying.” In addition to its own fabrics, in Fin-

land (and in Russia and Ukraine) Vallila represents some strong interior decora-tion brands like Designers Guild, Sacho and Ralph Lauren.

Besides selling its textiles and other products via re-sellers, the company lives through projects. Vallila has provided hundreds of premises in both Finland and abroad with a new life.

“In fact, two-thirds of our turnover comes from projects. The company has hundreds of mid-scale and large interior

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decoration references,” says Anne Berner. Just to name a few of the recent ones,

Vallila was involved in Saimaa Gardens resort project, which, according to Anne Berner, was a marvelous success for eve-ryone.

“We have decorated hospitals, ship in-teriors, hotels, restaurants, concert halls, public spaces, etc. In Moscow we partici-pated in Sheraton Palace project, finish-ing the rooms mainly with our products. To Helsinki Music Centre we delivered acoustic textiles.”

Another reference is Hotel Glo in Hel-sinki. Restaurant Alia Långvik in Con-gress Wellness Hotel Långvik is another domestic example.

“Sokos Hotel Vasilievsky and Sokos Hotel Olympic Garden and Reval Hotel, which today is Radission Sonya in St. Pe-tersburg, were interesting procurement projects,” recalls Berner.

One of the largest cruise ships in the world, Allure of the Seas, was partly dec-orated with Vallila fabrics.

“We strive to pursue larger concepts by our customers. This benefits us, since we know how to carry on turn-key pro-jects, or turn-key subprojects. Our decoration and building teams are very competent, but naturally we use other companies to some extent, for example, in electricity issues.

“We also have expertise in fire-resistant fabrics, which are more common today. What we call biotechnical fabrics is also popular. These can even include catalyst fabrics, which can, for example, essentially decrease the smell of cigarette smoke.”

qJaffabyErikBruun

qKaisaniemibyTanjaOrsjoki

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A trend-setter and listener

Vallilla is a trend-oriented company. “We keenly observe what changes are

going on in housing, people’s preferences, and their attitudes to environment and ecology. We will have to be a trend-settler and a good listener as well, so that we can know what customer preferences are in the near future – and in the longer run.”

Anne Berner reminds that being trendy is not the only way to success.

“There are always classics, which are and will be popular. Sometimes small modifications can be done to these, but the basic patterns remain.”

For example, in the newest collection there is Erik Bruun’s old-time Jaffa soft drink print as curtains (Drink Jaffa origi-nally was a poster. Erik Bruun is already 85 years old but still works. He made new designs of Apaja for this collection!).

In the same collection, another clas-sic, the very popular “Kelohonka” pattern by Tanja Orsjoki, has got a new colorway with lime green.

www.vallilainterior.fi

tRakkausbySaaraEklund

pTop10byMatleenaIssakainen

uSydänkäpybySaaraEklund

qKattoterassiTanjaOrsjoki qMandariinibyTanjaOrsjoki

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Family traditions

Vallilla Interior was established by Swiss-born Otto Berner. The name of the company was Suomen Silkkituote Ltd. (Finnish Silk Product) in the beginning, but soon became Vallilan Silkkitehdas and later Vallila Interior.

Otto Berner studied weaving in his home country of Switzerland. After visiting Finland, he noted that there was a market in his new home country for linings, under garment materials and other fabrics.

Otto’s son Rudolf expanded the businesses, and Rudolf’s daughter, Anne Berner, joined Vallila in 1986 and started to develop the interior decorating of public spaces and project operations.

Already in the 1970s the American artist and designer,

Howard Smith, joined the company. His bold, large and colorful designs gave the collection an exciting new look and were a big success. This co-operation continued through the 1970s and the Vallila brand was established. Designs like Makeba and Miriam, named after the singer Miriam Makeba, are still in today’s collections, as are many other retro designs.

In November 1989 the company’s name was changed to Oy Vallila Interior Ab, better reflecting the company’s operations. Howard Smith designed the Vallila company logo, which, with small alterations, is still in use today.

In the 1990s, attention has been turned towards the opening markets of the Baltic countries and Russia. Oy Interia International Ltd. was founded as an export

company to focus on contract and retail business opportunities. Interia’s name was changed into Oy Valilla Interior International Ltd. in January 2011.

The first Vallila’s “shop-in-shop” in Finland was launched in 1995 with good success.

The company also grew by some acquisitions. As Keha and Deco House were acquired, the company grew and expanded to include wallpaper, furniture, lighting and carpets. In the spring of 2010, Deco House, Keha and Vallila Interior Contracting merged into one concern.

In recent years the company has reached a turnover of 35-40 million euros and has over 20 shop-in-shops throughout Finland. It is, in the Nordic scale, a rather big interior design company, with almost 140 employees.

We started exports to Sweden, Switzerland and England in January 2011. Results have been rather satisfying.”

Something soft between you and the world Familon Strong Part of Finlayson Concept Finlayson is one of the oldest garment and textile brands in Finland. Today the company mainly focuses on home textiles, but the company’s products comprises also contract textiles.

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Sini Pennanen, Finlayson

JoukoSalakka,CEOofFinlayson&CoOy

CEO of Finlayson & Co Oy, Jouko Salakka, says that the com-pany has two business branches.

“One can be called sleeping or bed business; the other is linked to traditional home decoration. Both categories count

for about half of the revenue.”Originally Finlayson was a textile factory in Tampere, and it was estab-

lished as early as in 1820. Since 2004, Finlayson range has been comple-mented with Familon duvets, pillows and mattresses.

Today the company’s product design, sales and administration units are located in Helsinki. Textile manufacturing of Finlayson has been consoli-dated in the town of Forssa.

“Our duvets, pillows and bedspreads are made in Kankaanpää where the annual output is about one million pillows and hundreds of thousands of quilted products.”

Heinola is the place of manufacturing of Familon sprung beds, mat-tresses and mattress pads. Annual output comes to some 250,000 items.

Health and wellness are key words in the Familon approach. Long-term cooperation with the Allergy and Asthma Federation of Finland guarantees our products are ideal for allergy suff erers."

Familon has several sub brands such as Familon Ultra, Familon Ultra Th isulate, Familon Ultra Outlast, Familon Hiphop, Familon Princess, Familon Family with Eco-Logic concept and Familon Futurex.

Allergy-tested products

Health and wellness are key words in the Familon approach,” says Jouko Salakka.

“Long-term cooperation with the Al-lergy and Asthma Federation of Finland guarantees our products are ideal for al-lergy suff erers,” says Jouko Salakka

“We ensure beforehand the suitability of the general use of various materials. We have innovative options for particu-larly sensitive consumers.”

Finlayson’s bed linens – Familon du-vets, pillows, special padding mattresses and many mattress pads – have been granted the right to use the Allergy and Asthma Federation of Finland’s coopera-tion label.

“Mattresses, pillows, duvets and bed linens aff ect their users for an average of eight hours a day. Th is is why thorough research and testing constitute an im-portant part of Finlayson’s operations. Th rough our bed products, Familon is in direct contact with people from dawn till dusk, and from dusk till dawn.

“What is more, Finlayson Oy textiles and Familon bed products add a touch of luxury to private homes and public prem-ises,” says Salakka.

Allergy and Asthma Federation of Finland guarantees our products

FamilonUltra

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Oeko-Tex standard

Finlayson Oy has been awarded the ISO9001 quality management certifi cate, the ISO14001 environmental management certifi cate and the OHSAS18001 certifi cate for oc-cupational health and safety manage-ments systems.

Most Finlayson and Familon products use fabrics that comply with the interna-tional Oeko-Tex standard.

“Th is label ensures that products are safe for consumers. To achieve the acknowledgment, the textiles must be tested by an independent research insti-tute recognized by Oeko-Tex,” says Jouko Salakka.

Finlayson products contain no sub-stances that are harmful to the human skin. Th e pH level is skin-friendly.

“Finlayson products have been proved to be free of harmful substances. For ex-ample, the dyes used are non-toxic. In ad-dition, our modern production technol-ogy saves energy and water.”

“Fair Trade recyclable cotton is used in Finlayson products. � e Terry (cot-ton) towel production is outsourced to

Belgium, but designs are our own. We naturally observe that also

this part of production is sustainable.”

management certifi cate, the ISO14001 environmental management certifi cate

ton) towel production is outsourced to Belgium, but designs are our own.

We naturally observe that also We naturally observe that also

awarded the ISO9001 quality management certifi cate, the ISO14001 awarded the ISO9001 quality management certifi cate, the ISO14001 environmental management certifi cate

Belgium, but designs are our own. We naturally observe that also

FamilonUltraOutlast

FinlaysonProPetaus

FinlaysonTerrytowels

FamilonFuturex

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Varied sales channels

Finlayson has 15 stores in Finland. Ten are in the city centers or malls; the other fi ve are factory outlets.

“Th e number could increase to 30, but possibly not over it, at least not in Fin-land,” says Jouko Salakka.

Th e fl agship store is in Pohjois-Espla-nadi, the very city center of Helsinki. Th e location of the Helsinki store is one of the best in the city, and many tourists also visit the store. Previously Marimekko was in the same premises.

“Own shops are important, but we also have good resellers in Finland, like some large retail chains and department stores. Finlayson also has a web store.

“Abroad we are present in the Baltic countries as well as in Russia. We have our own store in Stockmann’s premises in St. Petersburg. Some Finlayson products are sold through other special stores. One curiosity is that the UK’s fi rst Moomin shop was opened in London’s popu-lar Covent Garden retail area. Lovely Moomin textiles by Finlayson form one part of the Moomin shop’s selection.”

“Own shops are important, but we also have good resellers in Finland, like some large retail chains and department stores. Finlayson also has a web store.

“Abroad we are present in the Baltic countries as well as in Russia. We have our own store in Stockmann’s premises in St. Petersburg. Some Finlayson products are sold through other special stores. One curiosity is that the UK’s fi rst Moomin shop was opened in London’s popu-lar Covent Garden retail area. Lovely

textiles by Finlayson form one part of the Moomin shop’s selection.”

Projects and business gifts In addition to retail, Finlayson also has Project Sales.

“Th is is a service for professionals who are responsible for the com-

fort and safety of their clients. In the Finlayson Pro textile collection you will fi nd a comprehensive selec-tion of quality textiles for many uses.”

The Finlayson Pro bed products offer solu-

tions for all accommodation types, including individu-ally tailored packages.

Jouko Salakka reminds that highly valued Finlayson and Familon home textiles make perfect business gifts:

“Our people at B-to-B Sales serve you when you are thinking of gimmicks and collect-and-get product, PR and business gifts, seasonal and incentive gifts for personnel, prizes and premiums, gift vouchers or resale of business gifts.”

©MoominCharacters™

FinlaysonProPetaus

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Mailis Linnola is the Design Director at Finlayson. She tells that design plays a very important role in Finlayson collec-tions, and that the Design from Finland label is an honor for the company.

“Th is label indicates that there is a unique Finnish and Scandinavian design competence. Finnish design is appreciat-ed both inside and outside of Finland. Th e label is also a sign that Finnish designers are well-employed and appreciated.”

New designs are done in the spirit of the Design from Finland label. To some extent Finlayson uses freelance designers.

“Th ey can bring fresh winds, and for their own part they can get a good ref-erence when working for us – even in a short project or just one fabric.

“For this year we have designed, to honor the World Design Capital (WDC) title, a special Helsinki collec-tion, which describes Helsinki from a bird-eye perspective.”

Th ese include Jaana Reinikainen’s the “Coast”. “Töölö” by Suvi Kankkonen is dedicated to this town part’s peculiar ar-chitecture.

“At Home” by Anu Kanervo uses fl oor plans of Töölö apartments as an impor-tant source of inspiration. A new pattern

Coast

Taimi

Coronna

TheOpticApple

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of “Puuvilla” (Cotton) for duvet covers is designed by Kanervo as well.

Visually strong “Emperor” is by Sami Vulli. He has been designing also quilt covers, like humorous “Aappa”, which re-fers to apes. Sami Vulli and Anu Kanervo are Finlayson’s in-house designers.

“We aim to improve the wellbeing of people, by means of producing good quality bed products as well as by creat-ing visually pleasant products. Our in-house designers keep pace with the times and seek for new trends. Every season we have a new contemporary collection. And

every year Finlayson publishes some 20 new fabrics, and leave out others.

“Classics still have a central role, and those are an indicator of continuity, all the way from the 1950s. What sometimes are called retro fabrics include, for exam-ple, “Coronna” (1958) and “Taimi” (1961)

MailisLinnola

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by Aini Vaari. “Th e Optic Apple” by Pirk-ko Hammarberg got infl uence from the Op Art of the 1960s and was especially popular in the 1970s.

“Another evergreen retro fabric is the “Elephant”, which was part of the col-lection in the 1970s and now again, in a little bit diff erent color off erings,” con-cludes Linnola.

www.familon.fi www.fi nlayson.fi

AnuKanervo

Aappa

AtHome

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Finlayson history

Finlayson has a rich heritage of manufacturing quality textiles since 1820. The company has been technologically advanced. The first electric bulb light in the Nordic countries was switched on at Finlayson premises in 1882.

At its peak, the factory employed more than 3000 people. The factory area even had its own schools,

church, shops and currency. There has been a Finlayson shop in the same place for more than 100 years.

Emperor

SamiVulli

Cariitti Oy, a Finnish company which designs and manufactures lighting, is on it's way to a better tomorrow. New technologies can not only enhance living conditions, but also reduce energy consumption levels.

CariittiIlluminating the Way to the Future

Text: Jarkko RepoPhotos: Johanna Kannasmaa

PeterRuokonen,ManagingDirector

The company was originally established almost forty years ago under a dif-ferent name. The company was bought by the Ruokonen family in 1998, after which the name was also changed to Cariitti. The current Managing Director, Peter Ruokonen, is taking care of the company and looking to-

wards the future of light.Cariitti has a showroom in Vantaa, Finland. The first thing that everyone sees is

the minimalistic Nordic design and some lamps that give away the true nature of the showroom. The overall feel of the showroom is Nordic in design, also when it comes to the illumination of the area. However, when the controllers are used, one can easily change the feel of the showroom from the somewhat cold Nordic style to even a warm Mediterranean feel.

− We are placing our efforts in LED -technology. In our opinion, the reduction of energy consumption levels, together with new possibilities, is the only way to go.

It's not just a short whim for the company. Over the last decade, Cariitti has been pushing the boundaries of light fixtures.

− We not only place a great deal of effort into the design of the fixtures, but also want to have the technology involved, however the technology is kept under wraps.

Text: Jarkko RepoPhotos: Johanna Kannasmaa

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We aim to have lighting which might be visible, but can also be hidden. As an example, we have designed a new way of lighting kitchens, in which the indirect light shines into the drawers and into the dishwasher – this aids the viewing without the user being dazzled by direct light."

Something can be said about the re-search carried out by Cariitti Oy. Th ey were the fi rst to have sauna -illumina-tion by fi bre-optics. It is currently the most common way of illuminating sauna environments. Cariitti has changed the world of illumination once – they are now doing it again.

The future of light

Over the last years, the legislation for lighting has been changing, for example, in the EU and Australia. Th e objective of the new laws aims to lessen the overall impact of light sources on nature. Th e laws have been criticized in colder re-gions, however, new fi ndings have begun to ensure that being distanced from tra-

ditional light sources is good for the envi-ronment in all markets.

Th e solution has been, is and will be LED -technology. Invented in 1962, the potential of the technology is extensive. It does not however just concern the en-ergy consumption levels – the future is in lighting that enhances the mood.

− It has been used in marketing for so long now that I personally refuse to say anything concerning health and light fi xtures.

Peter Ruokonen has an inside view into the world of illumination. Global companies have been pushing for health aspects in lighting for years and even when the positive results are there – it's still not that simple.

Within markets where the hours of

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ABOUT LED -TECHNOLOGY

LED - light-emitting diode•a semiconductor light source•invented in 1962•25 000 to 100 000 hours of lifetime•more efficient in comparison to other lighting technologies

culture & design


daylight are short for half of the year, it's impor-tant to gain ”natural” light from fixtures. No one is denying that. However, the usage and simplicity is more important than having light fixtures beside you when you are sleeping.

− We aim to have lighting which might be visi-ble, but can also be hidden. As an example, we have designed a new way of lighting kitchens, in which the indirect light shines into the drawers and into the dishwasher – this aids the viewing without the user being dazzled by direct light.

The mood of the area depends on several fac-tors – light being one of the most important play-ers. Just imagine having a bedroom with light that can illuminate the room by either white, blue or red light. Different feels for different situations. The future of illumination lies in its variety.

Taking light abroad

Cariitti has been active in exporting design and knowledge into different markets. They have also been active in larger projects and have taken care of lighting for cruisers, museums, concert halls, hotels and night clubs etc.

Cariitti exports it's products into several mar-kets (approx. 30 countries), Russian is the largest volume wise, for distributors. The same business plan is active in Finland and the objective of Cari-itti's own showroom is primarily to give the idea of what they can offer instead of direct sales.

After previously changing the world with the fibre-optic lighting in saunas – it's time to take the next step. The company is placing a great deal of effort in the design process.

− I was told that a company needs to have a new model every year in our market. I was amazed – we will have something new ready, when we have

Cariitti has been pushing new ideas into the market on a yearly basis, however, the attitude is the key here."

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something new ready. We do not aim to have new mod-els if there are no new ideas.

Cariitti has been pushing new ideas into the market on a yearly basis, however, the attitude is the key here. They are not trying to push something into the market, just to have a new product – Cariitti is pushing new ideas. That has been the reason for the growth of the company. With the best possible credit ratings, Cariitti is taking light abroad and into the daylight.

www.cariitti.fi

Here are only a few examples of what can be done with Cariitti products. More infor-mation can be found on www.cariitti.com


Havi got its brand name from Viipuri’s town part Havi, where production mainly occurred in the 19th century."

