Greetings from Leppävirta and welcome to the Dimex blog. We wanted to start telling things from our perspective, and who else would be the first to tell us, even for the weakest of us, than the CEO.

As an entrepreneur, I have experienced two recessions now; the current one and the one that started in the early 90s. Then the situation came creeping in. It took a while before we really understood what was happening. Today's recession cannot be called a creeping one. Even the understanding came faster.

But let's go back to the early 90s.

The first signs of recession were visible in 1991, when our sales began to decline. Sewing work had already been moving out of Finland in the 70s and especially in the 80s, but due to the cost structure and the increased supply, the move began to accelerate rapidly in the early 90s. At that time, we even found a partner in Estonia. This pattern still works today.

Our sales in the early 90s were one million euros and there were about 20 of us at Dimex, including our own sewing team. We also had sewing work done by subcontractors elsewhere in Finland. When sales weakened, we realized that something had to be done. First, we increased the number of sales deliveries. Then we terminated subcontracting agreements. Then we cut costs in Leppävirta, including ending voluntary insurance for entrepreneurs and suspending salary payments to entrepreneur-owners for six months. Despite these measures, we eventually had to lay off three employees.
The layoff felt bad and was really stressful. However, cutting my own benefits was much easier than cutting others'. The previous recession is well described by a conversation we had at home during Christmas 1992. Someone said, regarding the theme of the holiday, that Jesus would come back at some point. Our younger, 9-year-old daughter Tuire said; "I hope not, at least not now, when there is that recession too."

What's the answer to that?

In the next blog we will move more to the present day. Wishing you a happy March

Jukka Krogerus

Managing director
P.S.
If you feel like it, please contact:

jukka.krogerus@dimex.fi