► Patria aims for strong profitable growth in international markets
3.5.2021 – Patria’s new growth strategy aims to strengthen the operational efficiency and financial result by increasing the Group revenue profitably up to 900 MEUR by 2025. The goal is to secure that Patria’s reliable and cost-efficient life cycle support services and top-notch products are in focus also in the future – keeping up the required performance of the customers’ fleets in all conditions. As part of the strategy work Patria starts Group-wide cooperation negotiations, in order to develop the operation model together with the personnel.
With the ambitious targets, Patria’s new growth strategy opens a new chapter in the Group’s one-hundred-year history. Growth factors include, above all, customer-centricity, innovativeness, cooperation and efficiency. Finland continues to be one of Patria’s key markets, but the company has identified growth possibilities especially outside Finland and in new kinds of customer sectors.
Next in the strategy work, planning of a new operation model will take place together with the personnel. This will be implemented according to the employee cooperation principles and now Patria starts Group-wide (excluding Millog) employee cooperation negotiations due to the reorganisation.
The new growth strategy implies possible changes in the operation models and organisation structure. Therefore, different work-related changes will be assessed meaning that some positions might end, and a significant amount of new positions will be created. The total amount of the personnel is expected to remain the same. The measures are estimated to affect 410 employees, of which 380 persons in Finland and 30 persons outside Finland. The changes will mainly have an impact on the other personnel groups than blue collar employees. The changes will be specified during the cooperation negotiations. Patria (excluding Millog), employs about 2,000 persons – of which about 240 outside Finland.
Focus on life cycle support services in defence
Patria wants to be a progressive, local and flexible defence sector partner for its customers. The focus of the business lies in having a globally leading service, overhaul and maintenance partner in the mid-sized market, for mid-sized fleets and for middle-aged products and services. A concrete example of this is the company’s goal to extend the 30-year average life cycle of products to 40-50 years through maintenance services. Patria has identified the markets with the best potential and will apply agile service and go-to-market models to enter them. With its new growth strategy, Patria strengthens its operational efficiency and financial result.
“Whereas earlier strategies were business area-specific, the Group will from now on be led as one entity, using our unique expertise in a comprehensive way. Patria’s core mission is still to ensure and develop security of supply in Finland. This calls for financial resources, which require income from international markets as well as domestic revenue streams. An internationally competitive Patria can provide its customers with new solutions that improve cost-efficiency and performance,” says Esa Rautalinko, President and CEO of Patria Group.
Customer-centric Group portfolio and reshaped corporate culture
The defence sector is developing rapidly, and Patria wants to provide solutions that anticipate future situations and needs. One way to accomplish this is to make better use of selected capabilities of the commercial sector, such as machine learning and AI, in the defence sector. We can also identify untapped technology and service synergies in the solutions used by army, navy and air forces, and Patria wants to bring these to the full use of its customers. To this end, the company will have a Group-wide product and service portfolio through which customers have seamless access to comprehensive security-critical expertise from one provider.
New partnerships and smart, data-based solutions will also be in a key role. Hence, the Finnish Defence Forces will also gain direct access to international expertise. A change in the company’s internal culture is a key factor in the renewal process. The company wants to create a stronger culture of collaboration and clarify its leadership as well as business process management. At the same time, versatile career paths and completely new kinds of tasks will be opened for Patria’s personnel.
