Year of Developments and Digital Leaps

CoreHW brings unparalleled precision in indoor positioning to the international market

CoreHW has made significant investments in developing a new product for the international market.The product is a microchip component for a Bluetooth indoor positioning system. Later in the year, CoreHW’s evaluation solution for indoor positioning technology was delivered to numerous international customers. What makes the product unique is the technology it contains, which enables more accurate positioning than ever before in indoor environments. The customer feedback for the product has been positive, and negotiations regarding extended deliveries have been initiated with multiple customers. Through its products, CoreHW demonstrates the ability to bring entirely new technology to the international market. The demand was also strong for the design services, and CoreHW began collaboration with three significant new customers during the financial period.

In the spring, the coronavirus emergency temporarily forced all CoreHW staff to work entirely remotely. However, working remotely suits the nature of the company’s specialist tasks very well, which ensured that work efficiency remained impeccable. The pandemic imposed a set of unique challenges on sales efforts, too. Travelling became more difficult and several international trade fairs were cancelled. This partially slowed down CoreHW’s efforts to gain new customers. Still, customer satisfaction remained as high as it can get – the rating has been a full 100% for four years running.

The most inspiring workplace brings top specialists together

CoreHW currently employs more than 70 top-level experts in microchip and antenna technology. At least 90% have a master’s degree in engineering, and roughly 25% have a doctorate. The company has succeeded in creating a work environment that is pleasant and efficient in every way. The achievements are reached through people and teams. In fact, the company was acknowledged as one of Finland’s Most Inspiring Workplaces in the category for small organizations. CoreHW employs both veterans in the field and young upcoming talent. Everyone has a strong shared desire to develop world-class solutions that leverage new technology. The company and its staff have gained more confidence in their own products, thanks to the experiences gained throughout the successful year.

Pioneer in children’s clothing invests in online trade

For Gugguu, the year 2020 got off to a good start, but the impacts of the coronavirus crisis on the company’s business became apparent very quickly. Gugguu did not waste time tackling the situation and proceeded to develop measures to ensure demand despite the challenges. Because the Child Fair event planned for April was cancelled, Gugguu organized a variety of online trade events for consumers. Investments were also made in digital marketing campaigns. These measures were effective, and the company’s net sales have increased in the autumn. Overall, Gugguu’s net sales dropped slightly in the financial period, especially due to the declining number of retailers.

However, online sales have increased consistently, which has been extremely important for Gugguu’s business. The coronavirus situation sped up the process of opening Gugguu’s updated online shop. The company has also made efforts to develop Gugguu’s online business significantly in other ways. At the moment, the company gets 82% of its net sales from online trade, 9% from outlets and the remaining 9% from retailers. Online trade has increased by 30% in Finland and by 51% abroad. In terms of net sales, the share of international customers stands at 7%.

The company is moving forward on its path toward internationalization, and the measures planned before the coronavirus to gain new customers in relation to sales and marketing have now been made entirely digital. This will slow down Gugguu’s internationalization somewhat, especially in countries where the company is not known well or at all. In Europe, consumers in Germany and Sweden, among other countries, have expressed interest in Gugguu’s products.

Products that can take years of wear and washing, and last from one child to the next.

Responsibility is at the core of Gugguu’s operations, and customers also expect the company to be extremely responsible. That is what the company is known for. In 2019, Gugguu developed its responsibility reporting arrangements, and in early 2020 it published a responsibility report as well as a report on ethical principles. In September, the Pro Ethical Trade Finland association published its annual report for 2020, which reviews the responsibility reporting and transparency of Finnish clothing brands. Gugguu placed in the second best category of the report, which is the company’s best ranking ever.

The outlook for 2021 is positive. Gugguu’s special focuses are breaking new ground and achieving international growth. In Finland, Gugguu’s responsible brand is well known and demand is increasing. Consumers have become very aware and are making choices based on responsibility. In marketing, a communal and customer-oriented way of engaging in dialogue with consumers is characteristic of Gugguu. It wants to provide its customers with experiences. A variety of cooperation models based on partnerships will also be deployed in 2021.

* In contrast to Panostaja, Gugguu’s financial period is April 1, 2019–March 31, 2020

Giant leaps toward reinvention

At the start of the financial period, demand was at a good level for all product lines and subsidiaries. When the coronavirus crisis began in mid-March, Grano successfully adapted its expenditures to match the order volumes that had declined by 30% on average. The average order price increased correspondingly at the same time, so Grano’s actual net sales turned out higher than expected. Demand dropped primarily for sheet printing, large-scale prints and the subsidiaries Grano Digital Oü and Grano Diesel Oy.

