Maternity pack The new maternity package is a fabulous kick of happiness for a small Finnish company – Trouser order increases production sevenfold and turnover now flies to the skies

In Theft On the master road seamstress Anna-Riikka Hännikäinen sews pieces of small black college pants together with a seamstress. Next to it is a stack of similar already sewn pants.

Next year, such pants sewn in Varkaus will be worn on almost every baby born in Finland.

Coil announced on Thursday the contents of next year’s maternity package. The new maternity package contains two baby pants that are made in Finland.

Dream Circus, a clothing company from Varkaus, makes black organic cotton elastic sweatpants and black and white organic tights.

This buzz of the seamstress is also accompanied by the havina of history. According to Kela, for at least about ten years, the maternity package has not included clothes sewn in Finland.

In recent years, the packaging has also included clothes from Finnish companies, but the companies have manufactured them abroad.

Maternity pack the trouser order has revolutionized the operations of a small theft company. The contract is Dream Circus’ largest order ever: the company will produce two pants for next year’s maternity package for about 32,000 babies, for a total of 64,000 pants.

“That means a sevenfold increase in the number of pieces we produce. The agreement is two-thirds of this year’s turnover, ”says the CEO Petra Ryymin, one of the owners of the company.

“In euro terms, the agreement means a really significant increase for us. It is worth two-thirds of our 2020 revenue. ”

Dream Circus is the thieves’ siblings Kati Kraemerin and Laura Kemppaisen a clothing company founded in 2018, currently owned by five women working for the company.

Dream Circus manufactures and sells fabrics and women’s and children’s clothing. The company’s brand is Ehta by Dream Circus.

With the exception of fabric manufacturing, the company makes its products on Mestarintie in Varkaus. There is the company’s design, zoning, cutting, sewing, finishing and sales. The fabrics company manufactures at its partner factories in Poland.

Maternity Package Agreement with which Dream Circus has hired five more workers for its production. The company now employs 15 people. The increase in the number of employees is a good thing for 20,000 in Varkaus, which has suffered from industrial restructuring and where industrial jobs have been in traditionally male-dominated sectors.

With the agreement, Dream Circus has acquired new machinery and equipment. It is also currently moving to larger spaces: the 600-square-foot hall will be replaced by a thousand-square-foot hall found behind a wall in the same building.

The pants order in the maternity pack was a good luck for a small company.

“Sure, it was also luck, but as a rule, it’s still the result of hard work,” Ryymin corrects.

Coil has in recent years placed more emphasis on quality than price on maternity packaging in public tenders. In this year’s packaging, quality was weighted by 70% and price by 20%. For the first time, in the maternity package for 2022, Kela emphasized quality up to 80% and price 20%.

“I would think that the strong emphasis on quality has meant that we now have a little more products made in Finland. And we received more offers for products made in Finland or in the EU in general, ”says the benefits manager. Johanna Aholainen Kelasta.

“We are a pioneer in public procurement here. Traditionally, procurement has gone above price, and now it has become clear that quality can go first. ”

The procurement of maternity packaging continues to focus on quality and responsibility. However, not everything can be changed at once.

“However, we have a responsibility to keep the maternity package together next year. That is why we are moving forward pretty step by step and step by step. We really have a lot of dialogue with companies and other public purchasers, ”says Aholainen.

In Theft Petra Ryymin says that for a long time it was ensured at Dream Circus that the company met the requirements of the competition for the purchase of maternity packaging. The company was already considering participating in this year’s packaging competition, but at that time the company’s resources were not enough.

When Kela launched the 2022 packaging competition in late 2020, Varkaus was ready. On Mestarintie, competition products were designed and test pieces were made.

In January 2021, a package containing four products offered in the maternity package was sent to Kela’s evaluation panel from Dream Circus. The company was tense for four long months, until in May Kela announced that Dream Circus’ products had continued.

In June, joy broke out in Varkaus. Kela confirmed the agreement and announced that it would order as many as two pants from Dream Circus for maternity packaging.

Now in december, the production of maternity trousers is already well under way alongside other production. The trousers in the maternity pack are delivered in eight batches. The first batch of them has already been delivered.

“We have invested a considerable amount of money and resources in this. Now we hope it bears fruit, ”says Petra Ryymin.

Dream Circus turnover last year was 651,000 euros and this year’s turnover estimate is about 760,000 euros. Next year, the company aims to break the one million euro mark.

Ryymin hopes that the small company in Varkaus, by its example, can also encourage other domestic clothing manufacturers to explore their own opportunities to participate in public tenders.

“It’s great to be a small, 100% Finnish company involved in iconic, Finnish innovation and to increase its degree of domestication,” says Ryymin.

In addition to the trousers from Varkaus, the maternity pack for 2022 in Finland will also be used to make the pack’s hairbrush, mattress, sanitary napkins and a cardboard box that will serve as the first year for many babies, in which the entire maternity pack will be packed. The company that collects maternity packaging and sends it to customers is also Finnish and the work is done in Finland.