Forestry’s cutting edge Ponsse

In the beginning there was a logging site, a frame saw and the dream of a 14-year-old boy from central Finland. Now, Ponsse makes the best forest machines in the world. Romana Moares reports.

FORESTRY’S CUTTING EDGE

Finnish forest machine manufacturer Ponsse is a textbook example of how a business can grow from a machine entrepreneur’s dream into an international export company.

The company was founded by Einari Vidgrén, the son of a small farmer from Northern Savonia in central Finland, who at the age of 14 started working at logging sites using a frame saw. Einari was carried away by forestry and at the end of the 1960s, he had developed a load-carrying forest tractor in a local village workshop, naming the machine after a mixed breed dog that roamed the village: Ponsse.

In 1994, Ponsse was the first forest machine manufacturer in the world to be awarded the ISO 9001 quality certificate. This led to intensified machine development work and an expansion of the product range. When the export market opened up, the company was listed on the stock exchange in 1995.

Today, Ponsse plc is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of cut-to-length forest machines, operating in harvesting markets in 40 different countries. Nearly 80% of its net sales come from exports, but the roots of the family-owned company lie deep in the Finnish countryside and the business is still based in Vieremä, in the same location in which it was founded in 1970. From forest to forest

Claimed to be ‘the logger’s best friend’, Ponsse provides its clients with the best tools for all tree species and harvesting environments. Ponsse forest machinery is based on environmentally friendly cut-tolength (CTL) logging, where trees are felled, delimbed and cut into various log assortments before they leave the forest.

The product range covers all size categories of forest machinery, from thinning and harvesting of forest energy to heavy-duty regeneration felling, as well as for all logging sites, from soft soil to steep slopes.

The machines and their key components are designed and manufactured in-house, which guarantees that the company remains at the forefront of development and that its products meet the requirements of forest professionals.

Ponsse’s flagship product is the Scorpion harvester, first introduced to the public in 2013. The Scorpion harvester range, which became a global sales success and an international symbol of responsible forestry, was thoroughly modernised last year, setting a new standard for the operator’s working environment.

The new Future Cabin included in the PONSSE Scorpion launched in February 2021 won a product design award in the internationally acclaimed Red Dot design competition. This was the high-

est recognition that could be achieved in the competition, granted to the best products of the various award categories.

Expanded footprint

The difficult years of the global pandemic have not slowed the company’s expansion, both in terms of new regions and new products.

In January 2022, Ponsse opened a new 1,000 m2 service centre in Joensuu. This €2.5 million investment, which includes field and information system maintenance, spare parts and machine sales, technical support as well as a well-stocked spare parts storage and a Ponsse Shop, is the result of Ponsse’s growing market share and machine base in Eastern Finland as well as a desire to better serve its customers.

In February 2022, Ponsse moved to strengthen its operations in the Czech Republic. The company acquired all shares of Křenek Forest Service, its Ponsse forest machine and service dealer in

the Czech Republic. The new entity will from now on operate as a subsidiary wholly owned by Ponsse.

Further afield, Ponsse has invested more than €2 million in the construction of a new service centre in Tomsk, Western Siberia. Large stocks and an efficient logistics system guarantee customers short service times and fast spare parts deliveries. The investment supports the company’s continued growth in that region.

Most reputable company

On the product side, the company has invested in further innovation. In early 2022, Ponsse launched a completely upgraded Ponsse H8 harvester head. Active Speed is available for the harvester head as a new feature, giving the harvester head a superior performance.

Given the impressive achievement over a period of a global crisis, it comes as no surprise that in the minds of Finnish people, Ponsse was recognised, yet again, as Finland’s most reputable company. This honour has been collected for the fourth year in succession.

“We accept this recognition with a humble and grateful mind. It feels great that our story bears fruit and our thoroughly customerdriven way of working is ranked so highly. I would like to thank our entire Ponsse family: every Ponsse employee and customer, and their families, as well as our stakeholders across the world. No one can do this alone – we are in this together, both during good days and bad ones,” says Jarmo Vidgrén, Chairman of Ponsse’s Board of Directors.

He affirms that a good product range and confidential customer relationships are Ponsse’s foundation stones, together with its strong values, committed personnel, as well as its history and traditions. Ponsse continues to follow the path cleared by Einari: “We manufacture the best forest machines in the world.” n