The company made giant reformative leaps amidst the crisis, creating a new group strategy, launching more than 10 coronavirus protection products and piloting an agile operating model for sales and marketing, among other efforts. One of the most significant coronavirus protection products was the protective apron development by Grano in collaboration with experts from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. So far, more than 1,000,000 protective aprons have been delivered to health care providers.

Significant customer value now and in the future

Grano’s shift in focus from products to services is at the core of the company’s new strategy. The most substantial difference from before is the transition from a hierarchical management system to shared leadership and from production economy to customer economy. The new strategy will enable Grano to generate significant customer value now and in the future.

Marketing communications as a market will grow in the long term. This provides a wealth of opportunities to Grano as a versatile expert in marketing communications. In the short term, the declining paper-based communications market, in particular, presents a challenge, but Grano has plenty of potential to seize market share from its competitors.

Grano is entering the 2021 financial period from a position that is stronger than anticipated. The significant reforms initiated in the autumn of 2020 will be completed over the course of the financial period. The changes will enable Grano’s growth far into the future. The operating environment will remain unpredictable and challenging. Thanks to the new structural arrangement and shared leadership, however, Grano will be able to react more quickly to changes in the operating environment and help its customers achieve impactful communications despite the changing world.

The strong commitment and flexible approach of the Grano team has resulted in the end result for the 2020 financial period being better than expected. Customers trust Grano, and the feedback they provide helps develop the company further every day.

Integrating an ecosystem approach into Oscar’s operating methods

In the spring, the coronavirus impacted the company’s business and adaptation measures were needed in the form of lay-offs, for example. Later in the spring, a growing trend was once again achieved, and new recruitments were initiated.CEO Riikka Kivimäki assumed her position in August. Toward the end of the financial period, the Oscar team in Tampere moved to new premises. The state-of-the-art premises support a modern way of working under a hybrid model. The increased number of group work spaces at the new location enables more efficient collaboration with in-house staff, customers and other parties.

The coronavirus emergency forced Oscar to reconsider its processes, which led to increased efficiency in customer projects. Customers’ changing needs generated a demand for different kinds of products. For example, new online shops springing up during the coronavirus crisis led to increased demand for the Oscar eCommerce suite. The shift in demand also changed the direction of product development to some extent. The outlook for 2021 seems bright. The market is expected to continue to develop favorably despite the unstable situation.

The operating environment is changing, and Oscar is a firm believer in an ecosystem approach, which involves closer cooperation with partners, customers and other interest groups. Within these ecosystems, information is shared freely and the ultimate goal is always to provide the best possible end result for everyone involved.

Committed employees provide an excellent customer experience

Oscar’s most important resource are its employees. Over the course of its second full financial year in Panostaja’s portfolio, Oscar has done well in utilizing the services offered by Panostaja to improve employee development and well-being. In 2021, Oscar will focus on developing the customer experience. Many of its internal development projects are specifically focused on improving customer satisfaction, which is an endeavor in which people play the most important role.

A year of massive deals and challenges

The coronavirus crisis had a significant impact on Hygga’s clinic business during the financial period. The company’s net sales plunged in March-May, which necessitated a range of adaptation measures. However, Hygga is entering the new financial year in a strong position.

In March, Hygga won the City of Helsinki’s competitive bidding for oral health services. The three-year contract for outsourced services will begin on November 1, 2020. In June, the turnover for Hygga’s clinic business began to increase, and July was exceptionally busy. The situation has remained good through the fall season. Toward the end of the financial year, Hygga initiated a new extensive round of recruitments of oral health care professionals in relation to the contract for outsourced services. The contract will increase Hygga’s annual patient visits by about 40,000.

In September, it was announced that Hygga’s licensing segment is involved in the Aster project managed by the Central Finland Health Care District. Aster aims to develop a new information system for social welfare and health care professionals to combine basic health care, specialized health care and social services. Within the scope of the project, Hygga is responsible for providing a patient information system for oral health care and supplying the Hygga Flow ERP system.

In terms of international licensing business, Hygga Flow has been adopted in the Netherlands and Sweden. Italy and Switzerland have also been interested. However, the coronavirus pandemic is currently slowing down the company’s internationalization and customer acquisition efforts. Many important trade fairs have been cancelled or postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus crisis.

Wastage in health care is an opportunity for Hygga

For Hygga, the coming financial year looks good but challenging. Next year’s net sales are expected to increase as a result of recently-made contracts. Hygga is strengthening its position as a trailblazer in the development of digital systems and services for the health care sector.

The coming financial year will require the organization to have the capacity to do things in entirely new ways. Hygga is now focusing its attention on ensuring controlled growth and engaging the entire organization, including new and existing employees, to helping the company achieve it.

