Ponsse orga­nized an inter­na­tio­nal cham­pions­hip com­pe­ti­tion for spare parts per­son­nel in Iisalmi and Vie­remä on 30 June–1 July 2026. The com­pe­ti­tion brought toget­her repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from Ponsse’s country orga­niza­tions and dea­lers from six count­ries: Fin­land, Hun­gary, the Uni­ted Sta­tes, Uru­guay, Por­tu­gal and Lat­via.

The com­pe­ti­tion was aimed at spare parts pro­fes­sio­nals and tes­ted both the par­tici­pants’ theo­re­tical know­ledge and prac­tical skills. The tasks focused on iden­ti­fying spare parts and fin­ding the cor­rect item num­bers, spare parts offe­ring, and the spare parts process.

“Skil­led spare parts per­son­nel and strong spare parts exper­tise are key fac­tors in cus­to­mer satis­fac­tion and success­ful after­mar­ket ope­ra­tions. We train per­son­nel both at Ponsse and at our dea­lers to ensure the hig­hest pos­sible level of after­mar­ket exper­tise glo­bally. With this com­pe­ti­tion, we want to raise the pro­fes­sio­nal com­pe­tence of spare parts per­son­nel to an even hig­her level and offer par­tici­pants an oppor­tu­nity to chal­lenge them­sel­ves,” says the competition’s head judge Matti Kulju.

“It is great to see repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from both Ponsse’s own country orga­niza­tions and dea­lers taking part. You do valuable work in your own count­ries, and I am plea­sed that so many par­tici­pa­ted in the com­pe­ti­tion. The aim is to orga­nize the com­pe­ti­tion every other year in the future,” says Mikko Eske­li­nen, Glo­bal Parts Mana­ger.

At the end of the com­pe­ti­tion days, the jury gat­he­red to review the com­pe­ti­tors’ answers and calcu­late the sco­res. The com­pe­ti­tion was orga­nized and jud­ged by head judge Matti Kulju and jury mem­bers Fanni Heik­ki­nen and Otto Kor­pi­halla.

“The com­pe­ti­tion was ext­re­mely close, and the dif­fe­rences in points were razor-thin. This shows that the par­tici­pants had very strong exper­tise in the com­pe­ti­tion topics,” Kulju sum­ma­rizes.

Vic­tory in the inter­na­tio­nal com­pe­ti­tion went to Lat­via

The win­ner of the tight com­pe­ti­tion was Niks Brazuns from Lat­via, repre­sen­ting Bal­tic Agro Mac­hi­nery SIA. Brazuns was visibly surpri­sed and happy about his vic­tory. He was awar­ded with a trip to a Ponsse loca­tion of his choice.

“It has been great to get to know the fel­low com­pe­ti­tors and to be here com­pe­ting this week. The vic­tory means a lot to me. It is great that Ponsse also orga­nizes trai­ning for spare parts per­son­nel. The trai­nings have been use­ful and have sup­por­ted and deve­lo­ped pro­fes­sio­nal com­pe­tence,” says Brazuns.

Second place went to Joo­nas Her­ra­niemi, who works at Ponsse’s Rova­niemi loca­tion. Third place went to Daniel Vida, repre­sen­ting the Hun­ga­rian dea­ler Forest Power KFT.

Ponsse con­gra­tu­la­tes the win­ners and thanks eve­ry­one who par­tici­pa­ted in the com­pe­ti­tion!