Meet the Tampere City Region: Lempäälä

– What’s Lempäälä best known for, Managing Director Kari Löytty of Lempäälä Development Ltd?

In surveys assessing the vitality and business friendliness of municipalities, Lempäälä is always ranked among the best in Finland. Some of this surely results from the good collaboration between the City and entrepreneurs. Our special strength is that we can build environments attractive to businesses. Local entrepreneurs have a strong local identity and many are proud of being from Lempäälä.

Nature, lake views, trekking route Birgitta Trail, quality of living and the popular shopping destination Ideapark are worth a mention, too. The centre of Lempäälä is undergoing a major development project. By train it is only 11 minutes to Lempäälä from the Tampere railway station. 

The Marjamäki industrial area is developing and will have a new kind of energy community LEMENE where energy is produced by solar power plants, gas engines and fuel cells.

– What makes Tampere City Region attractive to business?

When companies answer this question, there are always two assets before everything else: skilled workforce and accessibility. Tampere University is a success factor in the region and provides qualified workforce together with other educational institutions. Inland transport connections are excellent at the junction of main roads and railways, and international accessibility is also being improved.

Asensiot expertises in processing condition monitoring data to knowledge and maintenance actions, and in visualising overall asset health of rotating machines.

– Why did Asensiot choose Lempäälä, CDO Pasi Kivimäki?

Two out of three Asensiot’s founders live in Lempäälä, and the third one nearby, so the choice was pretty clear. Some of our customers – large Finnish industrial companies and international businesses – are located in the Tampere Region. We have an interesting role helping the traditional industries to transform and develop their operations with new technologies.

As regards to transport, Lempäälä is quite an optimal location in Finland, no matter what direction you are going to. The metropolitan area is easily accessible by car or train.

– What kind of networks help Asensiot develop?

In our public sector networks for example Business Finland and Finnvera have provided valuable help. Collaboration with different businesses is important and very welcome – it is the best way to mature new technology and ensure its high quality.

Asensiot is about to finish the product development phase and starting its growth path. I think we’ve received all the support we’ve needed along the way. Now it is time for our takeoff and we welcome all collaborators aboard.

Kiilto is a family-owned company with a hundred-year history. It manufactures and markets chemical industry productions in four business areas: construction, industrial bonding solutions, professional hygiene and consumer products.

– Why is Kiilto located in Lempäälä, CEO Anssi Asikainen?

The company was first established in Tampere and relocated to Lempäälä, when it needed more room to grow. Good transport connections and the vicinity of Tampere were surely assets back in those days.

Today Kiilto operates in 12 countries and employs almost 1000 people internationally. In Lempäälä there is a substantial amount of production and product development, as well as our head office. That’s why good connections are still very important for transport of goods, commuting and international operations.

Our aim is environmental leadership, and we seek ecological ways to travel, when travel is really needed. By 2028, all company operations will be carbon neutral.

– How do the local networks benefit Kiilto in its operations?

Tampere Universities are important partners in research projects, and a source of qualified workforce. We also cooperate with research institutions, like VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, and one of the recent projects was to find out if air could be the source of raw material for adhesives. There are local companies in our subcontracting network for e.g. packaging and further processing of raw materials.

Collaboration with the City of Lempäälä is seamless and at the moment we are discussing several themes, like city planning, environment and energy. The City is taking us into account in a very satisfactory manner.