SallaKivinen,ProductManager


Havi candles were exported from Finland al-ready in the 19th century. The producer of good-hearted candles aims to increase the share of exports in its operations.

Havi Good-hearted

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Sini Pennanen, Havi

Candles

Havi candles and Tuikku tea lights are produced in the Riihimäki plant, located about 80 kilometers from Hel-sinki. The Product Manager Salla Kivinen tells that households appreciate tradition-rich Havi candles.

“Few people know that Havi is one of the oldest chemical com-panies in Finland. Havi was established in the city of Viipuri in 1829, so we have more than 180 years’ experiences in making can-dles,” tells Kivinen.

Havi got its brand name from Viipuri’s town part Havi, where production mainly occurred in the 19th century. Candles were ex-ported even to St. Petersburg, Lübeck and Stockholm.

In the World War II Finland lost the city of Vyborg to the Soviet Union. Production of Havi was moved to Riihimäki.

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New modifications

Today Riihimäki production facilities are modern and automated, although semi-handmade candles are also made in a lim-ited scale. The automated production line makes, for example, Tuikku® tea lights. Raw materials are paraffin and the cup is made from aluminum.

“We try to find ways to make even bet-ter tea light candles, and there are several different raw material possibilities to pro-duce tea lights,” says Kivinen.

The basic raw materials are the same, but even small modifications may im-prove the quality of paraffin or stearin. The latter in Havi’s production is made of animal-based stearin.

“Plant-based stearin, often made of palm wax, is not regarded as sustainable raw material as animal-based stearin,” says Salla Kivinen.

Crown candles and antique tapers are the main stearin candles made by Havi.

“In what we call stearin candles our market share is even 90 percent. In pillar candles (table candles) the share is about 30-40 percent.”

®

culture & design


Partly handmade candles

Many candles are still partly handmade, made in traditional semi-automated molding machines. Birthday cake can-dles, Independence Day candles and part-ly antique tapers belong to this group, as do Christmas tree candles.

“We call these molding machines carusell. Antique carusell, for example, has about 1800 molds. First you have to warm up the molds, then cast the stearin inside the mold and lastly cool down the molds and then pick up the candles.”

Outdoor flares have increased popu-larity in the 2000s, and this can be seen also in Havi’s production.

Accurate deliveries

In Finland about 90 % of all candles are consumed in the last three months of the year.

“This brings some challenges for lo-gistics, but we have a good warehousing facility, which all in all includes 10 000 palette places.”

One of Havi’s strengths is almost im-mediate availability.

culture & design


“We have short lead time in our warehouse. Domestic customers get candles he or she ordered with almost 100 percent accuracy and within 1-2 days,” says Salla Kivinen.

“We have approximately 45 employees. It is quite natu-ral that in the more hectic time of a year we employ more people than in the quiet summer months.”

Havi candels are exported to Sweden, Norway and to some extent to the Central Europe.

“Estonia is also a quite big market from our perspec-tive. Altogether, exports are about 10 percent of Havi’s turnover. We have strong faith in increased exports.”

Salla Kivinen tells that the demand for candles remains good, but price pressures have occurred from time to time.

“Within a couple of years, prices of raw materials have increased tens of percent. On the other hand we still have unused capacity, so we could export even more. There is still much import from East Asia, which makes price pres-sures on the market. Anti-dumping duty has helped and now the situation is better.”

Havi is not only a brand for candles. Havi napkins have been manufactured since the late 1990s. These are designed by Finnish designers such as Hannele Kiviniemi, Tarja Senne, Anni Paunila, Merja Palin and Liina Blom.

www.havi.fi www.hyvasydan.fi

culture & design


Suomen Kerta Oy Havi belongs to Suomen Kerta Oy, a Finnish family-owned company. Suomen Kerta Oy manufactures and markets products both for households and professional customers in the segments of HoReCa and foodstuff. Havi has been part of Suomen Kerta since 2004.

The Kotka factory’s range consists of printed napkins and table setting items, branded under the labels Havi and Marimekko. Customers can also order tissues with their own designs or logos.

The Imatra factory’s product range includes disposable cardboard plates and cups, cutlery and fast food packag-ing, branded under the labels Freetime and Ecotime.

Ecotime product range is basically from pure pulp. Ima-tra plant re-uses the raw material from paper cups and plates that are residue materials from the production. Products are biodegradable.

Today Suomen Kerta Oy employs around 200 people in three production units in Imatra, Kotka and Riihimäki, and in the Espoo office. The budgeted sales for 2012 are 30 million euros, of which about 30 percent could be exports.

Nanna Susi– Passion and Soul-like Cruelty

In Nanna Susi’s opinion, it is important for an artist to be ready to throw one-self off, to take chances, to try to find something new, even at the expense of one’s own comfort.

Artist Nanna Susi has sometimes named her paint-ings “landscapes – explorations” – explorations into her existence and her fantasy. Italian art crit-ic, Lorella Scacco, has said:

“An essential characteristic of the paintings (of Nanna Susi) is the absence of a clear-cut distinction between internal and external space: rather, they are marked by a chaotic visionary permeation. It is diffi cult to distinguish the horizon in the land-scapes. Cognition, intuition, sensation – all of these come to-gether and intermingle, in an undulating manner, in the fl uent brush of the artist.”

Nanna Susi often uses brilliant mixtures of colours. Some-times her colour scale is more limited, but in most cases, a thick layer of colours create a certain vague but interesting three-di-mensionality.

“I use only oil colours, which change according to the light-ing. It can blaze, it can form shadows, it transforms quite a lot, even in a short period of time, when one watches the painting.”

“I often like to work on large paintings. But, it does not mat-ter how big the painting is. It might be 30 x 50 centimetres or even 30 x 50 metres – what is important is the intensity of the painting.”

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Sini Pennanen, Nanna Susi

Nanna Susi– Passion and Soul-like Cruelty

culture & design

Business Finland 1/2012108 Business Finland 1/2012108108 Business Finland 1/2012108108 Business Finland 1/2012

Can suffering be avoided?

Even the best artists are infl uenced by others. “I was greatly impressed by Dan-ish artist Per Kirkeby, when I saw his ex-hibition in Finland in 1989.”

Another strong experience came when Susi saw Mark Rothko’s exhibition in Paris.

“I’m not an overly supersensitive woman, but back then I cried in front of Rothko’s paintings. I may not have actu-ally been infl uenced by him a great deal, but I liked the simplicity and horizontal solutions in his paintings.”

However, the real artistic soul mate has been Susan Rothenberg, an Ameri-can artist whose painterly rich style won recognition from the 1970s onwards with her iconic horse paintings. Later, Rothen-berg shifted to a more abstract style, yet human fi gures remained in focus in an original way.

Nanna Susi’s painterly style resembles Rothenberg’s, but her approach is diff er-ent. Th ere is no need to refer to any “ism”.

Critic Altti Kuusamo used the term “Oce-anic” regarding Nanna Susi’s paintings:

“Oceanic expression seizes and syn-thesizes: I is omnipotence, where kitsch has been subordinated to higher levels of emotional fi lters.”

Th is means, says Kuusamo, that de-tails melt in the cosmic colour wax of the landscape. It is about the universal feel of it all. It is about the inner self:

“For a long time, I only painted scen-eries and landscapes, often refl ecting the inner self. Nowadays, there are more and more human fi gures in my paintings, es-pecially faces. I sometimes even talk of a landscape of faces.”

One series is called A Man in Deep Water. But it is not about diving. Rather, the man is walking in water, a little lost and insecure about his future.

Another series in her studio, called Underneath the Eyes, depicts women.

“Th e women in my paintings are those who have experienced life, who are jag-ged or rough by their appearance. Th ere

is something of a soul-like cruelty in this series.”

Nanna Susi’s words of “soul-like cru-elty” have an impact on my mind. Th ere is something contradictory about that, if we see a soul-like positive term, refi ned or so, but maybe cruelty, on the other hand, should not be taken too literally? Perhaps she just seems to say that cruelty and suff ering cannot be avoided in this world? But this suff ering is possibly cru-elty against oneself? Th ere are no ready-made answers in Nanna Susi’s paintings.

Achieving a lot through simplicity

In 2000, Nanna Susi won the Young Art-ist of the Year Award. Th is gave her an opportunity to have a large exhibition at Tampere Art Museum.

Th e paintings in this exhibition were truly colourful and full of energy. Good examples of these were the paintings And the Heart Beats and A Th ousand Loves.

culture & design

Business Finland 1/2012 109Business Finland 1/2012

During the autumn of 2012, Nanna Susi is going to have another large exhibition at the Helsinki Art Museum Tenn-ispalatsi. Th e retrospective exhibition will open in Septem-ber and will last for three months.

“I will put paintings from the beginning of 2000 on dis-play, but I primarily want to concentrate on more recent works. I will also paint some new works during this spring and summer.”

When visiting her studio in Kaapelitehdas, a lively art and design centre, new paintings are taking shape. Nanna Susi says, however, that she does not know yet, if some of these large paintings will be displayed.

For sure, Nanna Susi’s exhibition at Helsinki Art Mu-seum Tennispalatsi will present a broad selection of her paintings in the light of diff erent periods and themes. Th e museum info pages state that “the expressive works sweep the viewer along to an exciting adventure, to stories about lives, both big and small.”

“Susi's extremely acute sensitivity is full of power and the colours propel the spectator along from one mood to the next. Th e rich symbolism in Nanna Susi's paintings pro-vides endless possibilities for interpretation.”

On the other hand, complicated interpretations should not be exaggerated. Nanna strives for simplicity, to achieve a great deal with relatively scarce symbolism.

culture & design

Business Finland 1/2012110 Business Finland 1/2012

Holy art school

In 1997, Nanna Susi graduated as Master of Arts from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, often known as “Ateneum” or “Atski”.

“Th e art school Ateneum was a holy place for me. Th e teachers were professional. But, I also received some tips on how to live my life. One advice was to fully enjoy life. Go and eat in a very fancy restaurant, if you get a larger sum of money. Do not worry about tomorrow too much.”

Th e Art school Ateneum was important to Nanna’s future, but the real passion has been Italy. Nanna Susi has spent years in Rome and her son Raff aello is half-Italian.

“At one time, I was in Rome every month, perhaps every 5-6 weeks. Only God knows how much money I have spent for these trips. I was in Italy permanently from 1999-2006.

Today, Nanna Susi lives in Helsinki in a gorgeous Art Nouveau building, which she has decorated in an eccentric but stylish way. Th e fl oor that is made of planks is black, there are large mirrors and unique items of wooden furniture – but just one painting of her own on the wall!

“At an earlier time, I had a studio in con-nection to my home, but there were too many people coming and going around. It was not easy to concentrate on painting. My working day is actually quite regular, from nine AM to three PM. I sometimes work 10-12 hours a day, if the painting is at a crucial phase. At that time, you just forget how time passes.”

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The dilemma of commercial art

Nanna Susi loves Finnish nature and Finnish people.

“One thing however bothers me. It is a little bit of a hypocritical attitude towards money and art. Many Finnish artists state that they are against commercial art. But no one actually survives without some kind of commercial attitude. Everyone needs his or her living.”

“So, the stigma of a commercial art-ist can be strong. If you are considered to be too commercial in art circles, you will be easily downplayed by other art-

ists. It is not only that you would have commercial themes in your art. Even being too productive can result in a la-bel of commercialism. Well, I am not that productive, and since my paint-ings are large, I only paint 20-25 art-works a year.”

However, Nanna Susi also says that it is good to draw some line:

“Naturally, it is good to be wary that you do not repeat yourself too much just because this and this kind of paint-ing sells well. It is extremely important to have something new in your art.”

www.nannasusi.fi

NannaSusi’sexhibitioninHelsinkiattheArt

museumTennispalatsilastsfrom22.9.untiltheendofDecember2012.


Ref lections of Northern Nature

Text: Mervi LepojärviPhotos: Mervi Lepojärvi, Helena Laakso, Hanna Kanto

culture & design


A light breeze of an winter afternoon in Tornioriver valley gathers piles of snow on the steps of a studio where Hanna Kanto, 30, brings her own visions and thoughts about Lapland, its nature and spirit into life.

Here, in the region of Tornio-Haaparanta, one the most unique border zones in the world, where snow and the most captivating light mould the landscape, are the roots of an young artist who is said to be one of the most promising describers of the Lappish way of life.

The magic of realism

One of the most prominent features in the works of Hanna Kanto is her osten-sible bare use of colours. Times, places and occasions seem to come into action behind a dense flurry of snow, accom-plishing the impression of hiding matters, more than revealing them.

There are, however, some visual ele-ments that connect her paintings to the continuation of the northern course of life and its traditions, so that one can sense the anxiety of reindeers galloping during their roundup, the chilliness of the wind and the growling of snowmobiles bouncing between the fells.

These works, that critics have praised to have simultaneously succeeded in cap-tivating the fierce realism of Lapland, as well as representing the magic of its na-ture, have also received the interest and admiration of a large audience.

– The presence of snow and the mea-gre, sometimes even desolate nature, bal-ances with my tender way of painting, describes Hanna Kanto. – I use colours instinctively, even infinitesimally, and try to be both aware and precise with the nu-ances of each colour. Even snow has a vast range, ENDLESS in its variations, it may differ, for instance, according to the shade of sky or the weather, Hanna says and re-minds us that Eskimos also have several words resembling snow.

Love at first sight

Although born in Tornio, Hanna Kanto was not enchanted by the true Lapland until she was finishing her studies at the University of Lapland.

– In 2007, I decided to experience something totally different and moved to Kilpisjärvi to work on my master's the-sis and to collect material for my future works. It was then that my eyes were truly opened and I understood that all that I came across was something I wished to flesh out through my own art.

– I was touched by the minimalistic

My paintings now include several layers that also reflect my feelings, experiences and thoughts."

Ref lections of Northern Nature

Text: Mervi LepojärviPhotos: Mervi Lepojärvi, Helena Laakso, Hanna Kanto

culture & design


landscape, the ability to see so far, the incredible nature, living without any haste, the conversations and shared thoughts with the locals, and all the long kilometres that I skied, taking photos and collecting moments and visions.

– I even felt that it was essential to take part in all the traditional tasks, including ice fi shing with a net and rein-

deer roundups and experienced deep joy when being able to provide for myself, Hanna depicts.

Th e grip that Lapland has on Hanna's soul has not loosened its hold ever since. She still takes part in rein-deer roundups each winter. – Th e urge is so powerful, I just need to step on the gas and drive hundreds of kilo-metres to get invigorated.

It is therefore no surprise that Hanna Kanto eagerly de-fends the rights of the native.

– I do fear the short-sightedness and indiff erence of people and it's aff ects on the most delicate and sensitive fl ora of the fells. By heavily exploiting the nature, we'll only end up with environmental disadvantages.

–I, however, do not want to romanticize Lapland out of proportion, nor do I want to ignore the reality. Devel-opment takes place in natural courses, she ponders.

Room for interpretations

Development has also taken place in Hanna Kanto's ex-pression. Th e Lappish themes have altered to become more universal, an even the visual elements are no longer

October

culture & design


CURRICULUM VITAE

HANNA KANTO

Master of Arts, b.1981www.hannakanto.com,

[email protected], +35844 049 3697

Teaches and makes art in Haparanda, Sweden

STUDIES

2007 University of Lapland, Master of Fine Arts, Finland

2004 Bellas Artes, Universidad de Granada, Spain

2001 School of Art in Liminka, Finland

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011 tm•gallery, Helsinki, Finland

2009 ArtBabylon, Kirkkonummi, Finland

2009 Gallery Voima, Kemi, Finland

2009 Gallery Napa, Rovaniemi, Finland

2008 Skierri, Hetta, Finland2007 University of Lapland,

Rovaniemi, Finland2006 Library of Haparanda,

Sweden2006 Gallery of Gellary,

Rovaniemi, Finland2002 Town Hall, Tornio, Finland

JOINT AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND WORKSHOPS (selected)

2011 University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

2011 International Plein-air Painting Nierbylec, Poland

2011 Lappia!, Kemi Art Museum, Finland

2010 SkjL 10, Järvenpää Art Museum, Finland

2010 Elektrohaus, Hamburg, Germany

2010 NYT, Fine Art Association of Lapland, Kaaelintehdas- is this correct? DN, Helsinki, Finland

2010 Mänttä XV Art Festival, Finland

2010 Artists`Association of Lapland – NOW -20 years, Rovaniemi Art Museum, Finland

2009 Group exhibition of Fine Art Association of Lapland, Äkäslompolo, Finland

2009 SkjL 09, Kouvola Art Museum, Finland

2009 Nattfestival, Korpilombolo, Sweden

2009 Uuden karvan kuu, Kilpisjärvi, Finland

q

only related the subsistence from reindeers. – Lapland still exists in my works, as an

anchor of the foundation, but not as an en-tirety. To me, my paintings now include sev-eral layers that also reflect my feelings, expe-

Redskiingdress

Covers

riences and thoughts. I feel that the content has become more comprehensive, more per-sonal and, therefore, gives more room for the interpretation of each partaker.

Although introspection has taken its po-

culture & design


sition, Hanna's working method has re-mained the same; she paints several works simultaneously.

– In this process, I strive to create a unity for each exhibition. However, this aim is not

controversial with the individuality of each work. On the contrary, every painting has its own story to tell.

