Valio will relocate the Vantaa plant operations to Joensuu and the Helsinki Pitäjänmäki warehouse operations to Riihimäki. Based on the current estimate, the Vantaa plant will be closed in stages during 2025–2027 and the Pitäjänmäki warehouse operations in late 2027 at the earliest. By relocating the operations, Valio aims to improve production efficiency and profitability. 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. There is already a warehouse in Riihimäki, from where distribution in Southern Finland is handled.
Valio’s Vantaa plant produces all 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 cheeses, butter and spreads, among other products, move through Valio’s Pitäjänmäki warehouse. There are currently around 230 people working in Vantaa and around 110 people working in the Pitäjänmäki warehouse operations. Based on the current estimate, about 100 new jobs would be available in Joensuu and up to about 35 new jobs in Riihimäki.
One third of Valio’s cheeses are produced in Joensuu
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 will increase when the products made by the two plants are made at the same production plant. And the need for transport would be reduced,” says Juha Penttilä, Valio’s Executive Vice President, Operations.
Riihimäki chosen as the new location for the warehouse operations
By relocating the Pitäjänmäki warehouse operations, Valio aims to improve the productivity of logistics operations.
“There is already a warehouse in Riihimäki, from where distribution in Southern Finland is handled. It makes sense to centralise the warehouse operations to Riihimäki. At the beginning of the negotiations, Valio had two possible options for the new location of its warehouse operations: Riihimäki and Tuusula. Riihimäki was chosen as the new location because it was the better option economically,” Penttilä explains.
In addition to the business rationale, the relocation of the Pitäjänmäki warehouse operations is linked to the Pitäjänmäki area zoning change, which has a guiding effect on the future use of the properties.
“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. Earlier this year, we held change negotiations on the relocation of the Pitäjänmäki juice factory’s production to Riihimäki,” notes Penttilä.
Next steps
“The personnel at our worksites have done good work. The closing of sites is always very unfortunate from the employee perspective, and we want to handle it in the best way possible from the people perspective. Naturally, we will do everything we can to ensure that as many people as possible would be directly employed either within Valio or would find employment opportunities outside Valio,” says Penttilä.
The next step for Valio is to draw up a more detailed implementation plan.
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.
