Nokian

Nokian Tyres, a Finnish company, provides high quality tyres, innovated based on the knowledge of Nordic conditions and therefore the needs of customers demanding tyres suitable for extreme conditions. Nokian excels in winter tyres for cars and trucks, SUV tyres and tyres for forestry machinery and heavy equipment.

About the company

Nokian Tyres' products are mainly in demand in the Nordic countries, which is why the focus is primarily on features for the local conditions. The clientele in the Nordic countries places high demands on tyre functionality and quality driving performance in snow and variable adverse conditions, so the company has to meet all these demands perfectly. Nokian has production centres in Nokia, Finland, and Vsevolozhsk, Russia, and over 1,000 sales offices in Europe, North America and Asia.

History

In 1898, the Finnish Rubber Works was founded in Finland, which was practically the company that became the Nokian Group. Originally a woodworking company, it was not until 1925 that the company began to produce bicycle tyres. Demand for tyres increased and the company made profits, which led to the expansion of products to include car tyres in 1932. The company, known in Finland at that time as Suomen Gummitehdas (Finnish Rubber Works), due to the geographical area and the associated climate of Finland, in its early days was mainly dedicated to the production of winter tyres, which were in greater demand also because there were simply not enough winter tyre suppliers in Finland at that time. So in 1934 the company announced the first winter truck tyre and in 1936 it began to market the Snow Hakkapeliitta - the first successfully mass-produced winter tyre for passenger cars. Tyre production increases and after World War II a new tyre plant is opened in an area called Nokia. In the 1950s, the company succeeded in penetrating a foreign market, although it was neighbouring Sweden, it was a success for the company and in 1967, together with Finnish Cable Works and Nokia Aktiebolag, it formed the Nokia Corporation, a rubber, cable and paper manufacturing concern. Between 1978 and 1982, the group succeeded in successively penetrating the Norwegian, Canadian and German markets and expanding its tyre factories in Finland. In 1986, the world-famous test centre was established in Ivalo, located in Finnish Lapland, north of the Arctic Circle, and boasting the title of the most northerly test centre owned by a tyre manufacturer. In 1988, tyre production was spun off into a separate company, which now bears the current name Nokian Tyres Limited. The newly formed company also makes a new appearance on the Swiss market and is listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange in Finland in 1995. In the following years, the company expands into the Baltics under the name Vianor. In 2003, Nokian ceases to be owned by Nokia and Bridgestone becomes its largest shareholder. A significant milestone for the company and for the environmental production of tyres came in 2005, when Nokian became the first in the world to use exclusively purified low-aromatic oils in production. In recent years, the company has focused on innovating Hakkapeliitta tyres. In 2011, a sales company was established in China, named Nokian Tyres Trading co. Ltd.

Activities

With its unique test centre in Ivalo, Nokian is making a significant contribution to improving winter road safety. Nokian is also one of the leading manufacturers of tyres for heavy forestry equipment, which is an excellent demonstration of Nokian's strengths in the field of tyres for extreme conditions.