Hanna Kanto's works of art will be in-volved in exhibitions several times in the

Winternight

Ravens

culture & design


2009 Gellary gallery, Kotka, Finland

2009 Art Basware, Helsinki, Finland

2009 Neljän tuulen pesä, Kilpisjärvi, Finland

2008 Natfestival, Korpilombolo, Sweden

2008 Library of Oulu, Finland2008 Konstvisit, Kalix Sweden2004 Forestdance performans,

Aurikokalliot, Rovaniemi, Finland

2004 Christmas, Rovaniemi Art Museum, Finland

2004 Sculptures in Galleria Pommisuoja, Rovaniemi, Finland

2003 Jokivalkeat, fire sculpture event, Rovaniemi, Finland

2003 Photographs in Galleria Tuubi, Rovaniemi, Finland

SCHOLARSHIPS AND PRIZES

2011 Travel Grant, Arts Council of Lapland

2011 1/2-year grant, Arts Council of Lapland

2010 Arts Council of Lapland2010 The Paulo Foundation2010 Travel Grant, Arts Council of

Lapland2009 Arts Council of Lapland2009 Finnish Cultural Foundation,

Regional Foundation2003 Association of the

University of Lapland

WORKS IN COLLECTIONS

City of TornioCity of Rovaniemi

MEMBERSHIPS

Finnish Painters’ Union, aspirant membership

Fine Art Association of LaplandFine Art Association of Tornio

RESIDENCIES

2011 International Plein-air Painting Nierbylec 2011, Poland

2010 Lassagammi, Skibotten, Norway

2010 Residence of Arts Council of Lapland, Berlin, Germany

OTHER WORK ASSIGNMENTS

2010 - Art teacher in a Folk High School, Haparanda, Sweden

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

2012 Yliluonto – Supernature, Äkäslompolo, Finland

2012 BELA biennal, Portugal2012 BE 12, Kuopio, Finland2012 Men of the Forest, Salo Art

Museum, Finland

The presence of snow and the meagre, sometimes even desolate nature, balances with my tender way of painting."

q

Suopunki

forthcoming two years, both in Finland and abroad. Most young artists find it difficult to gain visibility, but

Hanna considers herself lucky. – As well as being well aware of the fi-

nancial difficulties that a young artist may encounter, I'm quite relieved, since I'm a qualified art teacher. My diploma provides financial security and gives me the possibil-ity to dedicate half of my year to my own artistic means of expression.

– Naturally, it's also the feedback, rec-ommendations and the criticism that may ease or complicate one's path. Success tends to breed more success, Hanna be-lieves and assumes that she has also ben-efited from the size of her works; they fit into an ordinary living room.

www.hannakanto.com

Andiata is a Finnish fashion company offering top quality for business wear. Andiata offers a wide selection of clothes, all which are designed for a modern business woman. The story of Andiata began over 25 years ago when designer Tarja Rantanen established the business.

Text: Jarkko RepoPhotos: Andiata

TarjaRantanen,CEOofAndiata

I enjoy working in the garment industry tremendously; I just couldn’t imagine doing any other type of work. Of course, as an entrepreneur, it is important to

have perseverance, faith in your own abili-ties and the ability to solve future problems that may present themselves. I however feel that I can best express myself and my view of things when working in a creative fi eld, and I have been delighted to receive confi rmation that my way of seeing things has been appre-ciated by our customers, and, through this, our business has become profi table.

High quality has been the fundamental base on which our operations have been built ever since the beginning.

The guiding principle of our actions rests on a fashionable collection that is constantly being renewed, as well as fi rst class products and services.

Quality levels can be continually devel-oped and refi ned better and better, but they will never be perfect.

At the product level, the choice of mate-rials and the methods of work are important.

"High quality has been the fundamental

base on which our operations have been built ever since the beginning."

culture & design


What kind of impression does a cus-tomer gain of our quality when they buy an Andiata product, or what kind of ex-perience does the customer have when they call our centre or when they visit our store- how are they treated and are their wishes listened to..

Every employee of the company can influence the quality of service that is on offer. We have also been loyal to our own line and style; we haven’t chased af-ter cheap prices or had to fundamentally change our concept in the changing eco-nomic situations.

Good products also sell during the worst times.

Another aspect of our success is our focus on the customer; our products are made purely for a commercial purpose, not for our own entertainment, or to re-alize our own artistic visions.

The basic customer is difficult to de-fine. The role of women is very different than it was 25 years ago. This also applies to their dressing styles.

The role of women in working life and representation tasks has increased and expanded.

I believe that regardless of where in the world live we live, certain types of women have the same hopes and dreams and the women's tastes towards clothing are similar.

The key words for the world of Andiata

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"We have also been loyal to our

own line and style; we haven’t

chased after cheap prices or had to

fundamentally change our concept in

the changing economic

situations."

prices or had to fundamentally

change our concept in

the changing

situations."

culture & design


women are high-quality materials, a good fi t and stylish appearance. They do not slavishly follow trends, but control their own destiny.

A woman can be daring, without losing her credibility at work

Export

As the managing director, I have a strong desire and ambition to develop the com-pany and increase business operations. The growth will most likely come from outside Finland, as the Finnish markets

Young business woman

• Get a well-fitting high-quality three-piece trouser suit: Jacket, trousers, skirt.

• Material wool / Spandex

• Black or dark blue in colour.

• White well fitting cotton / spandex, or, alternatively, a silk-satin blouse.

are in every case limited for Anidiata’s target group, although an increase may also be experienced in Finland. Growth is sought in the export market and at poten-tial "Flagship stores" in carefully selected locations.

One of the main export countries is Russia, for which large investments have been made recently.

We have participated in the Moscow Fashion Fair more than once and Andiata has recently opened a sales offi ce in Mos-cow, in conjunction with a local agent.

I believe that a local agent/profession-al is an essential prerequisite to success-ful exports. Extensive knowledge of the local markets and the ability to reach the right people at the early stages lays the foundation for longer-term cooperation and export developments.

Andiata’s products are also sold, all the way from St. Petersburg to Moscow.

Cooperation with the Russian custom-ers has been ongoing for 20 years, which is proof of the mutual satisfaction in the quality of both the products and the ser-vices provided.

"The Russians are a pleasure to work with, they have a good sense of style and a clear vision of fashion, and they are very international and demanding in their fashion-knowledge."

Each collection always originates from different sources of inspiration, from which the ideas are drawn. I, myself,

culture & design


"The sources of inspiration can be found over and over again in Paris. When wandering the streets and sitting in the cafes."

have always been fascinated by feminine women, no matter in what year and decade they have lived.

Thin silk chiffon dresses and sheer tops or silk satin blouses are intuitively consistent with mascu-line pinstripe suits, white shirts and wide-cut loose fi tting turned up trousers, even men’s waistcoats.

A necklace can be selected from the Andiata jew-ellery collection.

The signifi cance of different accessories has increased dramatically in recent collections; our range of jewellery is very extensive, as well our se-lection of scarves and belts.

Success in the fashion industry requires constant vigilance and a presence of being “alert”.

Keeping track of the times or a preference to al-ways be one step ahead of the times.

The atmosphere of Paris is inspiringThe sources of inspiration can be found over and over again in Paris. When wandering the streets and sitting in the cafes, I am 100% a fashion designer

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Awards• Fashion Gloria 1998• Golden Hanger 2002• Veuve Clicque Business Woman Award 2011

whose aesthetic eye is drawing infl u-ences from the pulse of the entire city.

The most important private place-ments of a designer's work are the Premiere Vision fabric trade fairs that are organized twice a year. These are the largest of their kind in the world. This is where the greatest and most important decisions regarding the new upcoming season are made.

Success in more than one areaThe use of power is a responsibility of the company and its employees. Of course, in my position as the manag-ing director, I require, both from my-self and my subordinates, a general commitment towards achieving the objectives of our company.

My style of leadership is based on Goal-orientation & Results.

Transparency and teamwork is im-portant in everything that we do,

The findings of the jury / Elvi Rangell

"Tarja Rantanen brilliantly meets the terms and conditions set for the Veuve Clicque prize winner.

As the owner and managing director, she is responsible for both the company's line of products and the company’s finan-cial results. Rantanen has shown innovation by continually reforming the Andiata product line, as well as keeping their products at the forefront of the developments of the field. He has shown courage by working in an industry in which the competition is extremely fierce. Survival in this competitive environment requires creativity and the grit to keep hold of your own line. "

culture & design


whether it’s a question of the tasks of a designer or the managing director.

The roles are diffi cult to isolate, I would rather say that I am 100% an en-trepreneur, who carries out their work with their whole heart, both at work and during their free time.

Andiata’s products are prepared in a subcontracted manner in Europe.

The fabrics are primarily supplied by top mills in Italy.

Quality

It seems that nowadays, the images created for brands are more impor-tant than the product itself.

In my opinion, this is not the right di-rection to go. The brand only preserves its identity, through its products.

At Andiata, the product is number one, attempts are made to put them together as well as possible and to correspond to the quality standards of the most critical consumers.

Suits that have well-fi tting cuts and

Andiata was the most successful clothing company in Southern Finland in 2010. This was according to the Success list of the Kauppalehti business journal.

high-quality materials can be worn just about anywhere and, most impor-tantly, they will not grow old as fash-ions change.

Ecological thinking is important to Andiata, and by buying high quality, you also save the natural environ-ment.

Business style

Dressing in the business world has been liberated, we no longer wish to separately emphasize business dress-ing, the clothes can still be stylish without having to be a trouser suit.

For this, Andiata has a wide range of options on offer.

Of course, there are areas in which specifi c dress codes are followed.

Good customer service is the fact that a customer can fi nd a pleasant and suitable outfi t for different situ-ations.

We encourage each customer to fi nd their own style and to emphasize the good points of their body.

Our capable sales employees/ dressing advisors will be happy to help in all clothing-related matters, includ-ing the, so-called, ethical dressing.

www.andiata.fi

It's All About the Family –

Ivana Helsinki

Ivana Helsinki is a globally known Finnish fashion and design brand. The BRAND was established in 1998 by three members of the Suhonen family (sisters Paola and Pirjo, together with their father Pentti). The workload has been shared, to ensure that everyone gets to do what is closest to their heart.

Text: Jarkko RepoPhotos: Kim Öhrling, Ivana Helsinki

PaolaSuhonen,ArtDirector

Ivana Helsinki releases a new collection twice a year. This has been the tradition in the world of fashion for years."

culture & design


Paola Suhonen is the ART DIRECTOR for the company, taking care of all DESIGNS IN GENERAL. Clothes have been the way forward for Ivana Helsinki, as they were the first Scandinavian company to get into the main show

CALENDAR of the Paris fashion week.These days, the collections are sold worldwide.− We have customers everywhere. It's not about the location, age or

anything like that. Our customers are members of our IVANA HEL-SINKI FAMILY. Those who share our views AND VALUES will most likely also love our style.

Commented Pirjo Suhonen, director of marketing. Her sister Paola Suhonen, the artist of the family, has free hands to design products and Pirjo takes care of other aspects concerning the business.

culture & design


− Paola can freely do whatever she wants. It's not our job to limit her designs in any way.

Ivana Helsinki is a family company which has not only succeeded in design, but also in business. This has been due to both sisters being able to do their own work without try-ing to interfere into what others are doing.

− Of course, we do have disagreements every now and then. As sisters, we can be rather direct with each other. But it's not to underestimate the work of others – instead, it's more about getting the best possible out-come.

Customers as family

Ivana Helsinki regards everyone as poten-tial customers to their world. Pirjo Suhonen talked enthusiastically about the possibilities.

− Even males can be members of our IVANA HELSINKI family, even though we do not even have clothes for men. Ivana Helsinki is about taking care of others, shar-ing things and KNOWING WHO YOU ARE.

Ivana Helsinki releases a new collection twice a year. This has been the tradition in the

culture & design


world of fashion for years. Still, everyone should under-stand what Paola Suhonen has said about fashion: ”Fash-ion is for idiots, style is for everyone”. That comment has been widely published, but somehow, it's still more impor-tant than anything else that the members of the Suhonen family might say.

Global fashion brands, such as Ivana Helsinki, need to have new designs available. Instead of using that as a tool for business – Paola has free hands to design clothes ac-cording to her own current life situation, moods, MEM-ORIES; HOW SHE INTERPRETS THE WORLD AROUND HER.

− It can somehow easily be seen, from our past col-lections, where my sister began and what she has gone through. Her designs are always from the heart, instead of thinking what could be easily sold.

And that's how it should be. Fashion is more about style than sales. This has been seen over the last few years when hipster culture has received wide attention and new

members. But even now, when Ivana Helsinki could cash in with their style which is rather similar to hipster culture – they are not doing it.

What can then be said concerning the current style that Ivana Helsinki offers? Real fashion, true design, so to say, is art. Should art be a target for criticism? It's about opinions and different views. One can easily find many extremely positive reviews concerning the current collec-tion of Ivana Helsinki. But most likely, the Suhonen fam-ily would prefer you to have your own opinion instead of listening to anyone else.

- Some will love our style, some will hate it. We are not for everyone. However, everyone is welcome to join our IVANA HELSINKI family, EVEN WHEN THEY MAY NOT WANT TO WEAR THE CLOTHES, BUT MAY FEEL THAT THE COMMON VALUES ARE SHARED. IVANA HELSINKI MAY ALSO BE RE-GARDED AS A STATE OF MIND.

culture & design


Ivana Helsinki is a family company which has not only succeeded in design, but also in business."

culture & design


Business as family

Ivana Helsinki has also completed designs for diff erent companies. Th ey began carrying out this co-branding with Coca Cola some years ago. After that, they've made designs for various projects – the latest being Subway in Finland.

− Helsinki is one of the design capitals for 2012 and this has provided us with many possibilities with dif-ferent kinds of companies to work together to achieve something new AND CREATE INNOVATIVE CONCEPTS AND PRODUCTS.

It is not easy to design something for another com-pany. Th e designer must understand the views and the world of the company and then try to fi nd a de-sign which gives something new, whilst also remain-ing true to the customer. Th is requires something from the customer, but even more so from the designer. Co-branding cannot be done unless the designer is open to discussion.

Ivana Helsinki has been successful in such projects. Th is provides another example of the company phi-losophy. It's all about doing things together and taking care of others. AND LISTENING TO WHAT OTHER PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY.

And there are even more stories behind this. Pi-rjo Suhonen talked about a new concept store which opened in New York during February 2012.

− We can organize diff erent theme evenings/nights there. It's about getting together, giving something back to our customers and making new worlds avail-able (to the customers and artists from diff erent fi elds).

culture & design


New York, New York Paola Suhonen moved to New York four years ago to study film arts. Ivana Helsinki has been active at New York fashion weeks and the company has just opened their first concept store in the heart of fashion.

The store is located close to a few other North-Eu-ropean brands, but also to many other niche brands which offer a wide selection of different styles and worlds.

− The opening of the store in New York was a logi-cal step for us. My sister has been living there for some years now and we've received a great deal of positive press concerning our shows during the fashion weeks there.

The store provides customers with the possibility to see the world of Ivana Helsinki. The store has a some-what melancholy feel with a twist of positive energy of waiting for something great to happen right about now.

The concept store will also enhance the world of Ivana Helsinki. Pirjo Suhonen explains the possibili-ties.

− We are carrying out a lot of measures to give something new to our customers. We've been net-working for years in both NYC and Finland. One of our goals is to put these two worlds together.

It's a goal due to the fact that Ivana Helsinki started in Finland. The collections might have Finnish names and the true stories behind the collections arise from Finnish culture – however, Ivana Helsinki is not a Finnish brand anymore. It's a brand that is owned and taken care of by everyone who is a member of the Ivana Helsinki family – even its customers.

www.ivanahelsinki.com

We've been networking for years in both NYC and Finland. One of our goals is to put these two worlds together."

Annikki Karvinen: Text: Piia ViljaPhotos: Annikki Karvinen

Finnish Quality Clothes for People at All Ages

Annikki Karvinen has become fa-mous for her unique designs and the use of strong colours. She was the first person to use hand-woven material in clothes design and by using this technique, she is able to create interesting struc-tures on fabrics.

Annikki’s clothes philosophy is to design and produce Finnish clothes for people of all ages and sizes. High-quality, natural mate-

rials, individuality and timeless designs are the basic principles when making the clothes. “We make short series products and we don’t mass produce. Our products consist of handmade, hand-woven and factory-made fabrics. It is im-portant to us that everything we sell is made in Finland”, explains Annikki’s son and the com-pany’s vice president, Aapo Karvinen.

Annikki Karvinen is known for her skill at fl uently combining diff erent colours together. Many of Annikki’s handmade coats and blaz-ers have become classics since the company was founded in 1968. “From our collection, we most-ly sell coats and blazers, and, in particular, our hand-woven blazers have become a hit product. All in all, our purpose is to design and produce ensembles. We have planned our collection in a way that the colours and cuts complement each other, enabling the customer to eff ortlessly com-bine diff erent garments together.”

Annikki Karvinen is a family run establish-ment, of which, Annikki Karvinen is still the artistic director.

Annikki’s innovation is producing hand-woven material, which has brought her to the global stage as a brave and distinctive designer."

culture & design


Hand-woven innovations

Annikki’s innovation is producing hand-woven material, which has brought her to the global stage as a brave and distinctive designer.

“Annikki already created this technique at the turn of the 60’s and 70’s and she is the fi rst designer who took this technique into particu-lar use when making and designing clothes. She has been a pioneer in the development of this fabric; in fact, we are in a constant process of developing the fabric even more. What used to be called Poppana is very diff erent today,” Aapo Karvinen explains.

Poppana is an older form of hand-weaving, where wefts were used instead of thread. Mod-ern hand-woven fabrics are made from diff er-ent kinds of threads to create diff erent struc-tures and thickness to textiles. Aapo Karvinen informs that they mostly use velvet and cotton threads, and in the winter, they tend to use heavier materials, such as wool.

“Annikki and the whole team in our factory in Jyväskylä are very skilful in employing this technique and developing it further. Th ey are able to create diff erent bindings to make the fabric’s structure look interesting. Th is is defi -nitely our expertise.”

