Markus leads Sajas into the next chapter
Markus Ritala assumed the role of CEO at Sajas Group in the spring of 2024, bringing a clear goal: to develop the company with determination while upholding its 80-year legacy. According to Markus, collaboration, internationality, and customer satisfaction are the cornerstones of continuous renewal.
You have been CEO of Sajas Group for more than a year now. How did you end up joining the company?
Before joining Sajas Group, I had a career of about 17 years in various industrial companies. From the very beginning, my career has been guided by internationalism, salesmanship and “businessmanship” in general. Thanks to my curious nature, I have had the opportunity to work with a wide range of companies and tasks, and my responsibilities have increased with experience.
I remember often thinking that I would never want to be a CEO. That started to change a couple of years before I took this job. That’s how life goes: you must give yourself the chance to grow and change your mind.
The main reason was that I didn’t feel I was ready for the job at the time. Somewhere along the way, I changed my mind and wanted this challenge and opportunity. The challenge had to feel the right size and be a business where I felt I had the right experience and contribution to make.
It’s more common to be headhunted for a role like this, but in this case, I submitted an open application. And I am very happy that it worked out the way it did.
What attracted you to Sajas Group?
The industry, the business model, the size of the company and the ownership – the Swedish Lagercrantz group – played a part. Internationality and the opportunity to have a significant overall influence on the company’s development were also a common thread.
Speaking of development, have any new directions already taken shape under your leadership?
The Sajas Group has a long and interesting 80-year history, first as a family business for 75 years and for the last five years as part of the Lagercrantz Group. The company had accomplished many excellent things over the decades, so we were in a strong position when I started. However, I soon identified many areas for development, some of which we addressed immediately, while others were tackled during my first year. Of course, larger initiatives take longer and require investment and, above all, getting people on board.
It is also important to be aware of the world around you and to be prepared to react quickly and seize opportunities when they arise. The company, its people, its stakeholders and the business itself were new to me, and there is still a lot to learn, so it is not wise to rush into all changes immediately.
The satisfaction of our customers is the root cause of why we go to work every day and what ultimately brings positive development to the company and a happy workplace for its employees. It is essential to maintain our excellence in service, expertise, and the quality of our products and processes to ensure and continually improve customer satisfaction.
In my first year, we have made several changes to people’s jobs, internal processes, and improved cooperation between our companies in Finland, Estonia, and Germany. A couple of new people have also joined us in the past year, bringing their expertise to strengthen our team.
We have revamped our corporate image and website, as well as improved logistics, production, and internal processes. The change will continue in a planned and long-term manner, in line with our strategy.
Let’s look at the big picture. What does the global brush business look like, and where does Sajas stand in it?
In the brush industry, which in our case means street sweeping, airport maintenance, and industrial brushes, competition is fierce. Sajas Group is one of the major players in these business areas, but we have strong competitors in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands and also within the group in Sweden. We can’t afford to stand still, let alone take things for granted.
We have identified our strengths and weaknesses and analysed our competitors. Naturally, these are part of our strategy and future development.
However, the day-to-day work must revolve around the bigger changes we are working on. We have ambitious goals, and we are certainly not afraid of competition. That is what drives us forward, which is also in the interest of our customers. Since every company has limited resources, we’ve made deliberate choices about where to focus and where we aim to excel globally.
This year marks Sajas’s 80th anniversary. What’s planned for the celebration, and how does the future look?
We’ll first celebrate with our team in Estonia in July, and then host a second event for everyone else in Tampere, Finland in September. We’re also taking part in a record number of trade fairs this year with our own booth. The first event took place in Estonia in April, and the next one is in Germany in June. We’ll also attend two fairs in Finland, two more in Germany, and one in Poland later this year. Our visual identity update has already begun, first in digital channels, and by summer, it will be reflected physically at our sites and in printed materials.
From a business perspective, we have weathered the global storms well, which have affected both commodity and energy prices, inflation, and the macroeconomy, particularly the construction industry. In the face of these changes, it is essential to maintain a clear understanding of our intentions and motivations, as well as what we can proactively influence through our actions and what we are forced to react to. We firmly believe that by consistently following our strategy, the coming years will also be excellent, and we’ll have many more reasons to celebrate in the decades ahead.
Could you elaborate a bit on that strategy?
At the end of last year, we updated our mission, vision, and values as the basis for the strategy work we did over the winter, which has been applied to our day-to-day operations and future major projects.
We’re happy to share our new values and vision with everyone. As for our mission – that’s something we’d like to keep to ourselves. 😉
Our values
- We treat all employees, customers, and partners with respect, promoting dignity and inclusivity.
- We take responsibility for our actions and outcomes to reach the company’s goals.
- Through customer focus, we put our customers’ needs at the heart of every decision we make.
- Through collaboration and open communication, we unite with our customers, partners and suppliers to achieve common goals.
- We refuse to accept the status quo, but are committed to continuous improvement through learning, innovation and raising the standards of our industry.
Our vision
We aim to be the leading global manufacturer of sustainable technical brushes for road, rail and airfield maintenance as well as industrial applications.