Flying Finnish

摘要

With only two factories and a traditional powerbase in the Nordic countries, Mokian Tyres is dwarfed by the tire industry's big-hitters. But the Finnish enterprise has long punched above its weight, and there are a number of reasons why its life is particularly rosy in 2013. On the day we met with Teppo Huovila (formerly the company's R&D chief but since 2011 its vice president of Quality and Process Development) at Tire Technology Expo, Nokian announced its 2012 results. They make impressive reading: sales increased more than 10% to over ?1.5bn (US$1.9bn). Profits also rose, by 7% to ?330m (US$426m). So what's going right?