Nokia has finally sold its Salo, Finland factory, end of an era

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As someone who is the proud owners of many 'Made in Finland' Nokia smartphones, it's sad to be reporting (following our story in the summer) that the famous Salo factory in Finland has now been officially sold, to pharma outfit Orion. This was Nokia's last manufacturing facilities in Western Europe and more and more capacity is now being moved to Asia (as is common for much of the rest of the industry).

The press release from Orion states:

Orion is planning to establish a new packaging and logistics centre in Salo. The company has signed a letter of intent with Nokia, according to which it would acquire premises from Nokia in Salo and centralise some of the packaging and logistics functions carried out in the pharmaceuticals plants in Espoo and Turku in these premises in Salo. If established, the centre would also create new jobs.

Due to increased production volumes, Orion is planning to centralise some of its pharmaceutical packaging and logistics functions in Salo in premises to be acquired from Nokia. According to a letter of intent signed by the companies, Orion would acquire production and storage space and establish a new packaging and logistics centre in these premises.

Adapting the premises to Orion’s needs would start at the beginning of next year, and operations in the new premises would start approximately during 2013. The packaging and logistics centre would be functioning at full capacity in the autumn of 2014.

"The availability of new personnel in the Salo area is also a significant factor when we are considering solutions for the development of our packaging and logistics functions,” says Senior Vice President Virve Laitinen, Supply Chain, Orion.

As Apple has proved, it really doesn't matter where something's made, but (being European myself) there was a certain pride in picking up a smartphone that had been made in Europe. On the bright side, as Rafe reported recently, Nokia's drastic cost reduction measures do at least seem to be keeping the company on an even footing eighteen months after the dramatic and controversial change in smartphone OS strategy.

Source / Credit: GSM Insider