Annikki creates exciting diff erent structures to handmade fabrics, by combining cotton and viscose. In addition to this, diff erent kinds of bindings are used in pockets and collars in her handmade clothes.

culture & design


Strong exports

Annikki Karvinen Oy employs around 20 people and their fac-tory and head offi ce is located in the Seppälä industrial area of Jyväskylä, a city in the lake district of Central Finland.

Annikki Karvinen’s turnover is 1. 5 million Euros a year, half of which comes from exports to other countries. Th e main ex-port markets are Germany, Japan, United States and Holland. “On top of this, we sell smaller quantities to countries such as South-Korea and other European countries like Switzerland and Austria”, Aapo Karvinen notes.

Annikki Karvinen has two stores in Finland: an outlet shop next to their factory in Jyväskylä and fl agship store in central Helsinki’s Pohjoisesplanaadi. In addition to their shops, they have around a dozen stockists located around Finland. Annikki Karvinen currently has no plans for expansion in the Finnish market, but the company is hoping to gain a bigger market share abroad.

culture & design


“We are interested in increasing our exports in Asia, Europe and United States. In Asia, our newest market is South-Korea, where we expanded a year ago. Th e market is strong in Japan, where we have been selling our products for a very long time. We are hoping to ex-pand into China, in so far as we can fi nd a suitable importer. We’ve recently had some interest from Chile. Th e economy is growing rapidly in South-America and there has been increased interest towards high-quality products.”

Th e recession and euro problems have lowered Annikki Karvinen’s demand, but not signifi cantly. Aapo Karvinen states that their usual customers are not aff ected and they still purchase the same way they used to. He notes that Annikki Karvinen’s garments are luxury products and because the media has magnifi ed the recession, it has become harder to obtain new customers.

Th e impact of cheaper goods on the luxury market does not worry Aapo Karvinen. He perceives that people would like to combine together more expensive quality brands and cheaper mass produced clothes. In recent years, the trend has changed and it has become fashionable to support ecological and ethical values. Companies have begun

culture & design

Th e impact of cheaper goods on the luxury market does not worry Aapo Karvinen. He perceives that people would like to combine together more expensive quality brands and cheaper mass produced clothes. In recent years, the trend has changed and it has become fashionable to support ecological and ethical values. Companies have begun ethical values. Companies have begun

culture & design

Th e impact of cheaper goods on the luxury market does not worry Aapo Karvinen. He perceives that people would like to combine together more expensive quality brands and cheaper mass produced clothes. In recent years, the trend has changed and it has become fashionable to support ecological and ethical values. Companies have begun ethical values. Companies have begun

to manufacture their clothes in Europe again, instead of third-world countries.

Aapo Karvinen is very positive about the future of Finnish design. “Values that highlight individuality, ethics, ecology and quality are increasing and Finland has a good reputation in that aspect. In addition to that, we also have some very talented designers in this country.”

culture & design


Spring/summer collection

True to the Annikki Karvinen style, the Summer/Spring col-lection 2012 is full of vibrant colours. Her clothing philosophy can be seen throughout her collection, the style is classic and transparent, and the clothes are designed to fi t all body types, regardless of their age.

Diff erent kinds of stripes are playing a major part in factory sewn fabrics and they are being used in whole garments, as well as in the details. Th e fabrics are mainly cotton, linen and 100% silk. Th is season, the dresses have womanly hems that are high-lighted by fi ne, well descending, fabrics..

Annikki Karvinen has customers from all around the world who visit their fl agship store in Helsinki. Th e busiest time is from May to September, when the shop sells more products to tourists than it does to Finnish customers. “We have a dress-maker in the store here in Helsinki. We can custom-make our products for customers and shorten hemlines or sleeves if that

is desired. Th is service is often very good for tourists, who are usually not spending more than one day in Finland and need the product altered quickly.”

Internationally, Annikki Karvinen’s clothes can be bought from the Takashimaya and Mitsukoshi department stores in Japan. In Europe and the United States of America, Annikki Karvinen products can be found from smaller boutiques that sell more individual, quality products or specialise in Nordic design. Annikki Karvinen’s daughter has two of the brand’s own stores in Germany, one in Hamburg’s Neuer Wall and another one in the Island of Sylt. Th e prices of the products range from 100 Eu-ros to 1 500 Euros.

www.annikkikarvinen.fi www.annikkikarvinen.fi

the Island of Sylt. Th e prices of the products range from 100 Eu-ros to 1 500 Euros.ros to 1 500 Euros.

www.annikkikarvinen.fi

Ofelia

Sust ainable Jewellery

Looking at the variety of the artistic output of goldsmith Kari Hirvonen, it is clear that he has a sharp eye for possible inspirations from any source. The Ofelia workshop of Mr Hirvonen is surprisingly small, but one can immediately feel the touch of professionalism right from the beginning.

Hirvonen established Ofelia 15 years ago. His career as a gold-smith is, however, much longer, stretching out for than 40 years.

“In my youth, I had planned on becoming an engineer. My teacher said in a straightforward way that it would not suit me. Today, it is easy to see that he was right.”

Hirvonen’s teacher, Olavi Kaarnakorpi, recommended that he should try to get into a goldsmith’s school. About 350 applied.

“I was one of the lucky 13 who entered the appreciated school in Helsinki.”Since 1973, he worked eight years for Lapponia Jewellery, which at that

time was a real trend-setter, an innovative company even on a global scale.

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Ofelia

by

Two courageous men began the tale of Lapponia - the entrepre-neur and visionary Pekka Anttila and the jewellery designer and artist Björn Weckström.

Together, these men broke all the rules concerning jewellery. After Pekka Anttila’s death, his son Jorma Anttila played an im-portant role.

“It was Jorma who asked me to join Lapponia again in 1987. During my fi rst Lapponia period in the 1970s, I was a craftsman; during the second period, I was quite much in charge of new models. I wouldn’t, however, say that I was an artistic director. We just had a great team and could create tens of new models every year.”

“I appreciated fellow gold-smiths and the strive of Pekka and Jorma Anttila for something diff erent. Th e s sales personnel also worked hard to fi nd inter-national customers, not to speak of Björn Weckström, who, for example, made stylish designs from platinum.”

In 1994, however, Kari Hir-vonen felt that he wanted to have new challenges. He placed an open job application in a profes-sional magazine for goldsmiths.

Within a few days, Yves Th o-man from the Swiss company, Golay-Buchel Asia, based in Hong Kong, off ered him a job in Manila.

“I was in the Philippines for two years. Th ere were 150 em-ployees at one time. Th ese were great times, but I wanted to set up my own business and return to Finland.”

Today, Hirvonen has a work-shop in Helsinki. He works alone, but also cooperates with a number of fellow goldsmiths from time to time.

KariHirvonen

Gold from Lapland is manually mined by a “pan for gold” technique, without any machines, so these are really ecological rings."

Gold from Lapland is manually mined by a “pan

Ofelia Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Ofelia

culture & design


River Gold

It is important for Kari Hirvonen that he knows the origins of the gold and pre-cious stones that he uses.

“The materials that I use must come from sustainable sources, ecologically and ethically. I do not want to be part of the blood diamond or illegal gold busi-ness. As an example, I personally know the person who delivers gold to me from the sources in Finnish Lapland.”

Kari Hirvonen has quite a large num-ber of Japanese customers, some of whom have asked Kari if he can make rings from the purest possible gold.

He thus created the River Gold ring, a very gold-rich ring, the surface of which is not as smooth as a normal gold ring. Golden River rings are quite heavy, be-tween 6-20 grams.

The Japanese appreciate the rough style of these rings, which are made by using primary melting. There are four ba-sic versions of River Gold rings.

“The most dynamic person in Lap-land’s travel industry, Päivikki Palosaari, also asked me to do something from Lap-

land’s own gold, and I have designed sev-eral pieces for her.”

“Gold from Lapland is manually mined by a “pan for gold” technique, without any machines, so these are really ecological rings,” notes Hirvonen.

The Flanders Cut

One of Ofelia’s specialties are jewels that are based on Flanders diamonds, which often come in a range of colours, from yellowish “champagne” to the shades of chocolate and cognac. Flanders Cut dia-monds are 8 sided and have 61 facets.

“The brilliance of the Flanders Cut lies in its octagonal shape. All of the facets have been positioned in a very precise way, so extreme glittering and shining are achieved.”

“In one item of jewellery, I used a co-gnac coloured Flanders diamond of 7 x 9 mm. It was a 3.5 carat wedding ring.”

Diamonds are naturally not the only option.

“My favourite precious stone is actu-ally the arctic carnet, a dark red-wine coloured stone, which can be found in Lapland and the Urals mountains. Tour-

maline is also an interesting precious stone.”

Sometimes, Kari Hirvonen receives special orders. One of the largest was a couple of years ago:

“One customer wanted to have a wed-ding date of 10.10.2010, so I made a solu-tion for him with lots of ones and zeros. 678 diamonds, platinum, white gold. The price was quite high, tens of thousands of euros, but normally, a customer can get a tailor-made and really unique jewel for between 5000-10 000 euros. But natural-ly, there are not so many of these during one year.”

“I have sold unique pieces to Japan, Germany and Great Britain most of all.”

Snow crystal expertise

Kari Hirvonen does not look down at projects that are based on volume prod-ucts. He has designed and manufactured champagne straws made of silver, nu-merous business gifts etc. USB Memory sticks with silver decorations have also been popular.

culture & design


Other popular business gifts include hand bag hooks. A “roller skater pin” that was designed for the then presiden-tial candidate and recent president Sauli Niinistö was very popular. As many as 38 000 pins were manufactured, according to Hirvonen’s design.

“Unique items are naturally more challenging, but there is nothing wrong about also producing nice items on an industrial scale.”

It is however very important for Hir-vonen that jewellery has a story, a future history of its own, but he does not like ar-tificial, fantasy-only stories.

“In a way, Lapponia has made fictions. I want to stick to the facts. Also, Faber-gé’s famous goldsmiths relied on fantasy. Goldsmith Alma Pihl, for example, made famous snowflake jewels, which do not follow the real patterns of snowflakes.”

Although Pihl’s approach was differ-ent from his own, Kari Hirvonen does not want to boast that his way of doing things is better:

“I was just impressed by a book named Snow Crystals, written by Bentley and Humphreys and printed in 1931. In their book, possibly for the first time, they re-

vealed what snowflakes and crystals re-ally look like.”

“Alma Pihl and other Fabergé gold-smiths have, however, carried out great work in the late 19th century and at the beginning of 20th century. This success story of its time was created to a large de-gree by Finnish goldsmiths who moved to St. Petersburg. Many Russians and Finns know this fascinating story, but not many others. For example, the long-time head workmaster, Henrik Wigström, was from Finland, and he played an important role in making Fabergé a world-famous name.”

Like his Czar era predecessors, Kari Hirvonen is a hard-working man.

“I sometimes work 12-13 hour days, but during the summer, I take a two month holiday and enjoy the Finnish wa-terways and archipelagos by boat.”

Kari Hirvonen even has a sauna on his 11 meters long travel boat Ofelia II.

“During the winter time, I rest abroad for one month, but often, I also work, since I try to find additional contacts to find precious stones for my jewels.”

www.ofelia.com

Wood Jewel

Kauko Raatiniemi represents Lappish entrepreneurship in its fullest. The self-made man believed in handcraft, in artistic motifs of his native province of Lapland and in local people’s talent. Today Raatiniemi’s Wood Jewel souvenirs and jewels concept has grown from one-man garage effort into an essential employer in the West of Lapland.

Strong Faith in Local Materials and Motifs

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Klaus Susiluoto, Wood Jewel

We do all design by ourselves. We do not even use freelance designers. Continuous renewal is one cornerstone of our success.”

In English the term “garage success stories” is sometimes used when referring to business breakthroughs, which literally started from a garage. For example, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computer in the 1980s

in a garage. Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google, the big-gest internet search fi rm now, also in humble premises.

In a smaller scale, Finland also has some garage success sto-ries. Kauko Raatiniemi started his Wood Jewel, souvenirs and business gifts business at home and in a garage located in his own yard in the 1980s, in Kolari, western Lapland.

“In 1984 I ran my last marathon – after that it became so hectic with handcraft business that I could not practice sports any more. Offi cially I set up the company in 1986,” says Raatiniemi.

From the mid 1990s the business has expanded greatly. In 2001 new modern production facilities and a small shop connected to it were fi nished. In 2005 Wood Jewel expanded further.

“A café and restaurant was opened on the other side of the road. Factory outlet and a small production unit for knife sheath are in the same building complex.”

culture & design


Local motifs

In 2007 a new Wood Jewel shop was opened in Ylläs ski resort, in Äkäslompolo, in con-nection with a small Jouni shopping centre. Th e last enlargement was in another ski re-sort Levi, where a shop was set up in 2010.

Kauko Raatiniemi reveals that it was in fact tourists coming to Lapland’s ski resorts that gave him the original idea of souvenirs and gifts:

“I was thinking what kind of products would appeal to a Finnish or non-Finnish traveler. I immediately understood that materials and motifs should be local or regional.”

“Th ere is an interest in local materials and genuine hand-made products. It is not just a boom. People are tired of mass pro-duction, I believe.”

Wood Jewel does not make much mar-

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keting, but inquiries are coming from abroad and Finland quite regularly.

“We listen to customers’ wishes. Many ideas originally are from some of our cus-tomers, but naturally we have to fi nd our own approach with materials and tech-niques.”

Wood Jewel premises in Kolari are ac-tually a tourist venue at the same time.

“Visitors can see through the win-dow how gift items are manufactured, from raw materials to a fi nished product. We have nothing to hide. People are in-terested in hand-made products. Why shouldn’t we show the process?”

In-house design

Kauko Raatiniemi emphasizes the role of talented craftsmen and craftswomen.

“We do all design by ourselves. We do not even use freelance designers. Contin-uous renewal is one cornerstone of our success.”

Today the company employs 15-20 people, depending on the season. Kauko Raatiniemi’s son Tuomas and his wife Heidi are also working for Wood Jewel, as

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is Kauko’s’s wife Irma. Th e material widely used in Wood

Jewel products is curly birch. Th is ma-terial is quite rare, mainly found only in Finland.

“Basically it is just normal birch, which for one reason or another has converted into a very tight material, often with beautiful curly patterns,” explains Kauko Raatiniemi.

“We also use gnarls, mostly birch gnarls but also goat willow or other gnarls.”

Heat-treated and through-dyed-birch are also used to some extent, as is aspen.”

Products from reindeer antlers form a whole product group, and include such items as key rings, bottle openers, cheese slicers and jewels. Stainless steel is used to make cheese slicers and carbon steel blades.

Extensive product range

Wood Jewel has an extensive products range. Among the most popular ones have been key rings, jewellery, wine bottle corks and openers and hunters’ survival kits. Telescope sausage sticks and telescope shoe horn are the latest novelties.

Knives, ‘puukkos’ in Finnish, have become even collectors’ items. Mostly, however, people buy those for their trek-king, hunting or fi shing activities.

“We have manufactured more than 1000 different kinds of products. The most popular individual items have sold hundreds of thousands,” recalls Raatiniemi.

www.woodjewel.com

culture & design


Curly birch

There is even a Curly Birch Society – Visaseura – which was founded in Finland in the year 1956. Its purpose was to promote the cultivation and use of curly birch and to coordinate the activities of curly birch cultivators, forest industry and research.

Curly birch (Betula pendula Carelica) is a rarity in the world; its narrow range includes Finland. Due to its rarity and decorativeness, curly birch has been con-sidered a valuable and interesting specialty. When in demand, it fetches a higher price than any other Finn-ish tree species.

– Flexible, Fair and Forward

To manage three different

businesses in one company

requires strong commitment

from the personnel. Pyroll has

succeeded to ensure customers

in all the three branches.

Text: Finland of Networks

Photos: Klaus Susiluoto, Pyroll Oy

Pyroll

We can off er a wide range of special eff ects to help the packages stand out among many others.”

HannuVakkari,CEOofPyroll

– Flexible, Fair and Forward

Pyroll

culture & design


Pyroll is a packaging manufac-turer, paper merchant and pa-per converting Contract Com-pany. Of the three business

branches packaging is the biggest. “We off er packaging solutions of car-

ton, paper and plastic, with diff erent material combinations. Recyclable and biodegradable materials are widely used,” says Hannu Vakkari, CEO of Pyroll.

When visiting Pyroll’s Tampere carton package manufacturing unit, one can feel a strong sense of pride among the per-sonnel. Production facilities are modern and everyone seems to concentrate well on what she/he does. Vakkari tells that the company aims at

a fl exible and fair attitude towards cus-tomers as well as employees, with for-ward-oriented planning.

“Pyroll’s key words before were growth, profi tability and internationalization. Th ese are still important, but the focus is a little bit diff erent now. In our customer satisfaction survey we did quite well, so I believe we truly are fair and fl exible.”

Special effects and simplicity

In the highly competitive modern econ-omy, a visually attractive package is in practice a must in order for the product to sell well.

“Products compete for consumers’ at-tention on the shelves. In some cases special eff ects are used to make a diff erence to a product in a standard package,” says Vakkari.

a fl exible and fair attitude towards cus-tomers as well as employees, with for-ward-oriented planning.

“Pyroll’s key words before were growth, profi tability and internationalization. Th ese are still important, but the focus is a little bit diff erent now. In our customer satisfaction survey we did quite well, so I believe we truly are fair and fl exible.”

culture & design


First of all, the package pro-tects the product. A purposeful package thus optimizes distribu-tion and reduces product losses. It provides information on the con-tents, properties and the right use of the product.”

“We can offer a wide range of special effects to help the packages stand out among many others.” “Special effects” can be, for example, achieved by varnish-ing, embossing, foil blocking and special materials. Innovative glued construction can add to these.”

However, at the same time a package should also be simple and easy to open. The opening of a package can be im-proved by using well-designed creasing, perforations or a pouring spout.

