Vaaka Partners

Trailmaker-customer: LTP Group strengthens position in food logistics with Vaaka Partners’ support

LTP Group, a pioneer in temperature-controlled logistics services, has grown into a strategically managed company with strongly customer-driven operations. With the updated strategy, the company is determined to gain further growth and profitability.

LTP Group has a unique offering of logistics services to food producers, wholesalers, retail outlets and shops.

“As we develop our services, everyone in the chain benefits from our work. In addition to our basic logistics service we also pick products, which enables the optimization of delivery batches resulting in cost savings and efficiency for the customer”, says CEO Matti Tuominen from LTP Group Oy.

”With us, even a small producer gets big logistics. At the same time, in the big picture,the carbon footprint of deliveries is greatly reduced.”

Strategy is an everyday tool

Partner of Vaaka Partners, Reijo Grönholm, says that Vaaka Partners is looking for growth companies with a strong market position and a clear position in the value chain. LTP Group meets these expectations - the market position is strong, and the company is truly generating value for the whole chain.

“LTP Group has strengthened its executive team and streamlined its operations during the past year. We have come up with a good strategy together and now it’s time to redeem and realize the opportunities”, says Grönholm.

The new strategy aims to increase customer benefits, launch new services, increase synergies and improve efficiency further. TRAILMAKER ensures that the new strategy is understood within the organization and its implementation becomes a daily activity.

During TRAILMAKER sessions where both management and board were present strategy was turned into concrete milestones.

“Our strategy is now clearly phased. In the TRAILMAKER process, we identified the flagship projects that will take us to our profitability goal when implemented”, says Tuominen.

“The tasks decided on the basis of a common view are clear and the execution has already started. Trailmaker’s concrete Management View is in active use. The first milestones are already turning green”, Tuominen says.

TRAILMAKER is a concept for faster strategy execution:

- Concrete common view and commitment

- Identified capability needs

- Visibility

20.1.2020

Trailmaker customer: Molok, a Vaaka Partners owned company, is looking for strong international growth

Molok, a provider of waste management solutions, is looking for strong growth in the coming years. Vaaka Partners became the majority owner of Molok in 2016 with the key intention to substantially increase the size of the company. In 2020 a new CEO and CFO were employed and the common view for the further development of the company was strengthened with the Trailmaker process.

Molok Oy produces and offers underground solutions for waste collection. Clients are housing cooperatives, municipalities, waste management companies and construction companies. The market position is strong in the Nordic countries.

“70 percent of our turnover comes from abroad. The Nordic countries are currently our largest market area alongside Finland”, says Marko Penttinen, Molok's new CEO.

Molok has a strong will for profitable growth. The company's target is doubling its topline.

“To reach this target our focus is on international growth”, says Penttinen.

 

Trailmaker ensured the common view for the concrete implementation path

Molok has built a strong vision and strategy, but the implementation of the strategy has stalled. With the help of Trailmaker a common view for strategy execution was ensured across the management team and with the board – as key content increased focus and a concrete implementation path.

“The focus and goals need to be very clear so that we can target our resources correctly. With Trailmaker, we didn’t only form a common view of the needed change but also decided and prioritized key milestones. In the first phase, the key is getting the company back on a growth path.”

Trailmaker also gave Molok’s management valuable insights into needed expertise and resources. In addition, Trailmaker’s Management View ensures that the implementation of the strategy is monitored and the common view kept in order to stay on the expected path.

TRAILMAKER is a concept for faster strategy execution:

• Concrete common view and commitment

• Identified capability needs

• Visibility

13.1.2021

Trailmaker customer: Vaaka Partners. Tietokeskus Finland Oy is stepping up its strategy

Tietokeskus is an IT services company operating in 10 cities in Finland and has an annual turnover of 116 M€. With Trailmaker, Tietokeskus has created a strong growth strategy and ensures its systematic implementation.

In 2016 Vaaka Partners became the majority owner of the company. Over the past three years, Tietokeskus has strengthened its management, launched a service business model for B2B customers and made several acquisitions.

"Tietokeskus has changed from selling PC’s to a nationwide IT outsourcing service provider, and the volume of business has tripled. We are still looking for growth in the services business", says Timo Hiltunen, Chairman of the Board.

"The IT industry is undergoing a major transformation. SMEs outsource their basic information technology and security needs, for example, so that they can succeed in their own businesses. We can help our customers focus on knowledge work and provide today's IT solutions for it", says Janne Lipiäinen, CEO.

Trailmaker process ensures that the strategy is put into practice

Trailmaker was used while refreshing the strategy at Tietokeskus: the strategy was clarified and needs for change identified. Clear and concrete tasks that are essential for strategy implementation were defined in the process.

In Lipiäinen's point of view, time is saved in reporting.

"Trailmaker's Management View makes reporting easy since the board can monitor the implementation of the strategy directly from the system. The Management View facilitates communication between the management team and the board which makes it a great tool", says Lipiäinen.

TRAILMAKER is a concept for faster strategy execution:

- Concrete common view and commitment

- Identified capability needs

- Visibility

11.2.2020

Trailmaker Customer: Huutokaupat.com gears up for continued strong organic growth supported by Vaaka Partners

Mezzoforte Oy is best known in Finland for its online auction platform Huutokaupat.com which is the largest of its kind in the country attracting 1 million Finns per month. Convinced by its strong growth potential Vaaka Partners acquired a majority stake in the company in 2023. Together the two brought Trailmaker on board to focus on accelerating the execution of the new strategy.

Vaaka Partners thought we had a really solid growth path and strategy,” says Mezzoforte CEO Santtu Poutanen, who notes that the company has become known for its customer-centricity. “With the new ownership we have been focused on increasing the speed of our execution and investing more money and more resources into excellent user experience.”

Over half a million registered customers use Huutokaupat.com to purchase everything from cars and real estate to sauna trolleys, tools and everyday items. And Vaaka Partners sees the Finnish online marketplace as a “major player” in the circular economy with huge growth potential.

Only around 12% of the materials used in the EU is circulated, according to official figures, and Vaaka Partners says that Huutokaupat.com is thereby contributing to tackling a major societal challenge. Partner at Vaaka Partners, Petrus Blomqvist, expects that there will be significant possibilities for Huutokaupat.com in the future, given the increased role of the circular economy.

Poutanen says that following success with other companies, Vaaka introduced Mezzoforte Oy to Trailmaker to help with the strategy execution process. “Trailmaker have a very interesting concept,” he says.

Since the acquisition, Trailmaker has worked with the board and key people at Mezzoforte Oy and the cooperation will continue. The key objectives for the cooperation were centred around finding a common view and strong buy-in for transformation and execution, says Poutanen. “It was really important to have everyone on the same page with clear areas of responsibility and accountability.”

According to the CEO, key challenges and opportunities were clarified during the process with Trailmaker and immediate actions were identified. Poutanen describes the process as resulting in improved capabilities, with strengthened “excellent” user experience. “Trailmaker helped us accelerate the execution of our new strategy,” he says. “In a way, the strategic change is recognising the untapped potential of the circular economy and we need to accelerate in order to capitalise on that potential.”

22.9.2023