Hygga has identified the wastage generated in the context of health care processes and decided to seize the opportunity. The company’s operating model enables reacting to changes in the operating environment quickly, providing an efficient solution for working through long waiting lists and managing customer flows in health care in a comprehensive manner.

Carrot’s year full of changes and speedy development

The field of HR services reacts to changes in the economy very quickly. This is why the coronavirus has had a significant impact on the HR services field and Carrot’s business operations. Over the course of the financial period, Carrot also conducted adaptation measures, which have positioned it well for the coming financial period.

The coronavirus situation in the spring accelerated Carrot’s development, especially in terms of digital aspects: among other efforts, the entire recruitment process was digitalized. In August, these agile development efforts progressed to a phase that involved piloting the company’s own mobile platform. Going forward, Carrot will shift its operations toward the platform economy, enabling customer orders and job offers to applicants through the proprietary platform, for example. Digital development at Carrot will continue, as the values at the core of the company’s operations are customer experience, automation, artificial intelligence, digital solutions and mobility. In the years to come, the company will continue to seek growth through new services that can be scaled to generate significant growth.

Partner to job seekers and businesses amid the shift in working life

Carrot aims to meet the changing need of the expanding sector especially by developing its services and solutions. Work methods are changing, and an important aspect in the context of this shift is to identify the changing values of job seekers. Among other things, the significance of work has been put into much starker relief than before. The employment sector needs new ideas and partners to ensure that job seekers and employers find each other. Carrot expects growth from the coming financial period. The most substantial changes have now been made, and Carrot has stepped onto a path of continuous learning and development together with its staff.

Our growth comes from internationalization and value-added services

Despite the challenging situation, Heatmasters succeeded well in its business operations during the financial period. Net sales remained almost at the level of 2019, and profitability increased by a few percentage points. Business remained profitable thanks to the adaptation measures, which were initiated earlier and continued in the spring due to the coronavirus crisis, as well as staff flexibility in Finland and Poland.

General uncertainty in terms of investments cut into equipment trade on a global scale. Travel restrictions resulted in deployments and maintenance being postponed, and the large-scale plant outages planned for the spring were delayed. That being said, the impacts of the first phase of the coronavirus pandemic were smaller than expected, and the company is now well positioned for the coming year. A number of significant sales helped the company’s order book recover. One example is the order made by Andritz Warkaus Works, which involves tempering the components of a soda recovery boiler to be installed in a pulp mill in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The heat treatments and related added-value services were completed at the Heatmasters Varkaus service center in the spring and summer of 2020.

Exactly zero work-related accidents during the financial period

There were plenty of causes for celebration over the course of the year. Heatmasters’ service center, which currently operates in Będzin, Poland, turned 25 years old. In addition to this, the company reached an important milestone by keeping the number of work-related accidents at exactly zero. The continuous improvement is one of the cornerstones and most important goals in Heatmasters’ operations.

The future prospects in terms of internationalization are good. Heatmasters’ competitive and proficient team in Finland and Poland, as well as the company’s high-quality products and services, provide a solid foundation for the efforts. Investments into product development continue, and the integration of equipment into constantly developing production automation solutions have increased. Furthermore, strong efforts are being made to develop the tools for marketing communications further to make larger markets available to Heatmasters.

The digital lessons learned in the spring are here to stay

The coronavirus outbreak in the spring and the discontinuation of the brokerage of consumer light fixtures dragged Helakeskus’ net sales down. Business remained profitable, however, thanks to careful cost management and a wide selection of products, in particular.

In March, the coronavirus emergency forced Helakeskus to temporarily halt customer visits, which are very important for its business operations. All contact with customers and clients was primarily handled remotely. The experiences were surprisingly good, and Helakeskus took a step toward digitalization. After the holidays, customer visits were resumed, but the digital lessons learned in the spring are here to stay.

Helakeskus wants to provide its customers with the best and most extensive product selection possible. As a result, Helakeskus introduced a variety of new products over the course of the year, including a selection of light fixtures, basins and handles. Customers now have even better opportunities for finding more products to suit their needs. The new website was opened in September, and the online shop will be launched in 2021.

Excellent service, a wide product selection and competitive prices lay the groundwork for a good customer experience

The coronavirus crisis is still casting a shadow of uncertainty over the coming year. That being said, the current market demand is moderate. Helakeskus is continuing its development measures, and the company is internally focusing on updating its ERP system.

Helakeskus believes in solid brands, high quality and the functionality of products. The persistent goal is to improve the profitability of the company’s customers by means of a competitive product selection and the right product solutions selected with help from Helakeskus’ expert staff.

In terms of construction, the total market is expected to shrink slightly in 2021. The coronavirus situation is also adding to the general uncertainty. However, there is still plenty of construction in Finnish growth centers, which provides plenty of opportunities. Helakeskus is well-positioned for the coming year.