The Nordic Biltema chain builds a new department store in Mikkeli. BiltemaReal Estate Finland Oy, a member of the Biltema Group, buys 3.4 hectares of land from the City of Mikkeli in Visulahti. The company submitted a purchase offer for the plots in a public tender organised by the city.

CEO Jani Mahlakaarto from Biltema Suomi Oy confirms that the company is planning to open a new department store in Mikkeli. The 7,000 square metres store, in accordance with the company’s new department store concept, will employ approximately 25-40 people after its opening, and many times more during the construction phase.

According to Jani Mahlakaarto, expanding to Mikkeli is part of Biltema’s new growth strategy, the aim of which is to increase the number of shops in Finland over the next few years. The company plans to start construction in 2021 and open the new department store to the public at the end of spring 2022.

Sale of Land Accelerates the Development of the Visulahti Business Area

For the City of Mikkeli, the plot sale of about 3.4 hectares is the most important starting point for the construction of the Visulahti area’s trade and business activities. The strong national retail chain will act as the forerunner business in the region, which is sure to speed up other investment plans in the region.

Biltema is the first retailer to go public with its plans.

The City of Mikkeli and the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency will work together to build the Mikkeli – Juva main road project. The new section of the main road will open for traffic at the end of 2020. The new interchange in Visulahti will be opened at the same time. New areas reserved for retail are also located near the interchange.

The City of Mikkeli has zoned areas for retail and business in the immediate vicinity of the main road. The connection project has already built streets and roads in this area to enable a speedy deployment of the plots.
A company previously settled in this area is Ponsse Oyj.

Jouni Riihelä, Mikkeli City Technical Director, explains that the area has been systematically developed.

-The City of Mikkeli has been patiently building an area of trade and entrepreneurship around the Visulahti intersection. With the progress of the main road project and this plot sale, the belief in the attractiveness of this retail area has become more concrete. It can be said that the commitment of a nationally well-known retail chain to Visulahti is the most concrete example of this, and a step forward. This company’s investment creates the vitality and jobs Mikkeli needs, which has always been the goal of Visulahti’s development.

At the moment, six other preliminary reservations have been made at Visulahti, explains Hannele Hynninen from the Mikkeli Development Company Miksei Ltd. In addition, negotiations are under way with several other operators.

-We believe that Biltema’s decision will also speed up the decisions made by others.

Mikkeli Development Company Ltd. creates jobs for the residents of Mikkeli by supporting the development, growth and export of companies. Miksei supports businesses through all stages of development, starting from business plans. Our experts help companies find a suitable location and workforce, develop their business, and create national and international networks. More about us

The new centre of excellence will recruit dozens of experts.

Helsinki, 21 December 2017.

Fujitsu Finland Oy will establish a centre of excellence in Mikkeli with the aim to support and promote Fujitsu’s information management projects in Finland and Europe. Information management plays a central role when companies and organisations renew their operating models as part of the digital transformation. One of Fujitsu’s essential objectives is the improvement of productivity.

The Mikkeli centre of excellence is part of Fujitsu’s centre of excellence for document and content management which will employ approximately one hundred experts in Finland and other European countries and whose establishment was announced earlier in November.

Mikkeli’s new centre of excellence will operate on the campus of the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, and it will engage in close collaboration with the City of Mikkeli and Mikkeli Development Miksei Ltd. Fujitsu’s current employees in the Southern Savonia region will transfer to the new premises. A large part of the personnel needs will be filled through recruitment. The recruitment of ICT professionals specialised in information management and digital archiving will commence in early 2018, and the centre of excellence has dozens of vacancies for suitable experts.

The criteria for selecting Mikkeli as the location of Fujitsu’s new office included the multi-annual cooperation brought by the Lupaus development programme and the extensive know-how and partner network available in Mikkeli. In addition, Fujitsu believes that Mikkeli can provide the company with extensive know-how in electronic transaction services and digital archiving. The location of the new Fujitsu office on the campus of the university of applied sciences also supports cooperation in education. The future cooperation will have direct benefits as electronic transaction services and digital archiving are among the specialisations of the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences.

“Finland is a trailblazer in electronic transaction services, and Fujitsu has been very active in the development of the field’s solutions. In particular, Finland’s public administration and financial sector have long traditions in information management. The centre of excellence in Mikkeli and our cooperation with Fujitsu’s Finnish partners will enable us to provide better services for our customers. In addition, our aim is to spread the good practices throughout Europe,” states Mauri Mikkonen, Director of Fujitsu’s information management business operations in the Nordic countries.

“Information management and electronic transaction services are particularly valuable to citizens as they navigate the jungle of public administration services. That is exactly what we aim to develop at the new centre of excellence. We have already received several years of good experiences of cooperating with the City of Mikkeli through the Lupaus development programme. Fujitsu’s CaseM solution has enabled Mikkeli to achieve remarkable time savings and environmental benefits. Encouraged by our positive experiences, we wish to build a new, significant centre of excellence in Mikkeli,” comments Simo Leisti, Managing Director at Fujitsu Finland.

“We selected digital information management as one of the priority areas of development in the Mikkeli region already in 2005. As a result of our determined operations in Mikkeli and the region of Southern Savonia, we have been able to establish, for example, a modern archiving and library expertise and service centre that focuses on the development of digital information management and archiving,” states Juha Ropponen, Development Director at Mikkeli Development Miksei Ltd.

“Mikkeli has an excellent competence base for developing the centre of excellence as the education at South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (XAMK) has a strong emphasis on digital skills. Jointly with the University of Helsinki and the National Library of Finland, XAMK has established Digitalia, Research Centre on Digital Information Management. XAMK is the only higher education institution in Finland that offers a Master’s degree programme in electronic transaction services and digital archiving,” says Timo Halonen, Mayor of the City of Mikkeli.

Press contacts
Fujitsu Finland Oy, Satu Pelttari, Communications Director
satu.pelttari(at)fi.fujitsu.com, tel. +358 45 7880 9624

Fujitsu Finland Oy, Mauri Mikkonen, Director
mauri.mikkonen(at)fi.fujitsu.com, tel. +358 45 7881 0398

About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is Japan’s leading ICT company. It produces a wide range of technology products as well as ICT solutions and services. Fujitsu employs approximately 140,000 people who serve customers in over a hundred countries. The company utilises its experience and the opportunities of ICT to shape the future jointly with its customers. In the accounting period ending on 31 March 2018, Fujitsu’s revenue was USD 39 billion. Further information: www.fujitsu.com