HAANPAA GROUP – 60 YEARS OF GROWTH AND CHANGE
Early Years
The founder of Haanpaa Group, Jussi Haanpää, was born in Haapavesi, in Northern Finland, but moved with his spouse to the city of Oulu in 1940’s. In 1949 he bought his first truck and started transporting timber, like so many others, who had chosen trucking as a career during those years in Finland. Jussi’s family grew, three sons and two daughters were born and so grew the business.
From the early beginning Jussi was looking for ”natural” growth areas. In the late 1960’s, when the company already has several trucks in dry goods logistics, the first tank logistics truck was acquired. It was dedicated for the fuel distribution
of Kesoil. Even some other liquids were transported, namely famous ”Toppilan Kuohu” beers in Oulu.
Focusing on Chemicals Logistics
Stronger focusing on chemicals and especially classified chemicals transportation business was started in 1976. The growth took place by acquiring some domestic transportation companies that were serving the growing Finnish chemicals industry. The existing fleet for dry goods logistics were progressively transformed suitable for tank transportation of chemicals. During the early 1970’s transportation activity towards continental Europe was started. Sweden has always been considered as home turf. The company operated under its founders name, Jussi Haanpää Ky.
Domestic Growth
The company was geared to grow – chemicals industry was expanding rapidly in Finland at late late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Several local competitors around Finland were acquired during the years 1978 -1992 and the company grew ”out from Oulu”. Besides the growth the company faced number of structural changes during those years. The group was stepwise organized under name Haanpää Yhtymä Oy that acted as a administrative holding to manage several operation all companies; Veljekset Haanpää Oy that was dedicated for international traffic, Haanpää Kuljetus Oy for domestic traffic and finally Jussi Haanpää Ky. was transformed into internal maintenance company. The group’s structure was simplified and structured for the next step – internationalization and expansion.
Internationalization and Expansion
Year 1996 was a start of a new era for Haanpaa Group. The internationalization of operations was started by acquiring a small-scale chemicals transportation company, Åkeri Rune Johansson, in Sweden. Already before that a German subsidiary, Haanpää Yhtymä GmbH, had been established. The rational for this was the need to join the industry organization TANKCEU – only the companies that had affiliates in EU member states were allowed to become members. Establishing the company in Estonia took place through a co-operation party and finally the company established its subsidiary, Haanpää Oü, in Estonia in late 1990’s.
The real break-trough in exapansion happened at the turn of the century. Haanpaa Yhtymä acquired the leading chemicals logistics company, ADR-Transport AB, in Sweden. The letter of intent was signed in 1998 and the deal was signed in February 1999. This acquisition opened the door for Swedish, Norwegian and Danish chemicals transportation markets and paved the way for further intenationalization and expansion of the group. ADR-Haanpää Group had seen the first rays of light and the company had grown into the leading Nordic chemicals logistics
company.
Re-structuring and Consolidation
After the born of ADR-Haanpää Group, the current owners were starting to look for new ownership structure. The international private equity investors became interested in ADR-Haanpää’s further growth opportunities. The private equity fund, EQT Partners from the Netherlands, became the largest owner of ADR-Haanpää Group with its 66% ownership. The Haanpää family remained as owners with 29% ownership.
The group’s governance saw some major changes and the company was first time in its history led by a person outside the founding Haanpää family. After some further aqcusitions the company started to consolidate and simplify further the group’s structure. In 2002 the company was re-organized under lean group structure with five operational companies under ADR-Haanpää holding. In 2004 the company took another a significant step in its growth strategy. ADR-Haanpää Oy acquired Viinikka Oy, a Finnish liquid and dry bulk logistics company, merged their operations and created the largest chemicals logistics provider between Nordic Countries and Continental Europe. The private equity investor, Pamplona Capital Management from UK, acquired the majority of the company from the EQT Partners, Haanpää family and senior management in 2005.
Jussi Haanpää’s timber trucking activity had grown from “single-Scania” venture into multi-national, 500-truck logistics company that had customers throughout Europe. The inspiration, dedication and hard work of Haanpää family had made the vision reality.
Shortened, modified, amended and freely translated from the Finnish article: "Kohti tulevaisuutta sopivasti suomalaisuutta ja monikansallisuutta yhdistäen" by Olli Blomberg. The article was originally published in Kuljetusyrittäjä magazine on April 2004 in Finland.