Lonnberg Painot
Dual function for Lonneberg
Lonnberg Painot Oy, located in Helsinki, Finland, has two main company branches: Lonnberg Print, which focuses on the production of marketing and communication printed materials, and Lonnberg Promo, which deals with promotional point-of-sale materials like packaging materials and displays.
The company is very successful and renowned within both fields, and it is Lonnberg’s flexibility and array of services that has guaranteed its continued success.
The printing market is currently highly competitive, with large amounts of business being focused on online and internet developments. However, within this evolution, Lonnberg is not being left behind, and recent investments in its IT services to be implemented in 2007 highlight the company’s commitment to technological progress. This determination to meet its customers’ needs is supported by its sales and service team, which ensure continued feedback from clients, as well as gathering data on the latest market trends.
Managing director Jarkko Viheriavaara elaborates on the two aspects of the company: “The units are focused on different types of products, as well as using different technologies. The Print unit is a more traditional offset-printing house, and the Promo unit combines several different technologies, like UV-offset, screen-printing and digital printing. Overall, Lonnberg is a very high-quality printing house. The main product the Print unit focuses on is different kinds of marketing and communication brochures, as well as financial communication materials such as annual reports and magazines. In the Promo unit, the company focuses upon point-of-sales materials, meaning it produces different kinds of packaging, displays, posters and marketing-related campaign materials. The aim of both units is not for high-volume production, but rather selective, quality production.”
Within a competitive market, it is important to establish a company ethos that customers can rely on, as Jarkko explains: “Quality is very much the emphasis of the company, as well as its clients. Also, besides printing and printing materials, Lonnberg offers many value-added services, such as designing packaging structures. For instance, cosmetic companies will have many different products, and Lonnberg will provide different alternatives for the packaging. The company also offers layout planning as part of its services. At the end of the process, the company offers logistics regarding retail, for instance placing campaign materials in stores.” This development of a range of services has seen Lonnberg achieve revenues of 19 million euros in 2006.
Success has been built upon a wide and varied customer market. Jarkko comments: “The company’s main customers are major international brands, in many kinds of industry, like cosmetics, retail, industrial, electronics and automotive. If you take 50 of the major global brands that are active in Finland, 80 per cent are clients of Lonnberg. The company is currently globalising, and as its clients grow, so must the product and customer services Lonnberg provides. This will begin by focusing on Scandinavia and the Baltic regions, as well as Russia.”
The scale of Lonnberg’s customer base is thanks in part to the array of services that Print and Promo provide. Jarkko continues: “It is often the case within Finland as well as Europe that printing companies are quite small and quite focused – for instance, they concentrate only on magazines and similar products. The strength of Lonnberg is in its ability to fulfil the needs of big companies on a wide scope, because the technologies that the company has are numerous. Lonnberg also has very high quality standards. Every two years, a study and survey is completed in Finland of independent printing companies. Over the nine times this survey has been completed, Lonnberg has been ranked first six times. It is pleasing to see the company’s high quality levels being publicly recognised.”
Quality within Lonnberg’s products and services is maintained by continued investment in new software and machinery. This has been necessary in a market that is feeling the effects of customer focus turning towards internet-based promotional techniques, as Jarkko recognises: “Over the past six years, there has been a struggle within the printing industry, because it has faced competition in the form of new media, such as the internet. More of the company’s clients are spending marketing money on internet advertising and services, and less on printing. Lonnberg analysed its position within the industry, and decided that it would be to offer better value in printing materials – for example, not only using ‘four colour’ printing techniques, but also adding new effects, like three-dimensional images. The company is also printing on alternative materials to paper, like different kinds of plastics. To undertake this process, Lonnberg needed to invest in new machinery for these innovations, costing millions of euros over the last two years. The company now has two brand new printing machines besides nine older ones, as well as new pre-printing software.”
Expansion has seen Lonnberg invest in a new ERP IT system designed to maximise the efficiency of the company’s processes, as well as provide a new array of online services for its customers. Jarkko expands on the investment: “The company is defining its needs and new system with its IT vendor to create a package that will suit it for the next five to ten years. The ERP system that Lonnberg is implementing is comprehensive, beginning with the interaction that the company has with its customers. For instance, this will deal with Lonnberg’s website, aiding customers with an online ordering service. This will also provide a brochure and quotations service, and assist the company’s production and planning process.”
Continued success is based upon expansion, as Jarkko understands: “Lonnberg is hoping to expand in three ways: Firstly, even after the product and service developments, a big part of the company’s revenues come from standard printing, and to make this continually profitable, the consolidation of the industry is a must for Lonnberg. Within the next ten years, the company aims to expand into related growing industries, like promotions and marketing services. Finally, it is easier for clients to purchase one large package from a single company that will encapsulate all its needs. There are a lot of opportunities for the company within the field of logistics, both through organically growing the services it already offers, and also by acquiring other businesses.”
Jarkko concludes: “Lonnberg is placing emphasis upon quality throughout the service process it provides, not only in products, but also customer service and logistics. This means future investment will focus on people, training and education.”
Lonnberg Painot
Products: Printing and promotional products and services
Sites: Helsinki, Finland
Employees: 144
www.lonnberg.fi