Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Labour-market, Markets and Companies

"It will definitely be a big challenge as Finland is a much bigger country than Estonia and therefore the responsibility will be much bigger," Vahesalu said in a press release. "Usually, people come from Finland to Estonia to lead businesses, not the other way around, and this is why it is interesting to see how Finnish distributors and colleagues will accept a CEO coming from small Estonia."

"The organization will definitely benefit from this, because we can share experiences. Both organizations have very good and experienced employees to learn from," he said.

Operation will carry on as usual in Husqvarna Estonia, the only difference being that daily operation now involves more contact with Finnish colleagues and less with Latvians and Lithuanians, while previously the Baltics made up one joint reporting unit. Support services like accounting, logistics and marketing have been provided to the company by the Lithuanian branch, but the company is planning to start negotiations of merging support services with Finland.

Jaanus Vahesalu has been working at Husqvarna for 14 years, starting as a sales specialist in 2003. In 2007, Vahesalu was appointed the sales manager of Husqvarna Estonia and in 2009, the CEO of Husqvarna's Estonian branch. Vahesalu has studied both at the Tallinn University of Technology and at the Estonian Business School, where he is currently enrolled in the Executive MBA program. In addition, Vahesalu last year received a third level certificate of competency from the Luua Forestry School, which gives him the right to work as a professional logging worker.

The previous head of Husqvarna Finland Aarne Kokko has decided to retire.

Husqvarna is a trademark of the Husqvarna Group, which manufactures chainsaws, trimmers, lawn mowers, lawn tractors, watering systems for private consumers and diamond tools. For Estonian consumers products are marketed under the trademarks of Husqvarna, Jonsered, Gardena, Klippo and McCulloch. Husqvarna products are sold in more than 100 countries and the group employs over 13,000 people. In 2016, the group's turnover was 36 bln Swedish kronor.