“Together with our customers we strive to find the best solutions.”

Pyroll manufactures also industrial packaging products. For example, large sacks, gift wrapping papers and Christ-mas papers are made in the company’s Lempäälä unit.

“In gift and Christmas papers we have used many designers. Satu Ketola’s ‘Frost’ (Kuura in Finnish) has been popular, with a bird motif.”

Multi-talented cultural person Jarkko Martikainen designed wrapping paper called “Lahjakas” in Finnish. The word is difficult to translate, but refers both to talent and gift. Martikainen depicts on the paper two fellows and a dog in a hu-morous way.

Pyroll also cooperates with Ivana Hel-sinki fashion company.

“Customers can buy gift papers with their fashionable patterns, like the But-terfly. We can also make customer-specific solutions based on their or any other design.”

Protecting the product

Sometimes it is popular to criticize pack-aging. However, packaging is a “necessary good,” reminds Hannu Vakkari.

“First of all, the package protects the product. A purposeful package thus op-timizes distribution and reduces product losses. It provides information on the contents, properties and the right use of the product.”

In most cases packages can be recy-cled. If not, energy use is possible.

“Naturally one option is to avoid un-

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necessary packaging, but in most cases package solutions have been well-thought beforehand. We have taken the environ-mental challenge seriously. Since 2010 the company has been a member of the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate citizenship initiative, with par-ticipants from more than 130 countries.

“Social responsibility is a key term for Pyroll. For example, we do ensure that no child labor is used in our partners’ opera-tions,” says Vakkari.

Another issue Vakkari emphasizes during our factory tour is sustainability.

Pyroll’s paper merchant business has EU’s environmental certifi cation, the EU Ecolabel. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and PEFC certifi cations are important.

“With a standard food industry package the environmental load com-ing from packages is about five per-cent,” reminds Vakkari.

Vakkari believes that to a large degree

packaging is and will remain a local or re-gional business.

“Logistically it is not good to produce packages on the other side of the world.

However, although being a regional business, we will have to compete with large international companies.”

Certain demand does automatically come from local industries, but packag-ing is far from an easy branch.

“Th is is not an easy business. We are quite heavily dependent on raw material prices. Especially prices of diff erent foils and fi lms have traditionally been varying signifi cantly.”

Exports are made mainly to neighbor-ing areas. Exports count for a little more than 15 percent in terms of the turnover. Russia and the Baltic countries are the main export areas.

Varied technologies

In Vakkari’s view, Pyroll’s longtime exper-tise in materials, structural design, print-ing technologies and color management ensure competitive advantages for clients.

“We can off er a large number of spe-cial solutions. Our trademarks FlowPap and FormPap are good examples of this. FlowPap is a paper-based fl exible fl ow-pack laminate for horizontal and vertical packaging machines. It can be combined with a wide range of other materials. It can also be equipped with individually-shaped windows.”

FlowPap is ideal for packing fresh

necessary packaging, but in most cases package solutions have been well-thought beforehand. We have taken the environ-mental challenge seriously. Since 2010 the company has been a member of the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate citizenship initiative, with par-ticipants from more than 130 countries.

“Social responsibility is a key term for Pyroll. For example, we do ensure that no child labor is used in our partners’ opera-

Another issue Vakkari emphasizes during our factory tour is sustainability.

Pyroll’s paper merchant business has EU’s environmental certifi cation, the EU Ecolabel. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

“With a standard food industry package the environmental load com-ing from packages is about five per-

Vakkari believes that to a large degree

packaging is and will remain a local or re-

culture & design


foods such as bread. It is a thermo-formed paper-based solution for shallow packag-es such as trays used for sliced meat. Th e combination of paper and fi lm provides the best properties of both materials.

“For fast-food wrappings we have Bio-Wrap, a compactable wrapping material. In plastics and fi lm, our HD Flexo tech-nology can be used to have more complex four-color system printing in fl exography plastic packaging,” says Hannu Vakkari.

Modern packages can also include more and more smart technology such as RFID. RFID can off er more informa-tion about the product inside the pack-age than the bar code. “However, RFID possibly does not become as common as anticipated.”

Digital solutions

Pyroll also has a digital carton plant which specializes in small series. For these solutions there is a company called SOLVER Palvelut Oy, which off ers digi-

tal printing solutions, especially for case packages.

“Personalized and campaign-specifi c packaging solutions can be made fl exibly and quickly. Small series can be made in a cost-eff ective way.

“We also have a digital model service for product development, consumer test-ing and exhibition use. We can provide package samples, structural and graphic design. It is possible to make diff erent versions of the package – ranging from printing, various sizes, material – to sup-port customers’ decision-making. Th ree-dimensionality certainly helps in the planning stage,” believes Vakkari.

www.pyroll.com

foods such as bread. It is a thermo-formed paper-based solution for shallow packag-es such as trays used for sliced meat. Th e combination of paper and fi lm provides the best properties of both materials.

“For fast-food wrappings we have Bio-Wrap, a compactable wrapping material. In plastics and fi lm, our HD Flexo tech-nology can be used to have more complex four-color system printing in fl exography

foods such as bread. It is a thermo-formed

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Pyroll is not only a packaging company, but a paper merchant that operates as a member of the Igepa Group, the third largest paper merchant chain in Europe."

Paper merchandise and converting services

Pyroll is not only a packaging company, but a paper merchant that operates as a member of the Igepa Group, the third larg-est paper merchant chain in Europe. The product range in-cludes art and offset papers as well as boards for graphic and packaging end uses.

Pyroll Paper Converting provides sheeting and rewinding ser-vices. Converting division handles more than 200 000 tons of paper annually. Pyroll Contract Converting is the leader in its field in Europe.

The Pyroll Group is a privately owned Finnish company. Chair-man of the Board Reino Uusitalo founded the company in 1973. Today the company operates in fourteen locations in Finland. It also has one packaging unit in Hungary and contract convert-ing unit in Poland. Pyroll employs about 500 people. The net sales amount to almost 90 million euros last year.

culture & design


Sculpture park The founder of Pyroll, Mr. Reino Uusitalo, is keenly interested in sports and art.

He has sponsored the Parikkala sculpture park, which originally was established by the artist Veijo Rönkkönen more than 40 years ago. Rönkkönen made about 500 unique sculptures, most of which depict human figures. There is seriousness, playfulness, meditation – many different moods and attitudes in his works.

One major motif in his works is yoga. All yoga statues except one face the East. Veijo Rönkkönen had a close relation to yoga. He start-ed his day by practicing yoga one hour each morning.

Rönkkönen also created animal figures, such as kangaroos, os-trich and camels – although he never traveled in exotic countries or saw these animals live elsewhere.

The statue park attracted more than 20 000 visitors per year. Yet the artist did not want to take an entrance fee from visitors.

In the spring 2010 Rönkkönen unexpectedly died at the age of 66. His relatives did not have resources to upkeep the sculpture park. Reino Uusitalo decided to save the great artistic venue, with the help of informal organizations and the municipality of Parikkala.

The sculpture park is impressive indeed, with the beautiful nature surrounding the site. In 2008 the “Veijo Rönkkönen art park” was chosen as the “Domestic Travel Destination of the Year”.

Leading the Way to International

Markets

Leading the Way to International

Markets The fair services business is foregoing an interesting phase. Mr Topi Ruuska says that “Wulff Enter is one of the key players in the Nordic countries and is seeking strong growth from emerging economies.

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Sini Pennanen, Wulff Enter

cutting edge solutions


Ruuska started in Wulff Entre in April 2011. His previous ca-reer in business development training was one the motives

for his hiring by Wulff Group’s senior ex-ecutives.

Topi Ruuska has fulfi lled all expecta-tions. Under his leadership, the company could turn profi table once again.

“Our business was basically healthy even before I entered Wulff Entre, but there were some excess costs, especially in the events side of the business.”

“Something had to be done. We changed three of our four unit directors. Th e sales department is nowadays head-ed by Ninni Arion, the project depart-ment by Satu Pekkala and the design de-partment by Milja Moliis. Robert Sjöblad continued as the director of the fi nance unit. All of them have been able to moti-vate their teams.”

In 2011, the turnover of Wulff Entre dropped to 5.6 million euros, a decrease by 0.6 million compared to previous year, but EBIT was positive. One coincidence was that the positive result of 388 000 eu-ros was the same as the anticipated loss.”

Topi Ruuska and the rest of the per-sonnel of 20 could, thus, turn the com-pany towards a more positive direction.

“It is important to operate in a profi t-able way. Although the turnover tempo-rarily dropped, I believe that a company like this should seek growth.”

“For the year 2015, which will come all too soon, we are looking for the turnover of 8.5 million euro. We will not however expand at the expense of profi tability.”

A focus on emerging markets

Th e fair services business is foregoing an interesting phase, says Topi Ruuska.

“For example, in some African countries, the economy is progressing

well. With our partners, we have also at-tended Australian fairs for the fi rst time ever this year.”

“Asia continues to be a very important market for us. It is not only China, but also Japan, Korea and many others. We have studied the Indian market and we were involved, for example, in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi last year.

We also see huge potential in the Bra-zilian exhibition market for Finnish and European companies. Entre annually co-ordinates stand services for European, Russian and American companies in Bra-zil. ” says Topi Ruuska.

“In Europe, we have been present with our partners at the Barcelona Mobile World Conference since its beginning in 1987. Th ere were more than 30 Finnish companies at Entre’s joint stand at Barce-lona MWC this year.

“Russia continues to be important. We have employees who can speak Russian, one of them is a native speaker.”

“Th is spring, we will attend the OTC Off shore Technology Conference in Hou-ston, the US. Whatever the continent, we have good references.”

Only recently, Wulff Entre designed and constructed the Nordic Pavilion, or-



ganized by the Swedish Trade Council at the Game Developers Conference in San

Francisco. Th e world's largest biotech trade show,

BIO Annual International Convention, is held in Boston in June, and the Swedish Trade Council hosts a pavilion, together with the other Nordic countries.

“Country-focused or Nordic pavil-ions have been especially appreciated by small- and midsize companies that for cost reasons would not be able to exhibit otherwise.”

Events and offi ce decorations

Wulff Entre also makes the inte-rior decorations of offi ces.

“We have three qualifi ed per-sons in our design team. Th ey communicate keenly with the sales unit. What we can off er, in addition to visually and function-al fair services, is experience on project management activities. Schedules are met with preci-sion.”

“It is quite normal for the preparations for the next mega fair to already start almost one year before the event. Sometimes, even more than a year is needed, but sometimes with smaller fairs and events, we only need several weeks to reach the solutions that

satisfy our customers.” “It is not only fairs. We can also make

unique events on behalf of our custom-ers,” says Topi Ruuska.

“We arranged the Finnish Sports Gala in January 2012. Not all of our customers are Finns. We also off er our stand servic-es internationally. We have Russian, Ger-man, Swedish and American clients, who rely on our stand services in diff erent continents. For example, for Russians, it is important to receive the Finnish qual-ity standards and to be served in Russian. We are seeking strong growth on interna-tional markets.

Topi Ruuska says that Wulff Entre at-tempt to “jump in the shoes” of a custom-er, no matter how small the company is.

“Th ere is still much to do. What we need is co-displays of SMEs. Only about 10 percent of Finnish exports are gener-ated by SMEs. Th ey cannot go abroad without subsidies and/or joint-stands.

“I sometimes used to say that every large company has once been a small one. Larger companies can have a presence with smaller companies, which really should not be underestimated.”

Wulff KB-Tuote

Wulff Group also has the Wulff KB-Tuote company that specializes in business and advertisement gifts. Topi Ruuska is also in charge of this business.

“Almost two thousand companies and associations rely on us in this business. We not only provide ready-made busi-ness gifts, but also perform designs with customers on how business gifts could support their corporate brand. A larger concept can be created by combining all or a signifi cant portion of business gift activities with us.”

www.entre.fi

Wulff Entre also makes the interior decorations of offi ces."


CE LindgrenFound Its Niches The Finnish town of Porvoo is one of the best-known travel destinations in Finland. Porvoo also has strong small and medium sized companies like C.E. Lindgren, which has found its niches from ski jumping and sledding – on top of their more than 120 year old paining brush business.

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Sini Pennanen, CE Lindgren

C.E. Lindgren has long tra-ditions. The company was founded in 1881. Painting equipment still consists the

largest business sector, but Oy C.E. Lind-gren Ab is the market leader in develop-ing, manufacturing and marketing of plastic matting systems for ski jumping centers.

“These have become common in ski jump centers around the world. Jumping, training and competitions are now able to continue the whole year round,” says CEO

of C.E. Lindgren, Mr Heikki Kaukinen.Since 1984, more than 300 ski jumps

have been equipped with Everslide Plas-tic Matting System. Among these, several are well known from the Olympics and World Championships.

“Last year 2011 we delivered our prod-ucts to Sochi Olympic ski jumping hills. We also delivered so-called snow nets for the downhill, which will be installed on the hill in the winter time to prevent snow falling down,” says Kaukinen.

“In addition to Sochi, we had two

other projects in Russia last year. Rus-sia seems to be clearly a growing market for us. There is a growing interest in ski jumping.”

There is a need for replacements too. The average using time for plastic mat-ting is between 15-20 years, so some of the oldest have been renewed already.

Growing popularity

How does Mr Kaukinen see the future market?

HeikkiKaukinen,CEOofC.E.Lindgren


“Ski jumping has been popular in some central European coun-tries like Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Slovenia is also a tradi-tional ski jumping country. We delivered last year plastic mattings to seven ski jumps in Planica, where the world-famous flying hill in is located. However, in flying hills plastic matting is not used, they are all snow-based, but there are smaller hills in Planica too, where we delivered new mattings.”

The smaller hills in Planica offer an excellent training place for any ski jumper around the world.

“I believe it will be Europe’s most modern ski jumping center. It was granted EU support, and the price of the project came to 42 mil-lion euro. Planica mattings will be installed in May-June this year,” says Heikki Kaukinen.

Alpensia,SouthKorea

Almaty,Kazakhstan

Bischofshofen,Austria

Erzurum,Turkey

CE Lindgren



“One of our strengths is project man-agement. We can carry out the project in agreed timetable and find suitable solu-tions for deliveries and installments.”

“Also new countries like Kazakhstan have emerged. We have delivered facili-ties even to Turkey.”

“The market in North America on the other hand has been very quiet for a cou-ple of years. Japanese trust in their own systems,” notes Kaukinen.

The basic materials and solutions in ski jump mattings have not changed much over years.

“However, we have developed for ex-ample UV-resistant solutions, so that the mat color sticks better to the materials and does not fade away because of strong sunlight.”

Sledding hills

A business sector with lots of potential is sledding hills made of plastics.

“Already now we have delivered close to 70 projects of different sizes, usually between 100 and 200 m2. Our solutions can be found in Mexico, Spain and South Korea for example.”

“We usually deliverer sledding solu-tions to countries where there is no snow in the winter time, but with our solutions sledding season can continue also in cooler countries with winter-time snow.”

Oy C.E. Lindgren Ab has equipped sledding slopes with Everslide Plastic Matting for children in water parks and at sports resorts and family entertain-ment centers since 1994.

“Our Plastic Matting is equivalent to the surface of a snow-covered slope and for more fun on the slopes, make sledding possible all year round.”

“The plastic surface is watered, and sliding goes all the smoother. Thousands of families have already experienced the excitement of sledging on our Everslide Sledding Slopes.”

Painting business

Approximately 60percent of CE Lind-gren’s turnover comes from painting brushes and other tools for interior deco-rating.

“We are the leading suppliers of paint-ing tools in Finland, so he painting busi-ness is naturally very important for us.

Lillehammer,Norway Oberstdorf,Germany Hinterzarten,Germany



The core idea of our business is to develop and market flawlessly functional, durable, efficient, and ergonomic painting brushes and tools to meet even the most demand-ing requirements,” says Kaukinen.

The product line includes high-quality tools for both professional and do-it-your-self use. Each year some millions of paint-ing brushes and tools are marked with the CEL trademark, which represents the high quality standards . The products are avail-able in all well-supplied home improve-ment and hardware stores in Finland.

“For more than ten years now, we have been working in co-operation with the Swedish company Anza AB, which is the leading manufacturer of painting tools in Scandinavia. This co-operation includes production of brushes to Lindgren. Anza

belongs to international Jordan Group.”“Painting tools is more volume busi-

ness, but our technical brush division is based on tailor-made solutions. Our customers send drawings or instructions to us and we will study if it is possible to manufacture such a brush in our factory.”

“In 2008 we entered co-operation with Europe’s leading manufacturer of tapes, and the company now represents also the wide range of Tesa® products in Finland.”

New CCI business

One cornerstone is of C.E. Lindgren is CCI – Corrosion Control International – business, which is done as subcon-tracting.

“CCI is about corrosion prevention.

It can be utilized for example in bridge constructions that are often sensitive to corrosion. CCI as well as our ski jumping and sledding solutions are typical niche businesses.”

“There will a large Corrosion Control project in Australia for one bridge. Basi-cally it is fabrics that is handled in a pat-ented solution.”

Heikki Kaukinen tells that CE Lind-gren’s varied businesses are doing rath-er well.

“We have 33 employees. From time to time we use hired staff to manage the peaks. Our turnover last year was close to 10 million euro.”

www.celindgren.fi

EverslideinLIFEPark,Thailand EverslideinSouthKoreaHinterzarten,Germany


Caviar

Caviar Empirik Oy is a new player in the world of cuisine. CEO Sergei Kapanen established the company in 2010. The purpose was to produce world class caviar in Finland. As is typical, there have been problems on the way to get everything running, as well as some changes to the original plan.

Text: Jarkko RepoPhotos: Caviar Empirik, Dreamstime

From the Top of the World


Caviar production in Finland is easier for everyone. The customer can be sure of the quality due to the local laws and the Russian market is just right behind the border."



