29.11.2004
Vaasan & Vaasan Invests EUR 3 Million in Crispbread Production

Over the 2004-5 period Vaasan & Vaasan Oy will inject an investment of nearly three million Euros into its Kotka crispbread plant, where all its crispbreads and thin crisps are produced to satisfy demand on the Finnish market as well as exports to more than thirty countries. A strong growth in exports has caused a need for additional capacity. Initially the investment will be channelled towards improving the crispbread packaging, which has become something of a bottleneck.

This year, some 17 million kilograms of crispbread and thin crisps will be produced at the second largest crispbread factory in the world, located in Kotka. This is equivalent to around 85 million packages sold to consumers. The volumes produced at the Kotka plant have experienced a strong growth, fuelled especially by successful exports: in the last five years, export volumes have doubled, and the trend is not expected to change in the near future. ‘Exports have increased to all of our main markets, including the Nordic countries, Central Europe, Russia and North America,’ says Magnus Johanson, Director for International Operations at Vaasan & Vaasan. ‘We are also looking to expand in the new, developing markets in Eastern Europe and Asia.’

Vaasan & Vaasan Oy’s FINN CRISP crispbreads enjoy an overwhelming market position in Russia, with a market share of over 80 %. ‘The average consumption per capita in Russia is still low, however, compared for instance to Nordic figures,’ Johanson says. ‘We currently have a strong position in the St Petersburg and Moscow areas, but Russia has over ten other cities with more than one million inhabitants, so our opportunities for growth are good.’ The company is already building a partnership network with local companies and planning product launches in the new areas. Other large markets are also opening up, with the first crispbread lots exported to China this autumn – results of preliminary marketing in the country are expected soon.

The products exported to the Russian market are FINN CRISP ‘rectangulars’, familiar to Finns for instance under the VAASAN Koulunäkki brand. ‘The new investments will be used particularly to improve the plant’s rectangular crisp bread packaging capacity. In addition we will automate the plant’s palleting operations,’ explains Seppo Ruikka, Director of Industrial Baking. The investments will be completed in autumn 2005. Meanwhile, other measures for increasing capacity are also being planned. The number of staff employed at the Kotka plant will increase by around twenty this winter.

Further information:

Vaasan & Vaasan Oy

Magnus Johanson
Director, International Operations
Tel. +358 40 715 6977

Seppo Ruikka
Director, Industrial Baking
Tel. +358 400 406 501


The Vaasan & Vaasan Group is the largest bakery business in Finland and the Baltic region, the world’s second-largest crispbread producer and a significant Nordic producer of bake-off products. FINN CRISP crispbreads and thin crisps produced in Finland are exported to some 30 countries around the world. The company’s major export markets are the Nordic countries, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Benelux region and North America.

The Vaasan & Vaasan Group’s subsidiaries are Vaasan & Vaasan Oy in Finland, A/S Leibur in Estonia, A/S Hanzas Maiznicas in Latvia, UAB Vilniaus Duona Plius in Lithuania and Delice Scandinavica AB in Sweden. In 2003, the group had a turnover of EUR 275 million and employed some 3,900 people.

www.vaasan.com