Fennoaqua underwent the most significant change in its history in 2023 when new owners Finnforel Oy, Alltech Corporation, and Heino Group took over from Raisio Group. The implementation of the change in the company’s everyday life also strongly influenced the year 2024, when new operating methods and systems were adopted.

Objective number 1: people

The most crucial objective during change was related to staff and their well-being. Maintaining an existing, well-functioning organisation was of paramount importance to Fennoaqua, as there would be no new, ready-made organisation to replace it and no local training available for the job.

Tomi Kantola

“I wanted the best staff in the world to have the best home in the world. I also wanted the new company to start so well that the same staff would remain during this huge transformation. In a situation like this, leadership and showing direction, encouragement, and openness are very important,” says CEO Tomi Kantola.

Ultimately, Fennoaqua’s staff increased by one returnee this year, meeting the vital objective.

For the staff, the change process provided a tremendous amount of experience.

“At the beginning of the process, I told them that once we get through this, we will get through anything, and you will never be in a more challenging spot in your career. So, everyone’s handprint is visible in this change, and confidence has certainly increased. We became part of an international environment, and English is our second everyday language. We have also made a lot of new, very nice and competent colleagues,” says Kantola.

A successful carve-out thanks to Finnish sisu*

The change has meant leaving Raisio Group and starting a whole new company.

Timo Kasper

“This has been a strenuous effort for everyone. We made a complete carve-out in record time while simultaneously improving our sales: in 2023, we sold 24% more than the previous year, and it looks like in 2024, we will sell around 10% more than in 2023. Moreover, we started to export to six new countries this year. Our achievement says a lot about this team: it’s been tough; our ears have been ringing, and our eyes blurring. It’s hard even to remember all we’ve done, but everyone is alive, the team spirit has remained excellent, and that’s why we have succeeded,” says Kantola.

“The timetable for the carve-out project was wildly ambitious. There were no ready-made templates for the integration, so with Finnish sisu and the support of top-notch professionals we created our own Raisio miracle,” recalls CFO Timo Kasper.

More muscle and new export countries

The new ownership base also brought expectations since Alltech operates in the feed business, and Finnforel is a customer.

“We expected that when a feed company became our owner, the understanding of our operations would increase, and we could develop our dialogue partnership. That has certainly happened. In addition, we have grown our knowledge muscles regarding global feed, as Alltech has increased our resources to the level of the global giants. At the same time, we are still an agile local player with a small organisation,” Tomi Kantola emphasises.

With Finnforel’s ownership, Fennoaqua expected its own RAS expertise to grow, and RAS feeds to develop. This has also come true: the volume of feed has increased significantly and seems to continue to do so.

“Our international activities have increased and diversified. The Alltech Group, as one of the main owners, supports and develops the feed business, and we are actively involved in this development. On the other hand, there have been significant new openings in the customer base and export markets,” Timo Kasper sums up.

A pioneer in environmentally friendly feed

Fennoaqua’s R&D cooperates daily with its sister company, Alltech Coppens. Despite the cooperation, both companies have maintained their own products, as they operate in different markets with their own requirements.

“When the new owners were buying our company, many people perhaps assumed that big brother would now start to tell us, the new little brother, what to do. We have found that both sides have a lot to offer each other. I am proud to say that Finland has had and will continue to have a great deal of feed expertise that others may not have. An example is our eco-friendliness and feeds, which align with the circular economy principle. In this, we are pioneers,” Kantola says.

Alltech Coppens has also opened new markets for Fennoaqua’s products, such as low-phosphorus feeds.

“Although we are now part of the same Alltech group, we produce these feeds because we have the core expertise for it. In Raisio, we started to focus on the environmental impact of animal feeds already in the mid-1990s, but in Central Europe, for example, the debate on these issues has only just begun. We have been ahead of our time and have been producing state-of-the-art feeds in this respect for decades,” Kantola says proudly.

On the other hand, Fennoaqua’s starter feeds now come from Coppens, as they are not produced at all in Raisio. Fennoaqua used starters from a different manufacturer in the past, but now they come from the Alltech group.

New ways of working

When the new company was set up, it was able to adapt the existing ways of working and create new ones quite freely. The owners trusted the Fennoaqua way of doing things and the Finnish way of doing things in general, and many of the practices that were characteristic of Fennoaqua were continued. New common practices, such as meetings and systems, were also introduced. Much was also created from scratch, such as HR processes.

“HR processes were based on our well-established practices but refined even further. So, we were able to create our own HR policy for our company. Our processes have been evaluated by several HR professionals and found to be even comparable to those of a large, listed company, but much more agile and people-oriented,” says Kantola.

Today, Fennoaqua has a common ERP system with Alltech. Most of the workload and costs of the carve-out project were focused on the switchover.

“Due to the tight transition schedule, some features of the new system are still being fine-tuned, and some integrations are only now being implemented – some 10 months after going live. This has, of course, affected our day-to-day work in that we have had to manually enter vouchers and create Excel report templates in financial management, among other things, due to the large number of data sources. Fortunately, however, we will be able to increase automation; it just takes time,” says Timo Kasper.

Customers will benefit from the joining of forces

Customers will benefit from the new ownership base and the Alltech community, in that Fennoaqua will now have greater resources for research and product development. Alltech Coppens has its own research facility, ACAC, where several tests have already been carried out.

“When we combine this with our existing in-house excellence, the soup will be delicious,” says Kantola.

In the early days of the new company, unfinished processes and system changes sometimes led to mistakes, but fortunately, customers were understanding.

“Some customers have asked if we are or will be a faceless representative of a large company. That’s not what we will be! Personal and close cooperation with our customers is still one of our core values, and we will continue to make superior products with the same principles as before,” Kasper promises and continues:

“The name change, the new brand, the change of the Business ID following the subsidiary merger, and the new ERP system with the changes it brings with it have sometimes caused confusion in the customer and supplier field. We are grateful for the patience and understanding of our partners in the turmoil of these changes.”

* Sisu = A very Finnish feature, combining gut, perseverance, tenacity of purpose, bravery, resilience, and hardiness.