CEO Tapio Tommila:

“
We built a good foundation for the future 
”

The operating environment remained out of the ordinary in 2022. Even though recovery from the coronavirus pandemic improved demand and supported the positive development of net sales, new changes, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the energy crisis and high inflation, imposed direct and indirect challenges and cut into the profitability of many of our segments.

The price inflation of materials was evident particularly at Grano, which is one of our top profit generators. Internal measures were insufficient to compensate for the impacts of inflation sufficiently during the financial period, but the efforts have progressed well and will continue. Overall, the net sales of our segments increased significantly in 2022, but the profitability development fell short of our targets.

The portfolio updates continue

One of the biggest successes of the year was the sale of Grano’s SokoPro business, which generated substantial added value. Last year, we took the time to update our portfolio through several business divestments. Now, we have continued to build a foundation for new investments: by virtue of the new strategy, we began to concentrate on companies in the software and service sectors. This turned out to be the right choice: these fields have sizeable markets and many interesting companies, with which we had discussion over the course of the year. Hopefully, these efforts will bear fruit in 2023.  

The response to our updated strategy has been very positive in other ways as well, and our potential investment targets have viewed the focus as a strength. We have gained plenty of added value from our new AdNet advisor network with which we are cooperating closely, especially with regard to new investment targets. At the same time, we have been able to bolster our own competence with versatile experts.

Taking responsible steps forward

In accordance with our strategy, we have also determined our methods of managing responsibility and built new operating methods and tools for this purpose. Responsibility has always been an important focus for many of our portfolio companies, good examples of which are Grano’s new production facility in Vantaa, which significantly improves energy and material efficiency, and Gugguu’s new sales service for recyclable clothing. At the end of the financial year, we also committed to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), which are supported by the UN. In the new financial period, we will continue our responsibility efforts with added strength derived from the solid foundation built this year.

For 2023, one of our core goals is to include new value-adding companies to our portfolio and boost the growth and profitability of the current companies. Our existing segments still have plenty of untapped value creation potential. The year 2023 will surely be challenging: the general economic development is deteriorating, the geopolitical climate is uncertain and the post-COVID uptick in demand is winding down. Even so, I believe that we are prepared for all of this – perhaps the year will even bring about new opportunities.