Quality Meets Flexibility: Teknos and Mäkelä Alu 30 Years of Collaboration

Mäkelä Alu Oy is a Finnish family-owned company best known for manufacturing the lowest-emission aluminium profiles in Europe. With a history spanning over 85 years, the company exports nearly 40% of its production, with key export markets in the Nordics, Baltics and Germany.

Mäkelä Alu's four powder coating lines enable aluminium profiles to be painted with thousands of different colours, and the company's state-of-the-art production process can also handle small batches cost-effectively. As a sign of quality, Mäkelä Alu's production is GSB certified.

Teknos and Mäkelä Alu have collaborated since the mid-1990s. At the time, Mäkelä Alu's main customers were door and window manufacturers, to which the company supplied aluminium profiles.

"Back then, we had zero experience in powder coating, but due to customer demand we needed to produce aluminium profiles in various colours," recalls Sourcing Director Ari Kytölä from Mäkelä Alu. "In 1995, we acquired a Finnish powder coating company that had used Teknos' products, so it was natural to continue with the same. Even in the very early days, we were able to offer our customers very fast deliveries directly from our warehouse."

In addition to fast deliveries, the domestic production of coatings was important to Mäkelä Alu – as it still is today. Particularly in the early stages of collaboration, the training offered by Teknos' experts proved to be highly valuable.

"Looking back at the history of our cooperation, I think the most important aspect of it has been Teknos' role in enabling our entire powder coating service," says Kytölä. "Over the years, Teknos has provided great training services for painting and pre-treatment, which was especially important for us in the beginning. Thirty years ago, it was much harder to find information than in today’s Internet-connected world."

Volume, speed, quality

Mäkelä Alu sets itself apart from competitors not only with its high quality and low emissions, but also with unusually fast delivery times. Teknos' role as the supplier of powder coatings is a key part of Mäkelä Alu's own service concept, and the company paints most of its products with Teknos' coatings.

"We have been able to respond to customer demand and form a competitive advantage on the market by supplying products extremely fast, also in small batches when needed," says Mika Korkea-aho, Sales Director, Mäkelä Alu. "Teknos has been an important enabler in this. We use a huge number of different colours, up to 500 or 600 different tones every year. The fast deliveries from Teknos have helped solve many problems, and if we do run out of a certain colour, we can immediately get more."

The window manufacturers who Mäkelä Alu supply often work at special sites where the paint originally used is no longer available. "Teknos' expertise is invaluable in these situations," says Korkea-aho. "We often need completely new paint mixes, and Teknos can manufacture the correct colour based on a paint sample. Teknos' laboratories can also identify a vast range of existing tones, which is something that we also need from time to time."

From basics to specialties

"Mäkelä Alu's production really is quite exceptional due to the range of special colours they use," says Key Account Manager Tero Lahti from Teknos. "We supply Mäkelä Alu with pretty much every product in our warehouse, from basic coatings to specialist products when needed."

Thanks to its domestic production and the large warehouse in Rajamäki, Finland, Teknos can supply coatings to customer extremely fast. "Orders placed before 2 p.m. will be delivered the next business day in Finland, and in special situations, we can even do same-day express deliveries," Lahti says. "Our flexible production and designated contact persons for customers make sure that the paints are always where they are needed, when they are needed."

"To us, partnership is not just about supplying paints, but understanding our customers' needs, future and market well enough that we can develop sustainable solutions, genuine innovations and new services with them," says Commercial Director Mikael Nurminen from Teknos. "A close collaboration makes it possible to build solutions together to improve quality and support the customer's long-term goals."

Looking to the future

The long partnership between Mäkelä Alu and Teknos continues, but the collaboration is also evolving to respond to new demands.

"Production in Finland is a key differentiator for us in this collaboration," says Sales Director Mika Korkea-aho from Mäkelä Alu. "We can trust that things will be done well, with a Finnish attitude to quality and responsibility. This is something that we value very much when choosing our supplier."

"The paint industry and technologies are developing constantly, and both Teknos and Mäkelä Alu are moving forward with their own offerings," continues Sourcing Director Ari Kytölä. "We have full confidence that Teknos will stay abreast of the latest developments and can handle our requests and challenges equally well in the future. If I needed to summarize this partnership, the most important things for us have been the strong technical support, reliability and quality of deliveries, and the long traditions that we share. So we look forward to continuing along the same lines!"