Component manufacturing facilities
Finished products ready for packaging
SMART HYDRAULICS Expansion, acquisition, new services and ‘smart hydraulics’ are all on the agenda for Finland’s Hydroline Oy. Felicity Landon reports.
Final application Futuristic Excavator
H
ydroline takes the long-term view. For more than 50 years, this family-owned company has specialised in the development and manufacture of specialist hydraulic cylinders. Today it is the biggest company in hydraulics in Finland; its market share in Europe is constantly growing and Hydroline is an increasingly well-known brand. The company that began as a one-man operation in the basement of a house now employs 220 people worldwide, and dramatic expansion is planned for the next few years. Its customers include some of the world’s best-known brands, including Sandvik Mining & Construction, Cargotec, John Deere Forestry and Rocla. Hydroline’s headquarters and main 12,000 sq m production site are at Kuopio in centraleastern Finland. This year (2014), the company opened a new production plant at Stargard Szczecinski, in north-western Poland; a greenfield development, it was, as CEO Mikko
