History

The history of Hansaprint Oy goes back to the first issue of the Turun Sanomat - the regional newspaper first published in Turku in 1905. The newspaper was founded by Antti Mikkola, a politician and a great newspaperman. Arvo Ketonen was hired as managing director in 1917 and became the editor in chief in 1937. When he died in 1948, his wife Irja Ketonen took over the business despite the general prejudices of the time against women in business.

Irja Ketonen began her working career running errands for the newspaper at the age of 13. From there, she went on to working in the office, then to managing editor and, finally, to managing director in 1955. In the 1950s, women were rarely found at the managerial level, and a woman leading a business such as Turun Sanomat created considerable astonishment. Over five decades, Irja Ketonen turned the company into an international printing pioneer. During her reign, Oy Turun Sanomat grew from a newspaper with a hundred employees into TS Group with the staff of more than two thousand employees. Irja Ketonen created the foundation for a strong and productive business. The errand girl became the director of a corporate group and finally the first female to be granted the honorary title of mining counsellor in Finland in 1980, the same year when Turun Sanomat celebrated its 75th year in business.

Hansaprint's operations began in 1996 when the commercial printing services of the TS-Group were incorporated into one company under the name of Hansaprint. In 1999, the business and magazine printing operations of Helsinki Media Print, located in Vantaa, were integrated into Hansaprint. The TS-Group owned 60 percent and Sanoma Group 40 percent of the business. Hansaprint now had two major media groups with a good financial standing behind it.

Export opportunities to the Nordic Countries, the Baltics and Russia improved at the turn of the millennium with the founding of the sales company in Stockholm, Hansaprint AB in 1999. A joint office of Baltic Media Oy and Hansaprint Oy was opened in the centre of Moscow in 2000. Today the representative office carries the name of Hansaprint Russia.

In 2001, all Hansaprint Oy's production facilities and all their operations received the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certificates. These quality and environmental certificates granted by Det Norske Veritas also cover the production of personalised direct marketing products and loyal customer mailings. Already in 1993, Hansaprint was the first heatset printing house in Finland to be given the right to use the Nordic Environmental Label.

Future Printing Center began operations in 2003. Hansaprint has a 30 percent share in this experimental printing facility. The majority owner of the facility is Ciba, located in Switzerland. In order to produce even better printing papers and packaging materials, the company experiments with new varnishes and coating agents and carries out printing tests for paper mills.

In 2005, Hansaprint and Elanders founded a joint venture, Hansaprint Elanders Kft, with production facilities in Komárom, Hungary. The new printing house was a major opening in the Hungarian and Central European markets, with many potential customers in the electronics and automotive industries, among others. With the Komárom facilities, Hansaprint is now able to offer the same seamless digital printing and logistics chain in Hungary as in the Nordic region.

In 2005, Hansaprint bought the digital printing specialist Dark Oy from the SanomaWSOY Group. As a result of this transaction, Hansaprint strengthened its digital printing capacity and its ability to serve its customers as a holistic provider of digital printing services.

The IT production services of Hansaprint Oy were outsourced to Luovia Oy on 1 March 2007. This arrangement clarified Hansaprint's role as a holistic communication solution provider, with increasing focus on IT services and digital media. Luovia is Hansaprint's strategic partner in service development, production and marketing of e-media solutions.

As of 1 September 2007, Timo Ketonen (M.Sc.econ) is the President of Hansaprint Oy and the Hansaprint Group. Esa Honka, the front man since the founding of the company in 1995, will act as Senior Advisor responsible for special projects and has retired in July 2008. Timo Ketonen acted as Executive Vice President and COO of Hansaprint since its foundation, and was previously responsible for customer relations and sales, as well as international operations. Also on 1 September 2007, Heikki Ketonen (M.Sc.econ) was nominated as Executive Vice President and the deputy for the President. Mika Suortti (M.Sc.econ) was nominated as second Executive Vice President.

Hansaprint Oy, Newprint Oy and Priimus Paino Oy combined on 1 September, 2009 their sheet-fed printing operations into a new company, with the new name Newprint Oy. The company is a leading sheet-fed offset company in Finland, and as a partner is responsible for the production of sheet-fed printing and smaller print runs for Hansaprint's customers.

At the moment, Hansaprint is the leading magazine printer in the Nordic region and the number one service company specialising in comprehensive graphical communication solutions in the Baltic Sea area. Hansaprint has production facilities in Turku and Vantaa in Finland as well as in Komárom, Hungary. In addition, Hansaprint has subsidiaries and partners in all Nordic countries, as well as in Russia and the Baltic region.