Born in Russia, Sergei Kapanen is a young entrepreneur who is known in the building indus-try. His companies have pro-

vided excellent housing possibilities for Russian clients in Finland.

− This is more like a diversion from my other activities. I have been able to taste great caviar before and when the possi-bility arose to work with this business, I took it on as a challenge.

Sergei Kapanen has been working with Russian customers in different busi-nesses. In addition to this experience, his Russian heredity has also been a key idea in the caviar business. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the whole world of caviar changed. The black market for caviar has been enormous and legislation has attempted to control illegal produc-tion operations. Gone are the days of wild caviar, as only a few countries allow the production of natural caviar. This change left the market without caviar and sales numbers have been low in comparison to the time before modern Russia.

There are currently only a few coun-

tries which produce caviar. At the present time, Iran is the largest exporter, fol-lowed closely by Russia. The quantities are, however, nowhere close to what was produced before. Very few new countries have stepped into the caviar business and some production is carried in countries such as Italy, Spain and Saudi Arabia. Sergei Kapanen is changing the business and his first production site is in Imatra, Finland.

− Production in Finland is easier for everyone. The customer can be sure of the quality due to the local laws and the Russian market is just right behind the border.

The objective of the Saimaa plant is to have commercial production running in the second quarter of 2012. The schedule has changed somewhat from the original plan, however, the current situation is great and everything is going as planned.ReneNousiainen



Caviar from Spain

Sergei Kapanen would not be in the situation he is these days if he hadn’t jumped into action as soon as he did. Kap-anen heard of the possibility to buy a Spanish caviar produc-tion facility during 2011.

− I was fi rst of all against the idea of including two sites in this business. But when we got there and talked with the own-ers, we agreed upon a deal on the fi rst day.

Now, the Spanish site is also ramping up the production volumes. Together with Saimaa, they have the possibility to produce just enough caviar in 2012 for current sales de-mands.

− It's still not enough and we need to increase our pro-duction. Hopefully, we will be able to enhance all aspects during 2012, to have a better situation, quantity wise, in 2013.

Th at is the business side of it. However, caviar is not a regular product. It's part of some cultures and a way of life. Sergei Kapanen is not only aiming to produce caviar, he also wants to change attitudes towards it.

About caviar

Tasting caviar for the fi rst time must feel like a weird situ-ation. Everyone knows the overall price (depending on the quality of course) and expectations are high. Caviar has been consumed for long as there have been humans. Th e word itself even dates back hundreds of years. Its a long his-tory and a high price tag for fi sh eggs.


word itself even dates back hundreds of years. Its a long his-word itself even dates back hundreds of years. Its a long his-tory and a high price tag for fi sh eggs.tory and a high price tag for fi sh eggs.



But, it's not about the price, it's not about the history – it's all about the taste. Quality caviar tastes like nothing else. Depending on the quality and other factors, the taste can vary widely. Even when originating from the same production site, the caviar from one sturgeon tastes different from another sturgeon.

Current methods of production are environmentally safe. Taste differences between wild and produced caviar are nonexistent, so there really is no reason to hunt for wild sturgeons anymore.

− Caviar can be for anyone, it's about what you like

Says Ilona Virtanen, the marketing manager of Caviar Empirik Oy. Caviar is, commonly, a part of a feast. It's seen as an ingredient for many festive foods. This common idea of caviar is also the reason why it has been faked many times. When something can be sold with higher prices, copies are soon to follow. There are currently producers who are target-ing the lowest possible price, instead of high quality.

− Our key idea is to produce the best caviar, nothing else. The price depends on our costs, but we will never try to enter the lower price range.

That also sums up Sergei Kapanen as a person. He thrives in businesses in which the most important factor is quality. Cav-iar has been a high quality product before and Sergei Kapanen is doing his part to keep it that way.

It's not just caviar from the top of the

world, it's the top caviar. Caviar Empirik will have it's first commercial batches ready later this year. Produced in Saimaa, Finland. The production in Spain is cur-rently up and running and the first ship-ments are to be sent out within the next few weeks.

Finnish cuisine

Sergei Kapanen also has a lot to say about Finnish cuisine. At the present time, there aren't that many customers for Finnish caviar in Finland – a situation which is uncommon in the world of caviar. Closely produced caviar is always a better choice.

− Here in Finland, it seems that people do not want to eat high quality ingredi-



It's not just caviar from the top of the world, it's the top caviar. Caviar Empirik will have it's first commercial batches ready later this year."

ents in anything. A typical Finnish feast is to serve the same food that people eat everyday or in the worst cases, the food is even worse than the regular cuisine.

In part, the negative views concern-ing caviar originate from the history be-tween Finland and Russia. Even more so, the negative label which is given to caviar is created from the wrong facts. Finland is a world leader in many environmental fields and caviar has been seen as a prod-uct which has a negative impact on the environment.

− Our caviar from Spain is, to my knowledge, the only caviar in the world which is produced naturally. Both of our sites (Saimaa and Spain) are extremely efficient in both energy consumption and all other corresponding aspects. The production of high quality caviar is more about time than anything else.

There is no scientific information available, when it comes to the envi-ronmental impact of caviar production. However, it can be said that all of the production of fish is on the same level. Sturgeons are raised in a closed system, which is different from the open water production of salmon etc. From these differences, one can easily see that cav-iar is a better choice than almost any other fish product on the market when it comes to environmental views.

Caviar is also seen as being merely one product. There are many varieties avail-able with different possibilities for cook-ing. It's mostly up to the local restaurants to educate people in the varieties of cav-iar. Finland does not have a long history

with caviar and there are only few restau-rants that offer it.

− We are currently working to get our products onto the local market also. We need to have chefs using our products be-fore we can sell it to people. Finnish cui-sine is also changing and we will do our best to also have some festive ingredients in there.

Cuisine in Finland is perhaps not changing as rapidly as else-

where. What was seen as festive a few decades ago

is now seen as the worst possible food. Caviar was the top food in the world a century ago and now it's coming back. Maybe Finland will also

gets it share this time.

www.caviar.fi

Text: Jarkko RepoPhotos: Oversol, Dreamstime

– Lighting the Way

Oversol

Our customers also desired other products with our technology. We started out with the sauna and progressed on from that to other lights for such environments."

Oversol is a fast growing Finnish company who are designing new ways of lighting. They've only been using LED -technology and are one of the best in the world when it comes to street lighting. How can a small Finnish company be the best and what is the philosophy behind the company.

Oversol is a fast growing Finnish company who are designing new ways of lighting. They've only been using LED -technology and are one of the best in the world when it comes

to street lighting. How can a small Finnish company be the best and what is the philosophy behind the company.

The company was established by Pertti Suominen over ten years ago. The lighting business is however a very com-petitive field with companies that have been in the business since the very first light bulb. Suominen started Oversol as a company with just one worker, one product and one customer. From that humble beginning, they've had a good run to being one of the best companies globally when it comes to street lights.

The idea to establish Oversol was fairly clear.− I've always been interested in technology and have

been working with lights for almost all of my life. When I first saw the new white LEDs back in 1999, it provided me with new ideas. We started out with sauna lights, which is a product mainly for a niche market. We however also received sales in Sweden, Norway and Russia.

Pertti Suominen also had another business for a few years before Oversol. That company was also involved with lighting. The new idea for sauna lights was, however, a new thing for the market and it was a good time to establish a company just for LED -technology.

− Our customers also desired other products with our technology. We started out with the sauna and progressed on from that to other lights for such environments. We had new products (such as Steplight, Starlights etc).

The product names were in English from the beginning. Export operations were in mind when Oversol was estab-lished. To gain growth, Oversol has negotiated sales chan-nels with a few larger companies. For example, K-Rauta in Finland, and Bauhaus in Europe. Oversol has not attempted to put all their products into all markets. It has been up to the customers to tell us what the best way to proceed is.

Different markets

Oversol has its place in the Finnish market. They are also working with a large company to change old tech-nology into new LED -technology. This is providing a boost to growth. However, it's not just LED, it's about understanding the customers.

− In Europe, the LED is somewhat easy to sell, merely because of the energy savings that it offers. But in Russia (concerning Oversol), it's only about the design and style. LEDs offer a new way of creating lighting and that has been the key to getting into the Russian market.

Oversol has created LED based lighting for a warehouse

Oversol• Oversol, established in 2000• Owned by Pertti Suominen and individual

investors• Own R&D and production• Entering new markets with Lumi R street and

road lighting technology

For more information, please visit: www.lumi-group.eu/en




174174

− It is a risky move for a smaller com-pany to take. However, we decided to check that possibility out to be able to of-fer our products to a larger market.

Th e design for Oversol’s products is also outsourced.

− New products are mainly based on what we hear from the market. We don't try to push new things, instead, we listen to what our customers are looking for.

We do, however, try to control the over-all design of our products. Personally, I'm looking for products which off er clear es-thetical feels.

It’s mainly up to the end user how they use the products. People are still new to LED technology and the possibilities are still not commonly used. It's good for the end users to check the ideas on the Over-sol website to know what could be done with modern light fi xtures.

China is a new market for Oversol. Similarly to Russia, the key to getting into the market is the design and overall style. In new markets, customers are already waiting for a new design. Oversol is do-ing many things right for a small Finnish company. Th ey, however, do not have the possibility to educate everyone about the possibilities of LED.

Lumi R, street and road lights

One of the success stories for Oversol is their Lumi R -system. Street and road lighting with new technology.

− Th e energy savings gained in street lights are over 50%, even more so in cold-er regions.

Oversol began the R&D for Lumi R years ago. Th e idea for it is simple. New technology can not only off er savings in costs, but also enhance the safety and usability. Just a few of the ideas in Lumi R are that it's totally recyclable, energy savings are up to 85%, self learning (in-dividual lamp posts can change the illu-mination depending on the lighting from other sources) and that it can easily be fi t-ted into existing posts.

− Our engineers also worked towards reducing light pollution. One of the rea-sons for the high energy savings is that Lumi R does not scatter light, thus reduc-ing light pollution. Light should only be there where it is needed, instead of daz-zling passers by.

Light pollution has been talked about for years. Only Lumi R has off ered a clear solution to the situation. Th e problems arising from light pollution are wide. Peo-

in Russia. It was a step into the future of lighting.

− Th e possibilities with LED are ex-tensive. It's easier to control, it has low maintenance costs and the overall energy consumption is very low.

To be able to grow, Oversol has agreed upon manufacturing in Asia. Some prod-ucts are manufactured in Finland, but the mass production is outsourced.

Technical specifi cations ofthe Lumi R product family

•Lightsource:1WLED•Ratedpower*:29–96W•Operatingvoltage:100–240V•Temperaturerange:-40°C-+50°C•Colourtemperature:4200K,Ra80•Lumendepreciation:30%after60000hoursofoperation(25°C)•Protectionrating:IP65,powersupplyIP67•Dimensions:940mmx520mmx210mm•Weight:12–12.5kg•Installationheight:5–11metres•Poledistance:33–51metres•Assembly:Poleandarmfitting

Pole fit: ø 40–70 mm,Angularadjust:-5°-+100°

•Structure:Body: cast aluminiumHeat sink: anodized aluminiumExterior: marine aluminiumReflector: polycarbonate - special coatingProtective glass: shock resistant acrylic, dirtrepellent nanocoating

•Lightingcategory:S-classes,MEW-classes•Externalcontrol:1–10V•Guarantee:5yrs,bodyandreflector10yrs•Pat.pending•AveragewithCLightfunction



ple should be able to sleep without being dis-turbed by light from outside sources. It's also better for mental health in areas which, for a few months of the year, receive reduced levels of illumination from the sun. In addition, one group will instantly love the new product in particular – sky watchers.

Oversol is looking to get into a global business with Lumi R. Th e product is being taken care of by a new company called Lumi Group Oy.

− We've already received inquiries for the product from various countries, such as Aus-tralia and Mexico. Th ere is a global need for new street and road lighting.

The future

LED is being developed continuously. What was new a year ago is now in common usage. Th e technology is changing rapidly with new inventions.

− One example of the future might be or-ganic leds. Th ey can be used as wallpaper or such to off er overall lighting from fl at sources.

Even today, people are integrating light fi xtures, so that light can be used without seeing the source. Th is is the current style for some. At the same time, people are looking

for light fi xtures which provide design and personality. Within a few years, it will be common to have vis-

ible sources for light which do not illuminate an overall space. Overall illumination will be handled by light fi x-tures which are hidden from sight. Th is can be used to reduce glare and enhance living conditions.

Th e Lumi R could be built with new sensors and tech-nology, so that cars could ”chat” with the lighting. Th is could be used to reduce risk factors, such as too high speeds before an area of a collision. Th e possibilities are there, and even the technology is ready – now it's up to the people.

− Even with today’s technology, the limiting sources are the designers and end users. Once people learn to use LED – the sky's the limit.

Th e sky might be the limit for the technology, but not for the light. With the new technology, light is there, where it should be.


Novoplastik Oy - Continuous Improvement, Innovative Material Solutions

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Klaus Susiluoto, Novoplastik



The development and production of vehicle interiors is the core competence of Novoplas-tick Oy, a company based in West Finland. “We are enthusiastically looking to widen our expertise to also developing and producing natural fibers too”, says Johannes Heiskanen, CEO and owner of the company.

Novoplastik was founded in 1950 in Helsinki. Initially, the company produced PVC prod-ucts and it was the fi rst High

Frequency elder of PVC foils in Finland. “Since the mid 70's, Novoplastik has fo-

cused on interior trim parts for the vehicle industry, specializing in a series below 30 000 units per year,” explains Johannes Heis-kanen.

Novoplastik returned to private Finnish ownership in 2003, when Heiskanen bought it as a MBO, management-buy-out. Today, the company has technology in handling rig-id, as well as soft, polyurethane foam for foils and textiles, as well as some technologies in-volving thermoplastic natural fi bre compos-ites that are used in furniture etc.

“At the moment, however, we mainly pro-duce cost eff ective, high quality vehicle in-terior solutions, but also high-quality noise absorbents.”

“We make instrument panels, door trim panels and interior trims for Lotus sports cars. Instrument panels and headliners are made for Garia golf-carts. For Tesla elec-tric cars, we have made interior trim parts, which we have also subcontracted to Scale City busses.”

“It is an honour to work for Lotus cars and Tesla. Lotus is a classic, with its Exige, Croft and Evora models, and in particular, the Lotus Espirit. Tesla is a less-known electric sports car, which can accelerate from zero to 100 km/hour in 3.9 seconds. Th e Tesla Road-ster is also made by Lotus and subcontracted by Novoplastik.

“We also have extensive experience on making cabin parts for heavy-duty vehicles, such as forestry machines and tractors. For John Deere forestry machines, Novoplastik have made cabin interior surfaces, for Valtra tractors, instrument panels and cabin interi-or trims. Th e forestry machine manufacturer Logset is also a customer of ours, we have made all the cabin interior parts for their machines.

Novoplastik also carries out the pre-assembly of dashboards, bumpers, shelves, etc., for passenger cars, as well as for larger vehicles.

We make instrument panels, door trim panels and interior trims for Lotus sports cars."

We make instrument panels, door trim panels



Quality matters

In 2005-2006, Novoplastik was chosen as the best performing QCD supplier of Lotus Cars. Th ese statistics proved that Novoplastik Oy was the best among all of the over 250 other suppliers of Lotus.

“We also cooperate with Lotus Engi-neering, which has a vast R & D and de-sign unit. Th ey have made the planning for all the main cars.”

“Our quality management system has been approved to meet the requirements of the ISO 9001 standard since September 2002. Our registrar is Bureau Veritas (BV).

“Th e overall purpose of our system is

to ensure that we understand the needs of our customers and that we translate these needs into products that meet our customers’ specifi cations, in a way that is consistent and reliable.”

In many cases, Novoplastik partici-pates in the planning process, for exam-ple, if a new part is designed for a new vehicle model.

“We have to be active in our relations with the contractors. Th e development and production of vehicle interiors is currently the core of our business. We are constantly assessing the eff ectiveness of the system, making improvements and capturing improvements through docu-mented processes and staff training.”

Novoplastik Oy has committed itself since 2005 to take care of the recycling and utilization of the packaging that it delivers to the market, according to the EU directives, waste management laws, and the decisions and regulations that are made by the Council of State.

“Th e Finnish PYR trademark also shows that the fi rm is attending to its re-sponsibilities towards the environment, also with regard to the recovery of its packaging,” says Johannes Heiskanen.

ComposLobbychairs



100 % natural fi bres

Johannes Heiskanen explains that Novo-plastik is also enthusiastically looking to widen its expertise to developing and producing natural fi bres.

“Novoplastik was awarded the re-gional Innofi nland prize in 2009 for its 100 percent biodegradable thermoplastic natural fi bre composite,” he says.

Natural fi bres are developed under the

Novofrux name, which is an extremely versatile material with numerous applica-tions. Public furniture has been produced in cooperation with the Piiroinen furni-ture manufacturer. For example, chairs have been designed from Novofrux mate-rial, the designer was Samuli Naamanka.

“We are now developing the second-generation solutions of Novofrux. More and more, non-food and non-farmed ma-terials are being used.”

www.novoplastik.com

LotusEvorainterior

We are now developing the second-generation solutions of Novofrux. More and more, non-food and non-farmed materials are being used.”

ComposLobbychairs

Viking Grace

- a Completely New Kind of Experience on the Sea

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Viking Line

M/S

The new Viking Grace will be one of the most environmentally friendly passenger ships in the world. Four multi-fuel Wärtsilä engines and doubled engine rooms ensure economic and safe voyages."

Viking Line strengthens its fleet in January 2013 with a new vessel. The new build 1376 was named in February 2012 as M/S Viking Grace. “The name reflects a special style, design and atmosphere,” tells Viking Line Abp’s CEO, Mikael Backman.

