What Manufacturers Can Learn from Treston Oy's 40 Year Story

Manufacturers today face many challenges: global competition, a struggling economy and the need to constantly improve how they operate. They could learn a lot from Treston Oy, a leading manufacturer of storage systems and industrial furniture now celebrating its 40th year in business. Treston Oy's story is a case study in how being able to adapt to market conditions enables you to not only survive, but thrive.

Newbury, Berkshire (PRWeb UK/PRWEB ) March 30, 2009 -- Manufacturers today face many challenges: global competition, a struggling economy and the need to constantly improve how they operate. They could learn a lot from Treston Oy, a leading manufacturer of storage systems and industrial furniture now celebrating its 40th year in business. Treston Oy's story is a case study in how being able to adapt to market conditions enables you to not only survive, but thrive.

Established in 1969 by its Finnish parent company Vaasamills (specialising in products for the food industry) Treston Oy was launched to capitalise on the opportunities offered by a new material: plastic. Treston Oy's aim was to create something 'big' from the new material that would help it grow into a global enterprise.

Treston Oy started by manufacturing plastic storage bins and boxes for manufacturing plants and technical workshops, which it continues to do today. It was with one particular type of plastic product called 'Palaset' (created by renowned product designer Ristomatti Ratia) that Treston Oy hoped to create its 'big' globally successful product.

Unfortunately, global circumstances intervened.

The oil crisis in the mid 1970s meant that Palaset was prohibitively expensive to manufacture. So Treston Oy was forced to look elsewhere for the 'big' range of products that would drive its growth.

At the end of the decade, Treston Oy was able to acquire the product line of another Finnish company, Ergofinn, and shift its focus from purely plastics to manufacturing ergonomic industrial furniture.

Providing products that enabled its customers to improve how they operated mirrored Treston Oy's own evolution. In response to the oil crisis, Treston Oy had adapted its business and diversified its product range so it was able to operate profitably despite challenges in the marketplace.

A few years later, Treston Oy's parent company, Vaasamills, merged with Finnsugar, another leading player in the Finnish food industry. Vaasamills growth provided Treston Oy with the financial muscle it needed to continue expanding its product range and reach.

However, it was the rise of the consumer electronics industry in the 1980s that offered Treston Oy its next big opportunity at becoming a global enterprise.

Electronic manufacturers were struggling to cope with the problems caused by static electricity. Electrostatic discharge has the potential to destroy delicate components, or to cause them to deteriorate and malfunction after they'd left the factory. So manufacturers needed to be able to turn their production areas into static free zones.

This presented Treston Oy with an opportunity. By harnessing their expertise in manufacturing plastic containers and industrial furniture, Treston Oy was able to expand its product range to include anti-static storage bins, chairs and workbenches. It was its success in diversifying its range for a second time that enabled Treston Oy to position itself as a global leader for anti-static products.

In the following two decades Treston Oy has continued to expand its product range and reach as a leading distributor of a wide range of storage equipment and industrial furniture products.

Along with its factory in Finland, where it continues to design and manufacture its innovative ranges, Treston Oy has regional offices in Poland, Germany, Sweden and the UK for distributing products throughout Europe and other countries.

With its eye on the future, Treston Oy also has a sales representative office in Shanghai in preparation for its expansion into the factories, manufacturing plants and businesses of China, and to continue pursuing the goals it was launched with 40 years ago.

Press enquiries

For more information about Treston Oy, and to view their full product range, you can visit its website http://www.trestonltd.co.uk or contact Treston Oy directly:

Email: salesuk (at) treston (dot) com
Tel: +44 (0)1635 521521

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