The Estonian e-retailer Hansapost and the Finnish company Hobby Hall have merged. The Hobby Hall manager Pekka Pattiniemi emphasized on the significant expansion of the product offering as a result of the merger, including in the field of gardening that is essential for Finns. He stressed that customers definitely benefit from cooperation between the two e-retailers in technology and developments. Under the merger agreement, Hansapost acquired 46% of the Hobby Hall. The Finnish family business SGN Group owns 46% of Hobby Hall and Four P&P Consulting OY, a company of CEO Pekka Pattiniemi – 8%.
“In terms of our combined turnover, we already rank among the region’s e-commerce leaders, yet for us this is only the start, not the finish,” – Hansapost board member Taavi Rajur said. The merger won’t affect the orders, agreements, deliveries and contracts, that have already been placed.
In Finland e-commerce accounts for 10% of the total turnover of the retail sector, and in Estonia – over 3%. The annual rate of increase in e-commerce sales is in excess of 20% in Finland and approximately 40% in Estonia.
The Estonian operation of the French electronics group Eolane is gearing up for relocation into a new plant building in eastern Tallinn where it’s planned to create approximately 300 new jobs in the next few years. Manufacturing operations and all 500 staff of the existing manufacturing plant are to move onto the new premises by the end of this year, the company said on March, 16. The new plant building will allow the manufacturer of special communications equipment, LED lights for the automotive industry and other electronics to increase output and exports.
Eolane Tallinn offers support for test systems development, prototyping services, logistics and customs, supply chain management and obsolescence management services. According to the Eolane Tallinn AS manager Antoine Yon, “the new electronics plant was born out of the practical need to keep up with the pace of orders from the auto and telecom industries.” He added that a company is recruiting people on the international job market. “The amounts of simple work are getting smaller and smaller, we need multi-skilled people in the first place,”- he explained.
Investments by Eolane Tallinn in manufacturing equipment totaled over four million euros in 2016 and in 2017.
E-commerce industry has developed in the post-Soviet region