Viking Grace



V iking Line’s newbuild 1376 or M/S Viking Grace is an innovative passenger and car ferry

that is under construction at the STX Fin-land shipyard in Turku. There has been a strong interest in 1376, partly due to the choice of fuel, Liquefied Natural Gas, or LNG, which results in less emission.

The new vessel will be able to use three alternative fuels: traditional heavy fuel oil, diesel or LNG.

“When running on LNG, the vessel meets all the new and forthcoming emis-sion rules now being devised by the Euro-pean Union,” says Mikael Backman.

For example, the Nox emission limits of 2016 can be managed. The LNG sys-tem is designed and manufactured by Wärtsilä. The system includes two 200 cubic meters tanks, which contain lique-fied natural gas in the temperature of mi-nus 160 degrees.

“The new Viking Grace will be one of the most environmentally friendly pas-senger ships in the world. Four multi-



fuel Wärtsilä engines and doubled engine rooms ensure economic and safe voyages.

“It is not only the LNG and other fuel solutions. Innovative hull design results in less fuel consumption. The hull of the vessel will be hydro-dynamically opti-mized to minimize its fuel consumption and cause the smallest possible swells, which is particularly important when passing through a sensitive archipelago.”

The NB 1376 has proceeded in schedule, and the ferry will be launched in January 2013. The grand block was lifted from the production hall in February 2012.

When ready, Viking Grace can take almost 2800 passengers and 200 crew members. The ship is 214 meters long, but only 31.8 meters wide. The maximum cruising speed is 22 knots per hour.

Compact Silencer System Thanks to the new soundproofing tech-nology, the noise level of Viking Grace will be very low.

“Our new flagship will be a very quiet

vessel, both when operating at sea and while in port. Viking Grace will certainly be one of the most silent passenger ships in its category,” says Backman.

The Compact Silencer System is also designed and manufactured by Wärtsilä.

“Electric propulsion adds to the rather low noise and generates fuel saves.”

Interiors by Vertti Kivi & Co The visible design, especially interior decoration solutions will be stylish. Inte-rior design is made by the award-winning dSign Vertti Kivi & co, and a host of other innovations provide the passengers with a totally new and fresh cruise experience.

“We are glad to be able to cooperate with Vertti Kivi and his design team of the company dSign Vertti Kivi,” says Mi-kael Backman.

The conferencing spaces also are the most modern. Night clubs are in two stores. There is a wide screen and sur-round sound in the movie theater. Live music will be on three different stages.

Mikael Backman tells that the new fer-ry will have the largest scenery windows on the Baltic Sea passenger ships.

“It is easy to observe beautiful archi-pelagos of Stockholm and Turku.”

Design Capital Helsinki Viking Line is one of the main partners of Helsinki World Design Capital 2012.

“We have called the new Viking Grace the design ship, because comfort and good design count much to our passen-gers and in developing even more cus-tomer-oriented solutions.”

“The themes of World Design Capital Helsinki are openness, global responsi-bility and roots for new growth. Viking Line’s values are pretty much the same,” says Mikael Backman.

“It is also important that through the new build 1376 project we can utilize Finnish ship planning expertise which combines cruise ship and passenger ferry features.”

Viking Grace is not the first Viking



ship that has brought new features to the market. “Our XPRS is sailing between Tallinn and Helsinki. It takes only a cou-ple of hours to reach the other city – ear-lier it took 4-5 hours with large passenger car ferries.”

Increased interest from Asia

Mikael Backman tells that Viking Line has more and more Russian and Asian customers.

“Their share is still 2-3 percent, but they use more money than average Finns. Asians who come to Europe are willing to spend more money, since many come to Scandinavia just once in a lifetime.”

“With Viking ships passengers can reach Helsinki, Stockholm, the Åland Island and Tallinn. Irregularly we have cruises to Latvian capital city Riga.

“Finns form the largest customer group. The proportion between Finns and Swedes on the Stockholm routes is about 35 to 65 percent. On the Tallinn route, naturally many Estonians sail.”

www.vikingline.fi



Vertti Kivi: Cozy “boat” On the website dedicated to the new Viking Grace, Vertti Kivi talks in a cozy way about “the boat”. He says:

“The boat will, for example, live with the people onboard: in the morning the boat will look like morning, daytime reflects daytime and when the night comes the boat dresses up for the night time. I don’t know if there is another ship in the world that changes with the time of the day.”

In 2011, Vertti Kivi, the creative director at dSign, was named as Finland’s Interior Designer of the Year.

For more about Vertti’s thoughts and Viking Grace’s construction in general on the website dedicated to NB 1376, please visit: www.nb1376.com in Swedish, Finnish and English.

Chain Competence of Sokos Hotels

Text: Jarkko RepoPhotos: Sini Pennanen, Sokos Group

Th e S Group has two main hotel brands – Sokos and Radisson Blu Hotels. Th ere are almost 50 Sokos hotels in Finland, three in St. Petersburg and one in Tallinn, Estonia."

Sokos Hotels, part of the S Group businesses, has been able to make itself the biggest and best-known hotel chain brand in Finland. The senior Vice President Harri Ojanperä says that Sokos Hotels brand is getting more and more known also in the Nordic and Baltic coun-tries, let alone in St. Petersburg, where the chain has three hotels.

HarriOjanperä,SeniorVicePresidetinSOKTravelIndustryChainManagement.



The S Group’s national chains in the tourism and hospitality trade include Sokos Hotels, Radisson Blu Hotels, as well

as dining venues and cafés Rosso, Rosso Express, Fransmanni, Amarillo, Sevilla, Memphis, Night, Corner, Coffee House, Presso, Buffa, Fiesta! and Wok Up.

Harri Ojanperä is in charge of the co-ordination of hotel chain business. Ojan-perä says that different restaurant and hotel brands create some synergy. “There are some advantages in purchases and logistics, but mostly these chains operate independently.”

The S Group has two main hotel brands – Sokos and Radisson Blu Hotels. There are almost 50 Sokos hotels in Fin-land, three in St. Petersburg and one in Tallinn, Estonia. Besides Sokos Hotels, the S Group also operates Radisson Blu Hotels in Finland. Radisson Blu Hotels and Resorts is an international brand based on franchising model. Holiday Club Spa Hotels chain was sold in March 2011 to the Holiday Club Resort Oy.

S Group is also known for its hyper-markets, in connection with which there are often cafés and restaurants.

“It is quite evident that in our Sokos

hotels, dining venues differ from hyper-markets’ cafés and lunch places. We have a concept called a casual food business. Sevilla, Fransmanni and Memphis res-taurants represent this. These are not particularly only for hotel guests, but available for everybody else.”

“We have the best CCI Loyalty Index in Finland. This proves that our cus-tomers have been satisfied,” says Harri Ojanperä.

“We believe that we have better chain competence than our rivals and can thus offer good price-quality ratio.”

“We have some ideas for new hotel and restaurant concepts, but at the mo-ment there is nothing concrete to tell about.”

Unique co op model

Harri Ojanperä emphasizes the unique business model of the S Group.

“In our co-op model, each chain control organization is responsible for coordinat-ing, developing, steering and supervising the chain activities in their own business area. When the cooperatives’ good local market and customer knowledge is com-bined with chain activities, the effective S

pSokosHotelPalaceBridgeinSt.Petersburg,Russia

pqRestaurantSevillainSt.Petersburg,Russia



Group business model is born.“We can offer one of the best benefits

and discounts to our customer-owners. For example, our hotel customers know in which restaurants one can get bonuses for their drinks or meals.

“The individual regional cooperative units could not have so strong chain busi-ness. Chain management is easier with larger organization.”

On the side of hotel business, the main competitors of Sokos Hotels are Restel and Scandic Hotels chains.

St Petersburg in focus

S Group has Sokos hotels in Estonia and Russia, in Tallinn and St. Petersburg.

“In Tallinn we operate the best-known hotel in the city, the Viru Hotel. Hotels in St. Petersburg are Olimpia Garden, Vasilievsky Hotel, and Palace Bridge. In these hotels the majority of customers are Russians, but Finns comprise about one fourth.”

The visa-free cruises from Helsinki to St. Petersburg have brought new ho-tel customers.

qSokosHotelPalaceBridgeinSt.Petersburg,Russia

tRestaurantMemphisinHelsinki,Finland

pqRestaurantSevillainSt.Petersburg,Russia



“Many leisure travelers have already seen Tallinn and Stockholm several times, and they want to get to know Russia’s sec-ond city as well,” analyses Ojanperä.

“Even Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced that St. Petersburg has still unused tourism po-tential. The amount of recreational visits to Russian tourist capital will increase.”

“Finnish and other western business travel customers, who have long visas and visit Russia several times a year, are as important as leisure travelers.”

In Ojanperä’s opinion, the fast train connection from Helsinki to St. Peters-burg is very useful both for business and leisure travelers.

“It takes only 3.5 hours to reach the other city. With such a concept it is of lit-tle use to fly between these cities. The fast Allegro connection will bring even more new customers in the near future.”

The Design Year in Helsinki

Harri Ojanperä is satisfied with the utili-zation rates of Sokos Hotels. “Our rates have been about 70 percent. The year 2012 looks good.”

Ojanperä believes that the Design Year will bring a zest to Helsinki.

“Helsinki has gained quite much vis-ibility in the international media. We live in a world of information or attention

economy. You just need to offer new ideas to more and more demanding travelers, and distinguish yourself from others. In addition, you must preserve your basic flows of travelers. For example, we coop-erate with shipping companies like Eck-erö Line to bring people to Tallinn and use our hotel there.”

The Sokos Hotels in Finland naturally have a wide international customer base. Swedes, Germans, Americans, Russians and English are large customer groups.

“This year possibly more Japaneses and Koreans will come, thanks to Helsin-ki’s World Design Capital title. We have had more Chinese customers, but they still are not a very big customer group. Only a small percentage of Chinese can or want to travel abroad. Very few have a passport even.”

Face of the cities hotels

Harri Ojanperä does not make very clear distinction between business travel and leisure hotels.

“Some hotels are naturally striving to attract mainly corporate customers, while others mainly aim at leisure cus-tomers. But companies are also keen on incentive traveling, which comes close to recreational activities.

“For example, our Levi Hotel in Ski Resort Levi is mainly a hotel for leisure

pSokosHotelLeviinLevi,Finland pSokosHotelHamburgerBörsinTurku,Finland



Some hotels are naturally striving to attract mainly corporate customers, while others mainly aim at leisure customers. But companies are also keen on incentive traveling, which comes close to recreational activities."

qSokosHotelJyväshoviinJyväskylä,FinlandpSokosHotelHamburgerBörsinTurku,Finland



If a hotel is older and has joined the Sokos hotels group only later, its historic features are respected. A good example of this is Sokos Hotel Torni.”

customers, as are Tahko and Koli hotels.”Many hotels with more emphasis on

business traveling are an integral part of the city structure.

“In many cases they are landmarks in the city, even “face of the city hotels”. These include Kimmel in Joensuu, Jy-väshovi in Jyväskylä, Hotel Ilves in Tam-pere and Hamburger Börs in Turku. Vaakuna in Helsinki just next to the rail-way station and 80-year-old Torni Hotel are well-known landmarks in Helsinki. Vaakuna hotels can also be found in Kou-vola, Pori, Mikkeli, Joensuu, Hämeenlin-na and many other Finnish cities.pqSokosHotelIlvesinTampere,Finland

quSokosHotelTorniinHelsinki,Finland



“In addition to domestic business tourists and leisure travelers, we have lots of international guests.

“In the late 2011 we started coopera-tion with the Nordic Choice hotel group. This means that in addition to Sokos Ho-tels, customers will get benefits also in the Nordic countries, such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark. This gives us a good network of hotels, as good as Scan-dic hotels can offer, partly even better.

“We have a frequent customer concept S Card, which gives good benefits to a business travel customer. When you travel as a private person, you can use S-Etu-kortti card which entitles you to various

benefits at our chain restaurants and other hotel restaurants, such as favorably priced dishes and wines for co-op members.”

Operational freedom

Although Sokos Hotels chain is very strong, much operational freedom is giv-en to each hotel’s management.

“If a hotel is older and has joined the Sokos hotels group only later, its historic features are respected. A good example of

this is Sokos Hotel Torni.” Ojanperä has a strong entrepreneur

background. “This has been a great help in the

chain business, for example, in under-standing when hotels must keep their in-dividual features, even a strong brand of its own. There is space in Helsinki also for small independent hotels, part of which are boutique hotels. However, thanks to our chain expertise we can offer benefits few others can do.”

www.sokoshotels.fi

quSokosHotelTorniinHelsinki,Finland

Leaps Forward

Seinäjoki The Seinäjoki region in Southern Ostrobothnia is one of the fastest growing areas in Finland. It is striding eagerly into the future, since the city of Seinäjoki and its nearby municipalities band together, both strategically and operationally.

Text: Mervi LepojärviPhotos: Seinäjoki, Jaakko Kuivamäki

Seinäjoki is well known for its favourable attitude towards entrepreneurship. Even though the municipal administration is generally claimed to be rigid, Seinäjoki serves companies fl exibly and effi ciently."

Th e Seinäjoki region in Southern Ostro-bothnia is one of the fastest growing ar-eas in Finland. It is striding eagerly into the future, since the city of Seinäjoki and its nearby municipalities band together, both strategically and operationally.

Th e collective understanding of stra-tegic planning and the willingness to take actions accordingly was particu-larly proven in 2005 and 2009, when the municipalities of Peräseinäjoki, Nurmo and Ylistaro were merged to the City of Seinäjoki. Th ese consolidations are widely considered to be advisable exam-ples of well organized and implemented local government reforms that have tak-en place in Finland.

– Th e unifi cation was based on a strategy aimed to increase the regional vitality and ability to compete. Th is strategy has since brought numerous new possibilities to the entire area of South Ostrobothnia, says Jorma Rasin-mäki, the mayor of Seinäjoki.

– We chose not to fade away, but to act proactively. Th is attitude, which re-fl ects the true character of the region, will conduct us even further, Rasinmäki states.

Th e essence of a successful strategy rests in it's content. Instead of imaginary op-tions, a solid strategy and its corporeal master plan is created from the commit-ment to a shared volition and decisions.

– Although Seinäjoki and its long-term associates Alavus, Ilmajoki, Jalas-järvi, Kauhava, Kuortane, Kurikka and Lapua are strong and economically in-dependent municipalities, local govern-

Substantial choices

via strategic planning

Bigger than it's size

seinäjoki


ment boundaries are less significance for enterprises. On the contrary, the future of the entire region depends on our abil-ity and determinacy to provide services, accommodation and employment, Rasin-mäki remarks.

The municipalities in Seinäjoki region have therefore found it necessary to ex-pand their strategic and operational col-laboration.

– So far, we have accomplished mutu-al strategies for business and marketing, constructing, climate and energy matters, even funding.

Funding arrangements that promote both regional and municipal projects will, according to Rasinmäki, proceed.

The location of Seinäjoki has increased it's attraction among enterprises, since it offers several solutions for transportation operations. It is simply one of Finland's most important intersections, where roads and tracks cross and enable trans-portation throughout the whole country.

The railway provides a direct connec-tion between the largest cities and even the utmost parts of Finland. Extensive highways pass through Seinäjoki to cen-tral and northern Finland and also serve as an excellent channel for cargo trans-portation. Several companies that serve both transportations and deliveries have established terminals and other opera-tional units in the Seinäjoki region.

However, the business expansion ex-pectations pertaining to production and logistics require further output concern-ing the infrastructure and town planning.

– The City of Seinäjoki is consequent-ly willing to support companies in setting up or enlarging their businesses, Juha Luukko, the director of Seinäjoki Region Business Service Centre emphasizes.

Seinäjoki is well known for its favourable attitude towards entrepreneurship. Even though the municipal administration is generally claimed to be rigid, Seinäjoki serves companies flexibly and efficiently.

– The reputation of the most entrepre-neurial county necessitates true actions, such as acquiring and zoning industrial plots or purchasing premises, participat-ing in marketing etc., so that business may thrive, regardless of its branch, Lu-ukko states.

According to Luukko, actions taken place have also gained- doesn’t make sense, maybe a word is missing. For in-stance, sales of industrial plots have tri-pled over the last few years. Even Nordic and global enterprises have establish sub-sidiaries in the Seinäjoki region.

– Tailored settlement services that ease enterprises in finding success in Finnish markets are also available to in-ternational companies through the Seinä-joki Region Business Service Centre’s "In-vest in Seinäjoki" -project.

The City of Seinäjoki and the nearby re-gion form a significant marketing area of over 200 000 inhabitants. Since the em-ployment percentage in Southern Ostro-bothnia is 71.5 and therefore higher than average, they also have sustainable pur-chasing power.

– Seinäjoki, with its shopping centres and specialized stores, attracts customers even from a great distance, e.g., car sales, which are increasing rapidly. The trade sector has also invested heavily in large trading units. The construction of a new shopping centre of 14 000 floor square meters is about to begin and another 150 000 floor square meters will be erected in the near future, Rasinmäki describes.

In Seinäjoki, urban planning includes developing both the downtown and sub-urban areas, as well as rural-like areas. So, new retail space and apartments will also be built in the city centre.

– The supplementing of services, ac-commodation, cultural sites and recrea-tional activities is our recipe to nurture the attractiveness of the city centre. We even have a ski slope in the middle of the town, Rasinmäki boasts.

Although Seinäjoki has made its greatest investments in construction, technology, logistics and trade and services indus-tries, it has also paid attention to educa-tion, development and research, in order to maintain the availability of a skilled workforce and to support the livelihoods of the area.

The multidisciplinary institution of higher education, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences offers several bachelor and master degree programmes, whilst also being an efficient actor in research, development and innovation.

