Meet the Tampere City Region: Ylöjärvi

– What’s Ylöjärvi known for, CEO Timo Isolähteenmäki of Ylöjärvi Business Service?

Ylöjärvi is a fast growing town, business-friendly and with a healthy economic structure. There is an enormous amount of reasonable sized SMEs that will make investments and employ more people year after year. In fact, building environments for SMEs and family-owned companies has been our policy, although of course we do welcome large companies, too.

Recently, a number of manufacturing industry projects have been completed in Ylöjärvi, for example the expansion of premises at Avant Tecno and the new plant of Sim Finland. Our lots in Kolmenkulma Eco-Industrial Park are ready for business.

– What makes the Tampere City Region interesting for business?

Expertise is the key: the local competence ecosystems create regional competitiveness. Globally strong manufacturing industry with diverse sub-contracting networks is the real strength of our region. 

In education and research, Tampere University is an important factor in the ecosystems. When new technology and long-established knowhow interface, new success stories will begin. 

Iscent commercialises printing technology based on research of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The technology provides eye-catching solutions for consumer packaging and brand protection.

– Why is Iscent located in Ylöjärvi, CEO Jaakko Raukola?

Iscent decided to relocate to the Tampere City Region when some people living in the region joined our personnel. Electricity is actually the reason we chose this particular location – we need proper industrial premises and power supply for our machinery, and Ylöjärvi was able to provide just what we needed.

There is also a lot of expertise in our neighbourhood that we have already put to good use: makers of marketing materials, manufacturers of machinery parts, etc. 

– How is Ylöjärvi for a company that’s going global?

Our market is largely abroad because all the major brands are global. Counterfeit goods are a big problem for them, and our technology can provide solutions. Our networks are international, we rely for example on an expert machine manufacturer and a network of sales and marketing.

Here in Ylöjärvi we have a machine that is one of a kind in the whole world. We use it for technology development and test runs for our customers. Our main goal is to sell the technology, not ready-made packaging materials. – Our previous location was in Vantaa, very close to the airport. I don’t think we’ve lost any of our potential customers by relocating to Ylöjärvi.

Global EcoProcess Services (EPSE) specialises in the treatment of industrial hazardous waste and mining waste waters.

– Why did EPSE choose Ylöjärvi as a location, CEO Jouni Jääskeläinen?

A laboratory is crucial for of our business, and at the time there were only two suitable ones available. We chose the one in Ylöjärvi. We also preferred a location west of Tampere, because that’s where most of our staff lives.

We use quite a lot of services provided by local SMEs: planning, automation, steel construction for our equipment… We’ve built a strong local network which helps us with the further development of the EPSE method. It is easy to contact and meet our development partners when everyone is reasonably close by.

An active entrepreneur will also be in good terms with the City of Ylöjärvi. For example, when a group of Chinese guests visited EPSE just recently, the City welcomed them in the council chambers and allowed us to give our company presentation there.

– What are the international interests of EPSE?

For us, Finland has potential as a test track, but the real big amounts of waste water and hazardous waste needing treatment we’ll find when going global. In Ylöjärvi we treat samples and adjust recipes to match the exact needs of each customer. The actual treatment is of course done on the customer’s site.

Our main markets are in Africa and Asia. In China, for example, environmental consciousness is growing and creating needs for water and waste treatment methods. To keep up with the market developments around the world, we visit the most important international events with Business Finland.