During its 50-year history the Loimaa plant has grown from a 1,000-square-meter assembly hall of the original plan to a 15,000-square-meter modern production plant in the former field of Myllykylä area.
Valmet’s air conditioning operations began in the city of Tampere by making dryers for sawn timber for war reparations deliveries. Along to the dryers the industrial ventilation was started and in 1949-50 home ventilation. In the 1963, the air conditioning department was transferred to Turku Pansio plant, but in a few years the facilities became cramped due to the growing operations after which the ventilation equipment assembly was decided to transfer to Loimaa.
The city of Loimaa promised to build and lease a 1,000 square meter hall to Valmet in Myllykylä area. Soon after the construction was started, the need for a larger factory became evident, and in the end a 2,000-square-meter production facility rised in the former field. In the autumn of 1971, Valmet’s air conditioning department moved from Pansio to Loimaa plant, and soon after that Valmet redeemed the hall completely.
At the end of the 1970s, 2/3 of the factory’s production went to detached houses or apartment buildings. The following figures show the rapid growth: in 1978, 1000 ventilation units for detached houses were delivered from Loimaa, in 1979 the number was 2,400 and in 1980 it was grown to 6,000 units. That also meant that more production space was needed.
In 1978, an airdome was acquired to the next of the factory as a storage space, and the following year, 1979, the factory was expanded with 2,000 square meters, and some office and social facilities were also built. Read also the story of the airdome.
Following the acquisition of the Loimaa plant by the management and the creation of company Vallox, it became necessary to build a separate office building for white-collar workers. The new building was completed in 1989, and it was expanded in the 1990s as the number of staff increased. Read the story how had it´s name.
2002 was again the time to expand both the factory and its office and social facilities. This time, a total of 3,000 additional square meters were obtained and the warehouse and dispatch center in particular got more space.
However, the operations grew steadily. In the 2011, i.e. the 40th anniversary year of the original factory, some 4,200 square meters of new factory, office and social space was constructed.
The factory’s sheet metal work center got a large part of the expansion multiplying its capacity. The new paint shop was mounted to the brand new facilities and the product development acquired laboratory space.
Since then, the number of product varieties has continued to grow. It has made mandatory the company to lease additional storage space outside its own factory area. However, new factory space is coming; the latest expansion will be completed in early 2022. In it, the dispatch and storage facilities will grow by approximately 2,000 square feet. The expansion was originally scheduled to be finished in the 50th anniversary year, but the corona pandemic disrupted the plans and construction work was finally started in March 2021.
The goal of this EUR 3 million construction investment is to improve customer service by further increasing delivery flexibility. Through the reorganization of internal logistics, productivity will also increase.
The factory currently has an annual capacity of about 50,000 ventilation units and the demand for the products is in increase.
Perspective of Vallox’s future seems so strong that the new premises will not be enough, but we will need the leased space also in the future, says Production Manager Mikko Mäki.