Scots in Estonia

Page 13

Estonia as an ideal hub: Springboarding to regional environmental markets.

“W

e probably started in Estonia two years too early, but it’s much better to be early in a market than late,” says Peter Cheney, managing director and half-owner of Tallinnbased Empteezy Baltic OÜ. Cheney has been working since late 2004 to build up this regional distribution center of Empteezy Ltd., a Scottish maker of engineered storage and waste handling solutions. The company offers equipment and supplies designed to avoid spillage of hazardous liquids or, if an accident does occur, to minimize harm to people and the environment and make cleaning up easy. Just as Hong Kong is Empteezy’s Asian distribution base and sales in the Middle East are dealt with from United Arab Emirates, so Estonia has proved an ideal hub for the entire Nordic and Baltic region, according to Cheney. The Glasgow native says it was not market research that led him to this corner of Northeastern Europe, but rather a passion for football. Scotland was playing Estonia, and Cheney made the trip to Tallinn to cheer on Scotland with the Tartan Army. That was May of 2004.

“It was one of the few countries I’ve visited where you just feel completely relaxed and safe,” he recalls. Adding to the good first impression were the friendly Estonians he met (“who all seemed to speak at least six languages”) and a corner pub that served good Scottish beer. Having also noted the country’s solid transport infrastructure and attractive geographical location, he soon came back to set up shop. Getting started took a while, partly because of the natural need to learn to the ways of bureaucrats and business people here, but mainly because back in 2004 the local market for environmental safety products was still just beginning to emerge. “We made a lot of inquiries, but people weren’t doing anything about environmental protection at the time because a lot of the rules and regulations weren’t in place yet. But over time they’ve


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.