The products and sales have followed their time during Valmet/Vallox’s 50-year history. In this story, a long-time Vallox salesman Juha Suonsivu recalls his career.
Juha Suonsivu, who is now retired, made a long 38-year career at Valmet/Vallox. In 1979, after his military service, Suonsivu came to Valmet factory for summer work as a newly graduated mechanical engineer. At the turn of the 70’s and 80’s, Suonsivu had planned a career as a teacher in the Loimaa vocational school (which coincidentally was and is still situated next door to the Valmet Loimaa factory). However, that plan failed when Rauno Mäkelä, the manager of the Valmet Loimaa factory, heard about it. The young Suonsivu was offered a job in Valmet sales team, where he eventually made a long career.
Suonsivu’s career in Valmet/Vallox’s domestic sales was varied and versatile. At the beginning, he worked as Warranty and Quality engineer. In his words that was a “one-man´s aftersales team”. A social and articulate young man was soon invited to do sales, and in the 1980s he was appointed to district manager of Ostrobothnia, Central Finland and Eastern Finland. Later he became the district manager of the Helsinki metropolitan area and the mobile work continued.
When apartment-specific ventilation started its entry to market in the late 1980s, a suitable person was needed to tour design offices, contractors and construction companies throughout Finland. Suonsivu travelled all over Finland in this task, all the way from Hanko in the south to Petsamo in the north.
In the 1990s, Suonsivu returned to the position of district manager of the Helsinki metropolitan area and was also given the responsibility to handle the annual contract negotiations with the wholesalers. In 2008, responsibility increased as Suonsivu was appointed to domestic sales manager of Vallox. In this position he stayed until his retirement in 2018.
Suonsivu is appreciated among both customers and colleagues as a social person and a good negotiator. As a supervisor, he always took care of others, a humorous twinkle in the corner of his eye, of course. Suonsivu, nicknamed Big Bear by his colleagues, always had the time and the necessary amount of patience. In his retirement days, he enjoys the company of his grandchildren and passionately follows team sports such as volleyball and baseball.