The plan for 2014 is to manufacture some 10,000 bikes in Salo, with the first Finnish Solifer pushbikes scheduled for sale in February. The twelve new employees are all ex-Nokia, or former subcontractors for the Finnish communications giant, all of whom had lost their jobs when the company sold off its mobile handset division.
Salo an ideal base
Solo International’s Managing Director Jari Komulainen says that the plan to produce Solifer bicycles has been on the drawing board for the southwestern Finnish town for quite some time.
"This type of endeavour needs space and people and Salo has both of these,” says Komulainen. “It’s been planned for over ten years. When Nokia terminated people it gave this venture its starting shot.”
What’s significant about the bikes being manufactured in Finland?
"Of course it’s important that we can replace imported goods with domestically produced products. It employs people and contributes to the current account balance for the better,” claims Komulainen. “If everyone was to do as we are, we’d quickly get on top of this recession.”
Wealth of Finnish expertise
Solifer bears the stamp of formal recognition as a classic Finnish bicycle. The traditional, upright model is familiarly known as the granny bike, or the people’s bike.
The Finnish-assembled bicycles are also partly made in southwestern Finland. In fact, a surprising amount of components are available locally, according to Komulainen.
In Finland some 250,000 bicycles are sold each year, around a fifth of which are produced by Solifer.
