Skåne based Jokri AB and Ponsse celebrate their 30 years of coo­pe­ra­tion. Ponsse enjo­yed the pos­si­bi­lity the host our friends from Swe­den and we had a chance to sit down with Mikael Johans­son, the foun­der of the com­pany.

Mikael Johans­son foun­ded Jokri AB, a com­pany offe­ring full-ser­vice fore­stry solu­tions in 1989. First mac­hine Mikael acqui­red was a Norcar with Sil­va­tech aggre­gate. In daily work mac­hi­nes had con­ti­nuous repairs and mac­hine got chan­ged. But problems with qua­lity con­ti­nued. Finally, rumors of a Fin­nish qua­lity mac­hine cal­led Ponsse reac­hed Mikael’s ears in 1995.

The first Ponsse mac­hine

Mikael and his brot­her star­ted researc­hing Ponsse and con­tac­ted Ponsse’s free­lance sales­man Taito Tak­kula. Brot­hers were a little hesi­tant, since at that time there were hardly any ser­vice for Ponsse in Swe­den. Spare parts were avai­lable in Väs­terås, nearly 500 kilo­me­ters from Slättsjö, Jokri AB’s home base.

“Taito con­vinced us that we do not need any ser­vice when you have Ponsse. He told us that buying Ponsse was like buying a Merce­des. We did not buy Merce­des, but we bought our first Ponsse HS-15,” Mikael recalls with laugh­ter. “The mac­hine was very reliable and very good pro­duct. Already in 1997, we acqui­red our next mac­hine, HS-16.”

Mikael had the first mac­hine for 13 years and total of 25,500 wor­king hours. Today Mikael has six Ponsse mac­hi­nes wor­king in his com­pany: Scor­pion Giant, Scor­pion, Elep­hant, Buf­falo, Wisent, Gazelle. During the com­pany his­tory Mikeal has had 14 Ponsse mac­hi­nes all toget­her. 

Stable coo­pe­ra­tion

“At the begin­ning star­ting to work with Ponsse was very exci­ting. Ponsse was still quite small com­pany in the early 90’s. But coo­pe­ra­tion has been stable through the years. And even Ponsse has grown a lot during the years, it still feels the same Ponsse as when we star­ted our coo­pe­ra­tion”, tells Mikael.

Accor­ding to Mikael the best thing with Ponsse is that mac­hi­nes are stable and if there are problems with mac­hi­nes they are usually sol­ved quickly. Of course there is always room for impro­ve­ment. “I think in times there could be more ser­vice tech­nicians avai­lable. They are valuable for us because they are the ones who can set the mac­hine up pro­perly.”

Surpri­ses and making memo­ries

As a surprise to Jokri Team the old PONSSE HS-15 was par­ked by the main ent­rance of Ponsse fac­tory. Juha Vidgren, Ponsse’s Public Rela­tions Mana­ger, brought gree­tings from the com­pany owners and sha­red some of his own memo­ries of the com­mon his­tory. Day con­ti­nued with tra­di­tio­nal fac­tory tour and trip to test log­ging site. There our guests had an oppor­tu­nity to see latest Ponsse mac­hi­nes at work.

During din­ner at the Ponsse Club a special plaque was han­ded to Mikael to com­me­mo­rate the long rela­tions­hip. Many memo­ries were sha­red, and new memo­ries were crea­ted during the visit. For sure, ideas and thoughts of strengt­he­ning the future coo­pe­ra­tion as well as hopes for new mac­hine fea­tu­res were discus­sed. And maybe, just maybe, during the eve­ning the idea of acqui­ring a new “Merce­des of forests” began to ger­mi­nate in thoughts.

Jokri AB
- foun­ded in 1989
- based in Slättsjö, in Skåne, Swe­den
- owner / foun­der Mikael Johans­son
- employs four full-time emplo­yees — Kris­tian Åkes­son, Olle Ebbes­son, Gus­tav Johans­son (his son) Oli­ver Gus­tafs­son
- annual tur­no­ver circa 20 mil­lion SEK
- six Ponsse mac­hi­nes : Scor­pion Giant, Scor­pion, Elep­hant, Buf­falo, Wisent, Gazelle
- Log­ging for large forest com­pa­nies, but also to local pri­vate forest owners
- Full-ser­vice fore­stry solu­tions include: log­ging, plan­ting, clea­ring, con­sul­ting and impro­ve­ment of forest roads