Company - Lindström

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Lindström as a company

Lindström is one of Europe’s leading textile service companies with over 165 years of experience in the textile industry. We offer solutions for the cleanliness and interior design of facilities, corporate clothing and protection.

Our task is to strengthen the corporate image of our customers and make everyday life easier with the help of our services. The textile services are a cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly way of taking care of a company’s textile needs.

Lindström is a strongly growing international company. It is our goal to expand geographically and to increase our market share in the long term. Success is backed up by strongly conceptualised operations that ensure the quality of operations, uniform service and responsibility in all our countries of operation.

Mission & vision

Company values as the mission’s starting point

Lindström’s vision and the means for reaching it, i.e. the strategy, are specified every five years. The company values are observed in the specification of the target state and means leading to it. The company’s strategic choices and focus points of development are analysed annually by the Management Team. When the vision, mission and strategy are changed, the change and its impacts on daily life are reviewed in workgroups with the personnel.

Mission, i.e. the business idea

Textile service company Lindström strengthens the company image of its customers. Our service makes our customer’s everyday life easier and provides the best value on the market. We are a responsible corporate citizen and a respected employer.

Vision 2020

Solid, half a billion euro company, achieving excellent customer experience with engaged employees.

Strategy

Caring for our customers

In 2015 we launched the new vision and strategy for Lindström. Hundreds of our employees from over 20 countries and from every part of the organization participated in the strategy work.

Our goal is to create value for our customers in everything we do; we want to take care of our customers, give them the best service and make them proud of working with us. Creating excellent customer experiences lies in the heart of all our operations.

Our strategic cornerstones

Lindström’s strategy is built on four cornerstones: engaged employees, operational excellence, excellent customer experience and growth.

Engaged Employees

We believe that happy employees equals happy customers. We embrace the joy of learning; we continuously develop our leaders and offer new learning opportunities to all our employees. Our goal is that our employees take pride in what they do and that they are empowered to make decisions in their daily work with the customers. Visit our career pages.

Operational excellence

We focus only on doing things that create value for our customers. By being truly local, we know our customers’ business and help them to work at their full potential by ensuring that they get the service when and where they need it. Our service improves our customers’ comfort, safety and efficiency. Visit our service pages.

Excellent customer experience

We are curious about our customers’ business and daily life. We encourage people to innovate together with our customers at every level of the organization. We feel enthusiastic about new solutions which help our customers’ sustainable business growth. We aim to be one step ahead to foresee the future needs of our customers. Visit our customer reference pages.

Growth

We grow both organically and through acquisitions. By growing we’re able to provide services either in totally new countries, cities or through new service lines in our existing markets. We continuously develop our sales capabilities to meet the changing needs of our customers even better. Visit our company pages.

Values

Values indicate the direction

Lindström’s operation is guided by its values of profitable growth, long-term customer relationships, responsibility as well as enthusiasm and the joy of learning.

Lindström aims at long-term development of operations as well as the creation of long-term partnerships. Lindström’s decision-making is not guided by growth alone since the objective is to make sustainable solutions that ensure profitable growth.

The impact of the values also shows in business expansion decisions. Business operations are not launched in a country until the personnel and partners whose operations meet the company values and ethical instructions are sourced locally.

The values and their manifestation in daily work are regularly analysed: the values are part of the annual performance appraisal discussions.

Profitable growth

Lindström’s operations are cost-conscious and cost efficient – this guarantees profitable growth. Different projects are prioritized by management according to the overall benefit to the company. Every project must support Lindström’s vision. Decisions are made on a long-term basis, and resources are allocated for supporting growth.

Responsibility

Lindström takes into account the financial, social and environmental influences of its operations. Lindström operates fairly, observes laws and regulations and respects local cultures. As an employer, Lindström is fair and responsible. We require that our suppliers and partners adhere to the same principles.

Long-term customer relationships

Genuine partnership requires mutual confidence, continuous development of operations and mutual benefit in business. Lindström listens to its customers, anticipates the customer’s needs and offers competitive services. We react immediately, without thought, to customer demands.

Enthusiasm and the joy of learning

Good leadership and management, encouraging feedback and training ensure continuous development of Lindström and its personnel. Open, interactive communication generates a good atmosphere for innovations and promotes successful implementation.

