Componenta Suomivalimo 30 years in Iisalmi
Componenta Corporation Stock Exchange Announcement 13.10.2005 at 14.00
Componenta Suomivalimo 30 years in Iisalmi Componenta Suomivalimo Oy, a Componenta Group foundry, has operated for 30 years in Iisalmi. The foundry moved from Vallila in Helsinki to a new purpose-built industrial property in the Parkatti industrial area in Iisalmi in the mid-1970s. The foundry was officially commissioned on 28 October 1975 by Finnish President Urho Kekkonen and Industrial Counsellor Yrjö M Lehtonen. Componenta Suomivalimo's business has more than tripled during these 30 years. Annual casting output is more than 10,000 tonnes and the foundry employs 150 people in Iisalmi. Suomivalimo concentrates on manufacturing heavy-duty cast iron components weighing 200 5,000 kilograms. Its biggest customers include ABB Motors (electric motor casings), Wärtsilä (components for large diesel engines), Moventas (industrial drive housings, gear wheel blanks, and castings for wind turbine gears), Atlas Copco and Ponsse. Componenta Suomivalimo has net sales of EUR 17 million, and exports account for 80% of this. Componenta Suomivalimo was established by the great grandfather of the group's present president and CEO back in 1918. The company manufactured to order and from the start its operations were very flexible and customer-oriented. In the 1950s the company developed its own municipal engineering and plumbing products and started export operations in the 1960s. In the next decade the company needed additional production space so it started to look for a new location for the foundry outside Helsinki. It found a suitable area in Iisalmi, where the new foundry was built. All that remained in Helsinki then were the management, machine shop and sales functions. Up until the 1980s, Suomivalimo functioned as a single company. After this, a group grew up around the parent company through Finnish and international company acquisitions, and this operated at different times under the name JOT-Yhtiöt and Santasalo-JOT. Today the group's name is Componenta and it contains 15 production units in Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands. The group's core business comprises the foundries and machine shops, which form effective supply chains, providing customers with cast, machined and surface-treated components and total solutions assembled from these. The group's customer base consists of companies with global operations in the heavy truck, off-road, machine-building, and power and transmission industries. The shares of the company, which has grown from a family-owned company into a versatile metal industry player, are quoted on the main list of the Helsinki Exchanges. Componenta has net sales of EUR 316 million and employs 2,200 people. Persons who have more than 30 years' service at Componenta Suomivalimo will receive the long-service medal awarded by the Central Chamber of Commerce on 14 October 2005. In other respects the anniversary will be a normal working day. Helsinki, 13 October 2005 COMPONENTA CORPORATION Heikki Lehtonen President and CEO FURTHER INFORMATION Olli Karhunen Lauri Huuskonen Director, Power and Transmission Unit Manager, Componenta Suomivalimo Tel. +358 10 403 00 tel. +358 10 403 00