We are extremely humbled and proud to be chosen into this esteemed group of companies. Sitra updated it’s popular “The most interesting companies in the circular economy” list. Circularity has grown to be a widespread profitable business phenomenon. The new “The most interesting companies in the circular economy in Finland 2.1” list presents 41 companies that offer circular economy solutions to the global sustainability crisis. The selected companies represent various industries and the five business models of the circular economy.
Combi Works takes advantage of factories’ surplus capacity: “We offer factory production as a service”
Combi Works offers factory production as a service to companies. However, it does not own factories itself but uses the surplus capacity of other factories for production. Founder and CEO Edward Blomstedt wants to increase the sustainability of companies’ production chains.
Combi Works started in 2005 from an army tank factory that a business partner of ours was a director of in Russia. The factory had been running on very low utilization since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the owner was struggling. We decided to manufacture manhole covers and sell them to Finland. This way, we made use of the foundry capacity of the old factory dating from the Soviet era.
We extended the idea to the mechanical engineering sector. We reflected on how to offer our customers a production chain that is flexible when needed and does not require large continuous investments in equipment.
Today Combi Works offers manufacturing as a service to companies. In practice, companies can outsource the manufacture and logistics of their products to us. For example, if our customer is going to sell production lines to China, we can manufacture a large part of the heaviest equipment in China. This saves time and freight costs and reduces the environmental emissions caused by transport. At the same time, the production equipment of factories is used as efficiently as possible and our customers do not need to spend money and natural resources on building factories of their own.
Our owners and board are driving us to look into global supply chains and bring more sustainable solutions to make a difference. Our business model is inherently circular but we still have alot more we can do. This recognition further motivates us to invest and increase our capabilities within circularity.
Please visit Sitra’s page here for more information.
