In his speech to the Pre­si­dent, Einari Vidgren desc­ri­bed how Ponsse’s first export efforts in the forest mac­hine pul­ling com­pe­ti­tion went.

Ponsse recei­ved the Inter­na­tio­na­li­sa­tion Award in 2003. Einari and Juha Vidgren accep­ted the award during a cere­mony at the Pre­si­den­tial Palace. In his fes­tive speech,
Einari Vidgren recal­led in his incom­pa­rable style one of the most impor­tant moments of the company’s early days: the Myl­ly­puro forest mac­hine exhi­bi­tion in 1972.

The Ponsse team from Vie­remä tra­vel­led to the forest mac­hine exhi­bi­tion in Myl­ly­puro,
near Hel­sinki. The exhi­bi­tion area was a large gra­vel pit, and all the major com­pe­ti­tors were pre­sent. At the event, there was a drag race up the edge of the gra­vel pit. Ponsse defea­ted the com­pe­ting brands in the race and made its name known to the public for the first time.

When Pre­si­dent Tarja Halo­nen pre­sen­ted the award for success­ful inter­na­tio­nal action, Einari recal­led the moods of three deca­des ago and the chal­len­ges of launc­hing an export.

“It was our first real export effort – we thought that at least one mac­hine could be sold in Sout­hern Fin­land. Of course, there were many enqui­ries after the exhi­bi­tion, but no buyers at all.”

On the eve­ning of the exhi­bi­tion day, the Ponsse team went for din­ner in Hel­sinki. We loo­ked for an even bet­ter place to eat to celebrate the success of the Myl­ly­puro exhi­bi­tion.

After din­ner at mid­night, they drove to the hotel. The team noticed that they were almost at the hotel. Einari deci­ded to drive directly to the hotel cour­ty­ard by the shor­test route, even though there was a “no entry” sign. But as it was late and the jour­ney was short, Einari deci­ded to take the for­bid­den route.

“Howe­ver it hap­pe­ned, the police were there. They stop­ped the car and asked why we were dri­ving in the for­bid­den direc­tion. I replied that we were a group from a forest mac­hine exhi­bi­tion and were far from our home vil­lage of Vie­remä. In Vie­remä, we don’t have oneway streets, so we were unpre­pa­red for such a situa­tion.” The officer glanced at the men in the car for a while and then replied, “This time, you can drive into the hotel yard. But let’s agree that the next time you come to Hel­sinki, you leave the car at the Shell pet­rol sta­tion in Käpylä, kilo­met­res away from the city centre.”

“So this time, we came by plane and taxi to Hel­sinki,” Einari said in conclu­ding his speech at the Pre­si­den­tial Palace.