Valio is planning to relocate the Vantaa plant’s operations to the Joensuu plant and the Helsinki Pitäjänmäki warehouse operations to Riihimäki or Tuusula. If implemented, the plan would mean the closure of the Vantaa plant and the Pitäjänmäki warehouse. With the planned relocations, Valio is aiming to improve the efficiency and profitability of production. Location also plays a role: the Joensuu plant is located in a vibrant milk production area and is already producing cheeses, which are transported to the Vantaa plant for packaging. In the Helsinki city master plan, the Pitäjänmäki area is zoned as an urban residential area, where there is no possibility of future industrial activity.
Valio’s Vantaa plant produces the processed cheeses sold by Valio in Finland and also processed cheeses for export. In addition, the plant produces shredded and sliced cheeses, as well as MiFU® and Oddlygood® Veggie products. Valio’s Pitäjänmäki warehouse operations are located in Helsinki. Valio’s cheeses, butter and spreads, among other products, move through the Pitäjänmäki warehouse.
Valio is now starting change negotiations on the planned relocation of the Vantaa plant and the Pitäjänmäki warehouse operations. There are 228 people within the scope of the negotiations in Vantaa, i.e. the plant’s entire workforce. The entire workforce of the Pitäjänmäki warehouse operations, i.e. a total of 113 people, are within the scope of those negotiations. Potential personnel reductions will target, at maximum, the same number of personnel. If the plans are implemented, Valio aims to offer employment at other sites to as many of the personnel as possible.
If implemented, the change would mean more work and new types of job duties for the Joensuu plant, as well as changes to work shifts, for example. As a result of these possible changes, we will start change negotiations in Joensuu related to the reception of the Vantaa plant’s product line relocation. The number of employees within the scope of the negotiations in Joensuu is 128, and the planned substantial changes to the terms and conditions of employment are currently estimated to target, at maximum, the same number of employees.
Based on the current plan, the possible closure of the Vantaa plant would take place in phases during 2025–2027. The earliest possible closure date for the Pitäjänmäki warehouse operations in Helsinki would be late 2027, according to the current plan.
The grounds for the negotiations are production, financial and operational restructuring reasons. The negotiations will last six weeks. No decisions have been made at this stage.
Location also has an impact
In addition to the business rationale, the planned relocation of the Pitäjänmäki warehouse operations is linked to the ongoing zoning change in the Pitäjänmäki area; the zoning change will have a guiding effect on the future use of the properties.
“In the city of Helsinki’s master plan, the Pitäjänmäki area is designated as an urban residential area, where there will be no possibility to continue industrial activity in the future. We had previously communicated to employees that industrial activities are likely to move away from Pitäjänmäki. Earlier this year, we held change negotiations on the relocation of the Pitäjänmäki juice factory’s production to Riihimäki,” explains Juha Penttilä, Valio’s Executive Vice President, Operations, in charge of production facilities and logistics.
Location is also a factor in the relocation plans for the Vantaa plant.
“Most of Finland’s dairy farms are located in the area extending from Ostrobothnia to Eastern Finland. The Joensuu plant receives milk from 800 dairy farms, most of them located in North Karelia, and produces one third of all Valio’s cheeses. The Vantaa plant produces processed cheeses and ripens, smokes, further processes, and packages cheeses produced at Valio’s other plants. More than 40% of the cheeses processed and packaged in Vantaa comes from Joensuu. The productivity of the production and packaging lines would increase if the products made by the two plants were made at the same production plant. And the need for transport would be reduced,” Penttilä continues.
The Joensuu plant produces around 25 million kilos of cheese blocks, consumer packaged cheeses and fresh cheeses annually. The production plant’s main products are Valio Polar® cheeses, Valio Salaneuvos® cheeses and Valio Viola® fresh cheeses. In addition, the Joensuu plant produces milk powders.
“The personnel at all our locations have done a good job. Change negotiations involving personnel reductions are always very unfortunate, and we want to handle it in the best way possible from the people perspective,” Penttilä notes.
Valio employs a total of about 4,300 people, 3,700 of them work in Finland. Valio is owned by about 3,300 Finnish dairy farms through cooperatives.
“Through competitive business operations, we ensure the vitality of our owners, i.e. the dairy farms, and we secure the continuity of Finnish food production. That enables us in the long run to also create jobs and livelihoods around Finland,” says Penttilä.
