“At the turn of the millennium, Deere still had a number of forest machine factories around the world. When the company acquired a Finnish company Timberjack, the decision was made to concentrate the production of cut-to-length forest machines in Joensuu. Since 2000, the design and manufacture of Deere’s cut-to-length forest machines has thus been mostly in the hands of Finns,” says Janne Haapasalo, Factory Manager at John Deere Forestry’s Joensuu factory.
Currently John Deere employs in Finland close to 700 people at John Deere Forestry Oy, which manufactures forest machines. Since the establishment of Timberjack’s forest machine factory in 1972, John Deere has produced more than 25,000 forest machines in Finland.
According to Haapasalo, Finnish know-how is valued at Deere’s HQ: “The level of basic education in Finland is high. Deere’s other factories do not have access to workforce that is as highly trained. The Americans working in Joensuu have said that it’s easy to start cooperation with new people here, as you can always rely on them to have done the groundwork properly.”