Moreover, the University Consortium of Seinäjoki, where five different univer-sities are involved, combines the know-how of specialists and international and local collaboration. The consortium works actively to develop and regenerate innovational environments with the use of scientific knowledge. It has its focus especially on information technology, business, the food industry and the pro-motion of wellbeing.

– The number of high level students that graduate each year is significant, not to mention the adults that are taking part in supplementary or specialization edu-cation. Besides this, educating oneself pays off, since the number of employ-ment positions increases by hundreds every year, Rasinmäki points out.

Excellent location and means of transportation

Responding to challenges

Fast growth of trade and services

Investments in education, develop

ment

and research

seinäjoki


Southern Ostrobothnia and, in particu-lar, the region of Seinäjoki region is often characterized as the Province of Food, because of the strong impacts of the live-stock breeding and food industry. Both Rasinmäki and Luukko admit that the food industry has a leading role among the manufacturers.

– The Ostrobothnian food industry

varies from larger corporations that ap-ply the latest biotechnology innovations, to smaller specialized firms leaning on product development. Nevertheless, de-spite the size of production or turnover, most of these companies also directly benefit from the available automation ex-pertise.

– An expansion of the food industry can be achieved by harnessing research and development outcomes, which will

also lead to smaller carbon footprints of production and consumption, as well as to the better security and traceability of raw materials.

To speed up this process, Seinäjoki has a specialized unit, Food House, that gathers together different actors of the food industry, technology and automa-tion developers and researchers. The Food House is to be situated alongside the production facilities.

The Innovative Food Province

JormaRasinmäki,themayorofSeinäjokiandJuhaLuukko,thedirectorofSeinäjokiRegionBusinessServiceCentre

Investments in education, develop

ment

and research

seinäjoki


The Regional Enterprice Agency provides

Guidance for Becoming an Entrepreneur Text: Mervi Lepojärvi

Photos: Seinäjoki

Setting up a business is a promis-ing way to get employed in Fin-land. Becoming an entrepreneur is also guided and supported in

many ways. – Obtaining fi nance is supposed to be

the biggest diffi culty in the establishing process,

but actually fi nancing is not a prob-lem, if your business idea is good enough. Th ere are start-up grants and other forms of fi nancing provided both by the estab-lishement as well as

fi nancial institutions and business in-cubators, says Ari Loukasmäki, manag-

ing director of Southern Ostrobothnia's Regional Enterprice Agency, Uusyrity-skeskus.

– Evaluating whether one's idea is or will be profi table business is the key mat-ter, Loukasmäki emphasizes.

Especially for start-upsTh e Regional Enterprice Agency of Southern Ostrobothnia, that serves in all 12 municipalities in it's area, belongs to

the Association of Regional Enterprise Agencies of Finland. Th e nationwide organisation provides free of charge in-formation and guidance for those that consider starting up business or have just recently became an entrepreneur.

Although establishing guides, trade register and tax administration forms and a wide range of profi tability calculation schemas are available also in the internet, most people require more personalized approach, for instance in processing their ideas and setting them in motion.

– Together with the business advisers of Southern Ostrobothnia's regional en-

seinäjoki


Th e Regional Enterprise Agency of Southern Ostrobothnia plays however a signifi cant role in fi nancing when giving recommendations for Finnvera's start-up loans and for start-up grants to the Employment and Economic Development Offi ce."

terprice agency business ideas can be tested or developed further.

Business advisers also help to identifythe risks relating to one's business, means and skills

needed to make the business profi table, and to prepare business plans with requisite calculations and esti-mates, Loukasmäki describes.

Since the Regional Enterprise Agencies give mainly basic counseling they may direct the becoming entre-preneur to seek for further assitance, for example in matters that related to accounting, tax or investment planning, or insurances.

Agencies specialist network pertain e.g. law advis-ers and fi nancial-management professionals, such as accountants, auditors and corporate acquisition con-sultants.

Th e Regional Enterprise Agency of Southern Ostro-bothnia plays however a signifi cant role in fi nancing when giving recommendations for Finnvera's start-up loans and for start-up grants to the Employment and Economic Development Offi ce.

All ideas don't fl yRegional Enterprise Agencies are fi nanced by munici-palities, business and industry and Finnish government and have therefore high quality standands in executing their work impartially.

Since it's foundation 1992 the Regional Enterprise Agency of Southern Ostrobothnia has evaluated over seven thousand business ideas of which were born 3538 enterprises. Th e number of business ideas as well of clients is rising futher: 2011 was tested circa 500 new business ideas.

– Approximately only half of all business ideas are viable or even profi table. Since only thriving businesses are worth carrying out, agenicies' objective is to ensure that 90 % of the companies established under councel-ling are still operating after two years, 80% after fi ve years. According to the tracking made here, in South-ern Ostrobothnia, the 2-year survival rate was 88% and 5-year survival rate was 78%, Loukasmäki remarks.

Also other Southern Ostrobothnia's entrepreneur-ship fi gures are outstanding. For instance the percent-age of young clients, 40 % of under 30 years of age, is beyond Finnish average.

www.oei.fi

AriLoukasmäki,managingdirectorofSouthernOstrobothnia'sRegionalEnterpriceAgency,Uusyrityskeskus.

seinäjoki


Frami Provides and Activates

Text: Mervi LepojärviPhotos: Seinäjoki

The success of South Ostro-bothnia is achieved through the co-operation of several actors dedicated to the pro-

motion of the wellbeing and prosperity of the whole province. One of these ac-tors is Frami Ltd, a regional development company located in Seinäjoki, the core of the province.

Aimed at supporting and strengthen-ing businesses and professionals, Frami Ltd is a success story in itself. It has grown from an expression of will into a large Technology and Innovation Centre within a decade.

Service provider in many levels– Our objective is to promote regional business and industry by off ering servic-es that extend from operational prereq-uisites to tailored development projects. Th rough these actions, we also strive to increase the number of high level posi-tions and professions, imparts Hannu Kantonen, Managing Director of Frami Ltd.

– We work in close collaboration with other regional enterprises, organizations and educational institutions, e.g., the City of Seinäjoki, Seinäjoki University of

Investments in Regional Development

seinäjoki


Applied Sciences and Tampere University of Technology, which are also Frami's sharehold-ers, Kantonen adds.

One of Frami's substantial means to imple-ment its purpose is to off er premises and other facility services. For instance, construction in-vestments that have been made since the set up of Frami will rise to 60 million euros this fall when the latest, the 5th in order, extension is completed.

Approximately 45 000 fl oor square me-tres gathers together Frami, the University of Applied Sciences, Seinäjoki Region Business Service Centre, the University Consortium of Seinäjoki and 70 other companies. Over 2000 students and 900 employees constitute coop-eration networks, where each participant ben-efi ts from the synergy eff ects.

In addition to the premises managed by Frami, there are several other private enter-prises that operate nearby and participate in networks, for example, Atria, one of the largest food industry corporations in Finland.

Development projects supported by Frami are also funded, both by public and private sec-tor sources. Th is, according to Kantonen, nur-tures Frami's objective to strengthen the tech-nological know-how of the area and promote business-oriented development initiatives.

Refi nement of business and productionAlthough Frami provides its services to all branches, there are three identifi ed business development programs that are based on the strengths and prospects of South Ostroboth-nia, as well as its history as a province.

Th e Agrotechnology -program consists of developing advanced business environments for the agriculture, forestry and food industry through tailored training programmes, market researches, project preparations, the refi ne-ment of business plans, international projects and knowledge networks.

Sport and wellness industries also gain from research and product development services.

HannuKantonen,ManagingDirectorofFramiLtd.

Our objective is to promote regional business and industry by off ering services that extend from operational prerequisites to tailored development projects."Investments in Regional

Development

seinäjoki


– We offer, for, usability testing for various sport and wellness products in the Kuortane Testing Lab, a service con-cept, produced together with the Kuor-tane Sports Institute. The institute itself, with its diverse customers, provides a true innovation environment for the de-velopment of sport and wellness entre-preneurship, Kantonen states.

The Seinäjoki region has been known for its musical tradition and massive mu-sic festivals for decades. The know-how

in the production of events is therefore commendable. One of Frami's objectives is, thus, to promote creative industries by providing both facilities and networking possibilities, as well as auxiliary services.

The Rytmikorjaamo area, which con-stitutes the expertise centre for creative industries, is conducted together with the City of Seinäjoki and the Seinäjoki Live Music -organization. Research pro-jects related to creative industries are accomplished in co-operation with the

Cultural Management programme of Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences and Sibelius Academy, which is one of the five universities present in the University Consortium of Seinäjoki.

– The Rytmikorjaamo facilities were completed in 2011 and already tens of new companies have been established, especially in the field of event production and marketing, Kantonen rejoices.

Influence on national programmesThe Seinäjoki region strives to make an impact on national programmes that also have an affect on regional develop-ment. Frami Ltd, for its part, is therefore involved in The Regional Cohesion and Competitiveness Programme, COCO, Finland’s special programme for regional policies governed by The Ministry of Em-ployment and Economy.

Frami also participates in the develop-ment of ICT and mechanical engineering in the agriculture, forestry and food indus-tries, among other leading actors through the Intelligent Machines Cluster Program. It also coordinates a national innovation network of over 30 city regions in Finland. and takes part in several European net-work and development programmes.

www.frami.fi

seinäjoki


South Ostrobothnia Text: Mervi LepojärviPhotos: Seinäjoki

- a Province of Uniqueness

South Ostrobothnia is often de-scribed as the most Finnish of all the Finland's provinces, because of its colourful history, distinctive cul-

ture and independence of mind and attitude.But, although South Ostrobothnia

off ers tourists both experiences and ex-altation at its many exceptional, even

peculiar places, plains that stretch to the horizon, museums, traditions and cultur-al events, it is not commonly perceived to be the utmost holiday resort in Finland.

– Ostrobothnia is simply too wide a region to be realized as one entirety for anyone who is not familiar with Finnish provinces or jurisdictions, states Ulla

Jussila, the CEO of South Ostrobothnia Tourist Service Ltd.

– Regardless of the fact that single events gather tens of thousands of travel-lers, more is to be done to enhance the region's recognition, she admits.

UllaJussila,theCEOofSouthOstrobothniaTouristServiceLtd.

seinäjoki


Various tasksof compilationOne of the means is the South Ostrobothnia Tourist Service it-self. It is owned by 13 South-Ostrobothnian municipalities and its objective is therefore, as a sales and marketing organisation, to promote tourism in the whole province.

– Our role is two-folded. We provide local tourist informa-tion and marketing services for municipalities, to acquire attrac-tion through brochures, websites, trade fairs and expositions, and yet, independently, produce tours and packages for tourists, Jussila describes.

For instance, tours connected to distinctive, historical per-sons and stories that are founded on their lives and actions have, according to Jussila, been found to be inspirational and praised for making history and the unique character of Ostrobothnia visible through illustrations and memorable elements.

A compilation of the existing services is also one of the vari-ous tasks of South Ostrobothnia Tourist Service. It provides, for example, centralized accommodation reservation and organizes tailored meetings and congress services.

– We follow the guidelines defined in the regional tourism strategy, which is constructed together with the municipalities

and branch entrepreneurs. It is thus important that the development projects are implemented accordingly, so that enterprises also benefit in the long term, she emphasizes.

From extensive events to village gatheringsParticipation in South Ostrobothnia's event sea-son pays off with its diversity. The largest events even attract people from far away, also foreigners, since the performers are often world-famous.

– Provinssi Rock, for instance, attracts up to 80 000 music lovers for a period of one weekend, and the artists vary from heavy metalists to me-lodic pop musicians. Race & Rock Festival, on the other hand, is a combination of a challenging car race and a rock festival. Seinäjoki Tango Festival is also another event which is full with intense feelings and exciting experiences in a unique at-mosphere. It attracts over 100 000 visitors to the City of Seinäjoki to enjoy the heat of the tango and couple dancing for a duration of one week. Il-majoki Music Festival, for its part, presents opera

seinäjoki


and concerts. For example, an opera which is based on the life of President Urho Kekkonen will be pre-sented in 2013, Ulla Jussila notes.

In addition to mega events, there are several smaller happenings, such as the Midnight Sun Air-show in Kauhava, Old Time Days in Soini and tens of amateur theatre performances. Travellers may also access exhibitions concerning diff erent themes. E.g. the Aalto Centre in Seinäjoki presents the lifetime work of Alvar Aalto, one of the notable innovators of Finnish architecture.

Symbols of devotion and creativityFor those that seek comfort and wellbeing, Ulla Jussila suggests sports resorts and spas that off er excellent surroundings and know-how with indulgence treat-ments, luxurious massages, training centres, golf courses and other quality services.

However, as a symbol of Ostrobothnian entrepre-neurship and independence of mind, Jussila also rec-ommends a visit to Töysä, to the department store of Keskinen Brothers, where over 6 million customers

Provinssi Rock, attracts up to 80 000 music lovers for a period of one weekend, and the artists vary from heavy metalists to melodic pop musicians."

visit each year, despite it's remote location. Th e amusement park, PowerPark, in Alahärmä,

with 34 modern rides, a wooden roller coaster which is considered to be one of the best in the world, go-kart tracks and other attractions, is a unique exam-ple of one man's devotion and creativity.

Room for events and travellersSouth Ostrobothnia provides a wide range of re-sorts, museums and events, but also provides ac-commodation for a large number of tourists. Th ere are over 8000 beds within 80 kilometers of the heart of the region, the city of Seinäjoki. Seinäjoki itself of-fers 1300 beds in hotels situated in downtown, close by services.

– Seinäjoki is suitable for large events, with its broad streets and functional infrastructure, one may even easily deploy the whole city centre for happen-ings and congresses, Ulla Jussila states.

seinäjoki


The Finnish province of South Ostrobothnia is known for its entrepreneurship and the exceptionally large number of small and medium size enterprises. A positive stereotype of this entrepreneur spirit is Tapani Kallio, whose family-run business concentrates to two different businesses, the bus coaching and travel industry and printing.

Entrepreneurship from South Ostrobothnia

Text: Finland of NetworksPhotos: Tapani Kallio

Tapani Kallio started out with the printing business. At the beginning, Kallio had serig-raphy and silk print equip-

ment. Th e name of the printing com-pany today is Seinäjoen Tarratyöt Oy/Mapitex Oy, the latter of which is a par-ent company. Th e printing services also include digital printing, textile printing and embroidery etc.

Th e bus charter business began later, but has expanded rapidly.

“We do not practice regular bus traf-fi c, but operate on a charter basis. We also off er travel packages, where we can utilize our own fl eet of 11 buses. Alto-gether, there are 470 seats on our buses and two minibuses.”

In the bus charter business, cus-tomers are sports clubs, organizations, schools, enterprises, informal groups etc. Th e bus charter resulted in travel agency operations.

“Th e name of our own travel bureau is Matkalakeus and the parent company is Mapitex Oy.

Summer capital Pärnu

Matkalakeus arranges 20-25 trips especially to Pärnu, “Estonia’s sum-mer capital”, as it is called. Th ere are many spa hotels in Pärnu, for example, Spa Estonia, Tervise Paradiis,

TapaniKallio

seinäjoki


We also arrange bus trips to Karelia and Poland. Th e main destination in Poland has been Cracow."

Spa Viiking, among others. 2011 was a very successful year in the

bus and travel agency business“We could triple the amount of our

customers. We still mainly carry out spa-related trips, but, what we call theme des-tinations, have become more and more popular. For example, during our bus tour, we linked the ancient Russian city of Novgorod with St. Petersburg.”

“We also arrange bus trips to Karelia and Poland. Th e main destination in Po-land has been Cracow. We travel there by bus and fl y back, or vice versa, depending on when the trip takes place. In all cases, a bus is always at the destination, ready to serve all the time.”

Tapani Kallio says that Matkalakeus is also considering new destinations:

“However, we do not wish to expand too quickly. I believe that we will have one or two new destinations per year. We can also occasionally arrange tailor-made tours. One interesting destination is Cro-atia, where we can arrange a trip for more than 100 people.”

Fishing in Norway

Th e real classics of Matkalakeus are fi sh-ing trips to Norway. Th e conditions on the Norwegian cost are demanding.

“We are fortunate to have an excel-lent tour guide, Jussi Paarvala. Catches

Pärnu

Cracow

seinäjoki


in Norway include cod, pollock, redfish, wolf fish, and many others.”

“To some extent, we also have groups from abroad. For example, we can pick up a group from Helsinki-Vantaa airport and transport them to a destination in Central or Northern Finland,” tells Tapani Kallio.

The province of South Ostrobothnia, where Kallio’s firms operate, is located about 300-350 kilometres from Helsinki.

Embroidery and textiles Roughly half of the income of the family-run companies comes from travel activi-ties and another half from the printing business.

“Printing is not that expensive in Fin-land nowadays. We can ensure that the logistics work well and schedules are ad-hered to.”

“The printing prices in Russia and Es-tonia are also getting higher, so we will be able to win customers there. We have many customers in Sweden and in Esto-nia, also through partners. For example, in the led and illuminated ads of pylon etc, we co operate with an Estonian com-pany. From Sweden, we bring garments and clothes and print those.

Tapani Kallio notes that the printing ser-vices of Mapitex Oy are truly varied, from stickers to business cards and from textile printing to tailor-made digital printing.

“For textiles, our machines can per-form high-class embroidery, for which we

have four machines. Transfer images are made with eight machines.”

Family-run business What is the success behind the business of Tapani Kallio and his family?

“There are long traditions in South Ostrobothnia in small and medium size companies. A large number of these are family-run businesses, who feel proud of their traditions, handcraft skills and en-trepreneurship.”

All three daughters, Jaana, Sanna and Sari are in the business, as is the son Marko.

“To some extent, we have expanded by making acquisitions, but we do not take risks that are too large.”

www.tilausajo.comwww.matkalakeus.fi

Documents

Business Finland 1/2012