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Forest expertise for organic machines
Sampo-Rosenlew’s saviour Timo Prihti and Kesla’s founder Antti Kärkkäinen seem to have much in common. Kärkkäinen started the construction of stone clearing machines before anyone had even invented them. Timo Prihti was driven to the forest machine market by a similar reason – there were fewer loggers and the level of forest thinning management had decreased. The market did not seem to have the right kind of machines for thinning.
- says Timo Prihti, who holds the honorary title of industrial counsellor. As a forest owner himself, Timo Prihti knew that Kesla booms would be the ideal choice for a forest machine manufacturer from Pori. It started with boom cooperation and expanded to harvester heads. Cooperation started as early as the late 1990s. Sampo-Rosenlew started the serial production of thinning machines in 1997. Product development was carried out, and increasingly efficient machine models followed each other. In 2013, Sampo Rosenlew’s harvester head experienced a complete transformation. From the outset, Timo Prihti’s great idea was that a forest machine could be built using parts of a thresher. Later on, the demands for steel strengths, engine power and transmission of forest machines increased and the use of thresher parts was abandoned.
Growing strong
Over the past two years, Sampo-Rosenlew, led by Hannu Hietikko, has tripled its forest machine production. More than 100 forest machines are produced each year. Around 85% of sales are exported. “Eight out of ten machines leave with a Kesla harvester head. Europe is the largest export region, with global exports ranging from Europe to Canada and from China to Chile,” says Hietikko, Business Director for Forest Machines.
It is precisely in the export market that Hietikko sees significant growth opportunities. Support for growth and development in export efforts and network building is provided by Mahindra, the Indian co-owner of Sampo-Rosenlew. Mahindra & Mahindra, the world’s largest tractor manufacturer, owns 49.04% of Sampo-Rosenlew. The Prihti family owns the rest.
In December 2017, Sampo-Rosenlew acquired Logman Oy’s bankruptcy estate. The purchase decision was part of the forest machine business growth plan. In August 2018, Sampo-Rosenlew announced that it would increase its range with a total of three new forest machines showing Logman’s heritage. The harvester heads of the new range are produced by Kesla. “The loaders and harvester heads come from Kesla, while the automation is supplied by Technion.
The cooperation is long-standing and based on systematic planning and continuous dialogue. And although machine sizes have increased, Sampo-Rosenlew is above all an expert in thinning,” says Hietikko.
The global popularity of the cut-to-length method continues to grow. The introduction of this method requires a good knowledge of the operating conditions of the new market. In developing forestry countries, cheap labour is available and work is manual labour. “The transition threshold from manual labour to cutting-edge technology is high in many places. However, there are signs that even though there is cheap labour available, young people can no longer be tempted to harvest timber manually,” says Hannu Hietikko. Hietikko is not content to just focus on the work phase taking place at the tree. “You have to look at all the logistics and approach from the forest to the plant. Many socio-economic issues need to be addressed. Russia is a good example of this. Exporting technology there was very slow. Now they have awakened, and the Russian forest machine market is growing rapidly. The goal of breaking into new markets is something that Sampo-Rosenlew and Kesla have in common,” says Hietikko.
Don’t laugh too soon
It was 1997. People had gathered in Pori at Teljänhovi Hotel Restaurant for management training organised by Rauma Business School. A young Hannu Hietikko was also present. Hietikko had already gained experience in forest machine business. From 1986 to 1992 he worked for Lokomo Forest. After that, his career progressed to Marketing Manager of Timberjack’s Finnish sales company. A few years later, he was appointed Managing Director of Timberjack Finland.
Rauma-Repola was giving up its extras in the mid-1990s in the wake of the recession. Timo Prihti, an engineer who worked in combine harvester production all his life, saw his opportunity. Prihti bought Sampo-Rosenlew from Rauma-Repola and saved Finnish timber harvester production with a management style that has been described as earthy.
The men gathered in Teljänhovi for business training were reading the morning newspaper, Satakunnan Kansa. In a front-page ad, Prihti’s Sampo-Rosenlew announced that it would start manufacturing forest machines. ”The announcement had pictures and more… We joked about it and mocked them for entering the market with those machines,” recalls Hannu Hietikko.
John Deere bought Timberjack in 2000. In 2005, Hietikko became Deere’s Country Director in Russia, responsible for the development of forest machine sales. He stayed there for about four years. Hietikko returned to Finland and left the forest machine business. In 2009, he became Managing Director of Volvo Construction Equipment Finland.
After Volvo, Hietikko decided to take a breather. However, he barely had time to take a deep breath before Timo Prihti’s son and Sampo-Rosenlew’s then CEO Jali Prihti called Hietikko and asked him to come work for him. Hietikko started as the Head of Sampo-Rosenlew’s Forest Machine Division in August 2017.
”Yes. Remembering Teljänhovi, the lesson is quite clear – don’t ever laugh too soon.” Hannu Hietikko
- Hannu Hietikko.
