Olavi Mäkinen determination and pride to make things himself

Olavi grew up as a smallholder’s son in Ilomäenkylä, Virrat. Olavi’s father was very good with his hands, making metal and woodcrafts in his workshop. The workshop was a fascinating place for a little boy and Olavi used to sneak in to it. That’s where he acquired the determination and pride to make things with his own hands. The entrepreneurial spark in him when he accidentally broke a bowl of his mother’s while playing. When he grew up, he decided to start a bowl factory to pay back the broken bowl.

Olavi wasn’t just interested in technique. He also used to spend time in the barn training the bulls into draught animals.

First plastic machine in Virrat and 80 discs

As a young technical engineer Olavi Mäkinen bought his first plastic machine in 1972. The machine was also the first plastic machine in Virrat. In the same year, discs bearing the number 80 became compulsory for new drivers in Finland. Olavi took advantage of the new market niche and started making thin plastic discs with the number 80 on them. In total VMT made over 10,000 of these before printed discs took over the market.

80 discs

These 80 discs were used in Finland from 1972 to 1996. New driving licence holders had to display the disc in their rear windows. Vehicles with these 80 discs were not allowed to exceed 80 km/h. If the driver broke the limit three times in a year, he or she could be banned from driving, and might also have to face an interrogation from the police chief.

Daring and industrious developers

VMT’s path from garage to modern facilities.

Operations began in a garage with one man and one machine. From the beginning Olavi had a constantly widening network of experts around him. VMT became an employer when the operations started in an old village schoolhouse in 1979. Rauno Rantanen soon became one of VMT’S key experts. He worked hard and put in long hours at the production facilities. Soon, the team of plastic experts started growing.

New generation on continuous improvement

There was a generational handover a few years ago in VMT, with Olavi’s children becoming new managers. Both the CEO Marja Haapanen and the Sales Manager Ville Mäkinen have actively created their job descriptions. They are both conversational, approachable and pervasively educated improvers. They share a passion for continuous improvement.

Our Key Values

Key to Your Plastic Solutions

We are a financially sound family company with 50 years of history.

Our key values are:

  • Reliability of service
  • Customer focus
  • Safety
  • Keeping promises

Our goal is that your product will be at the right place at the right time. All of our actions are based on the needs of the customer. Customer focus means to us continuous dialogue with the customer and we help steer the customer in the right direction. Customer-specific factors are considered at every stage. The needs of the customers steer our investments also.

In addition to occupational safety, we also value so-called customer safety, which means that the customer can be sure that we keep our end of the agreement so that the customer can focus on their own business operations while we take care of everything else. Our customer relationships are long-term partnerships.

We are a partner with ISO9001 and ISO14001 certifications.

We will do what we promise.

The experts of the plastic industry are at your service.
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