358

Turnover (million €)

4000

Personnel

Countries

Offices

Lindström global services

Lindström offers workwear in all its countries of operation and mat services over 10 European countries. In addition, the service selection of the Group includes personal protective equipment, shop towel, hygiene and restaurant textile services as well as the textiles of hotels and the health care industry.

Hotel textiles
Hygiene products
Industrial wipers
Mats
Personal protective equipment
Restaurant textiles
Workwear

History

Expertise in the textile field since 1848

Over the course of Lindström’s history, the company has grown from a fabric dyeing house into a laundry and onwards to become a professional in textile renting. The family-owned business with a history dating back more than 165 years has been among the pioneers of its field throughout the years of its operation.

1848 Lindström is established

Carl August Lindström established Lindström in 1848. At the beginning, the company operated as a textile dyeing house in Helsinki in the area of the current Parliament House. In the 1880s, the dyeing house was complemented by a laundry providing a new service called dry cleaning. The shop was named C. A. Lindström & Son.

Growth started in the 1890s

Due to the generation change that took place in 1891, Lindström’s name was changed to W. E. Lindström and strong expansion began. By 1913, the company’s personnel had increased from a few family members to 55 employees and it had moved to larger premises in Helsinki.

Company acquisition and new owner in the 1920s

In 1922, W. E. Lindström Oy’s share capital was purchased by Uusi Pesula Oy, specialising in white laundry, whose principal shareholder was Chief Engineer Johan Roiha. The company became one of the largest actors in the field in the Nordic countries.

Textile renting begins in the 1930s

Small-scale textile renting operations were launched in the 1930s. The company rented linen, sheets, table cloths and napkins as well as doctor and barber’ coats for its customers. In 1939, the company laundered 2.4 million kilos of textiles and its number of employees had increased to 300.

Shortages in the 1940s require improvisation

Steam production required continuous heating of the boilers and, due to the fuel shortage, firewood was used for heating. The daily firewood consumption was 70 m³, and the company purchased standing forest to satisfy its fuel need.

Investment in clothing renting increases in the 1950s

Even though the share of private laundry in the company’s turnover was over 80%, Manager Eino Roiha saw the company’s future as increasingly linked to the renting of workwear and textiles. The decision was also furthered by a new fabric type developed in the USA that required no ironing or pressing.

Renting of towel roll dispensers in the 1960s

In 1965, Lindström also started to rent towel roll dispensers. At the same time, the share of private laundry started to decline, mostly due to the availability of automatic home washing machines.

Renting mats in the 1970s

In 1971, the mat rental operations were launched. Three years later, Lindström acquired its competitors Lainatekstiilit Oy and Cleaner Oy, thus strengthening its market position as a company providing rental services of workwear, towel roll dispensers and mats. The operations of the textile dyeing house were discontinued due to poor demand and profitability.

Concentration and internationalisation in the 1990s

The company gave up its cleaning and waste management operations as well as laundry shops and concentrated on textile renting. In 1992, Lindström established its first subsidiary in Estonia. This was followed by the establishments of subsidiaries in Russia (1993), Hungary (1994), Latvia (1994), the Czech Republic (1996), Lithuania (1998), Slovakia (1998) and Slovenia (1998).

Modular laundry got a patent in the early 2000s

In autumn 2002, Lindström’s internationally unique innovation, modular laundry, was granted a patent. In the early 2000s, Comforta Oy, specialising in hotel textiles, was also established. In 2005, Lindström acquired Vision Design Oy, specialising in corporate textiles and PR products, and expanded its corporate clothing offering to personal protective equipment.

Asian business operations were launched in 2006

Lindström continued its strong internationalisation in the 2000s. In Europe, operations were expanded to Great Britain (2001), Germany (2002), Poland (2002), Sweden (2002), Romania (2005), Ukraine (2006), Turkey (2007) and Bulgaria (2008). In 2006, the operations were expanded to Asia when a subsidiary was established in China and, a year later, in India.

Growth continues in the 2010s

In 2011, Lindström expanded its operations to Belarus and Croatia. The subsidiaries in Serbia and Kazakhstan started in 2014. In 2013, Lindström’s turnover was over €300 million and it employed 2,900 people in Europe and Asia. The company continues its strong growth.