All guests are welcome at Ponsse’s fac­tory in Vie­remä. Cus­to­mers always come first, but the aim is to find sui­table visi­ting hours for other groups as well, assu­res Petri Ris­sa­nen, who is res­pon­sible for visits.

“Each visit always inclu­des at least a com­pany pre­sen­ta­tion and a fac­tory tour. The pro­gramme is arran­ged accor­ding to the visi­ting group and their sche­dule. In prac­tice, foreign cus­to­mer groups spend seve­ral days in Fin­land, having time to visit, for example,
test log­ging site, the Logis­tics and Ser­vice Centre in Iisalmi, and Einari’s for­mer home in Mäkelä. In addi­tion, we may offer various other acti­vi­ties from snow­mo­bi­les to hun­ting,” says Ris­sa­nen.

Guests stay at the Ponsse Club right next to the fac­tory. It has room for 25 people, a chim­ney­less sauna, a kitc­hen and a large dining room. Three people take care of meals and the main­te­nance of the Club, and one pro­perty mana­ger heats the chim­ney­less sauna, ploughs snow and keeps the buil­ding in good con­di­tion.

“We do not have any full-time hosts, and each group is mana­ged toget­her fol­lowing the Ponsse spi­rit. It is inte­res­ting for cus­to­mers to talk to Ponsse people who work in dif­fe­rent posi­tions, and it is valuable for emplo­yees to meet cus­to­mers and hear their feed­back. Often, the company’s mana­gers or owners also meet visi­ting groups.”

4000 — 6000 visi­tors a year

Some 4,000–6,000 people visit the fac­tory each year. This figure does not include subcont­rac­tors, for example. Last year, there were visi­tors from about 30 count­ries.

“We are pro­bably one of the busiest att­rac­tions in Savo area mea­su­red by the num­ber of visi­tors.”

When visi­tors come from far away to Vie­remä, we want to give them atten­tion and a good impres­sion.

“We are actually quite simi­lar to our cus­to­mers. Ponsse is a family-owned com­pany, as are many com­pa­nies of dea­lers, main­te­nance ser­vice pro­vi­ders and forest mac­hine cont­rac­tors. We are inte­res­ted in simi­lar things, have simi­lar hob­bies and share
simi­lar values about life and work. I hope that visi­ting us feels like see­ing a close friend.”

“All guests are welcome at Ponsse’s fac­tory in Vie­remä. Cus­to­mers always come first, but the aim is to find sui­table visi­ting hours for other groups as well” assu­res Petri Ris­sa­nen, who is res­pon­sible for visits.