A well-kept property makes people feel at home and do their work more efficiently. A well-kept property is also the least expensive over a period of time. "Property services extend the life cycle of properties," says Jaana Mulari from Lassila & Tikanoja.

The Finnish publicly quoted company Lassila & Tikanoja (L&T) specializes in environmental management and property and plant maintenance in the Baltic region. Operations cover the whole of Finland, but these days there is increasing activity in Finland's neighbouring areas in Russia and the Baltic countries.

"Many Finnish service companies have extended their operations to the Baltic countries and Russia. The Finnish service has a good future as an export product, even though the market is not very easy for many reasons," Mulari believes.

Russia and the Baltic countries

"We look after a property throughout its entire life cycle. Our operating model has been developed in association with customers and various experts. We combine customer needs and the practical implementation of services into a service product," Mulari explains.

In Finland L&T offers a wide range of services for properties such as cleaning, property maintenance, technical systems maintenance, reception and mailing services, recycling and waste management and, by means of networking, catering and security services.

In Latvia the company offers waste management, recycling, cleaning and property maintenance services. It has started producing cleaning services in Moscow and waste maintenance services in Dubna. The aim is to expand property maintenance to Moscow. L&T is also seeking partners for security services.

Outsourcing increases demand

"The market for property service companies is growing in Finland, because the degree of outsourcing is low in certain segments. In the Baltic countries and Russia it is even lower. In Sweden the degree of outsourcing is in many places much higher than in Finland," Mulari reveals.

The company is aiming to increase growth on the domestic market more quickly. The long-term growth target is more than ten per cent a year. The growth target abroad is higher in relative terms than in Finland.

"We at Property Services are aiming for the leading position in the Baltic countries and selected areas in Russia," Mulari says.

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L&T Hoetika is Latvia's market leader in waste collection, transportation and recycling. Photo: Lassila & Tikanoja