Kai Kaasalainen: ​Looking to the future with confidence

On 15 May 1985, four pharmacists and founding members signed a partnership agreement establishing Tampereen Rohdoskauppayhtiö.

This year we have celebrated Tamro’s first 125 years in business.

The company’s history has been both long and eventful. What started as a small chemist’s shop became a pharmaceuticals wholesaler and, through a subsidiary, even a pharmaceuticals producer. Over the years, our company has grown both organically and through numerous mergers and acquisitions. During the period of its growth and international expansion, Tamro became a publicly listed company and a multinational business group that eventually joined the family-owned PHOENIX Group.

Tamro has always been an adaptable and evolving enterprise. Today, in May 2020, we are Finland’s leading pharmaceuticals wholesaler, with a market share of almost 60%. In line with our strategy, we are also growing strongly and are well on our way to become a service provider for the whole value chain in the health sector.

The past and the present merge when we look to the future. It is important to understand that what has been done in the past forms the foundation for everything new we build. Tamro's success is based on the excellent work that so many people here at Tamro have done during our 125 years in business. Everyone's input has been important and continues to be so.

In recent years, we have employed a new, fast-paced strategy to achieve our vision of becoming an integrated service provider for the whole value chain in the healthcare sector. This value chain starts with research to find new, better and more effective means of treatment and to prevent illness. It ends with Finnish patients and ordinary people whose health and wellbeing is improved by all the work we do.

We are also systematically building our service offering through our subsidiaries. Medaffcon's services support both pharmaceutical companies and, increasingly, the public sector; Pharmac Finland has established its position as the leading operator in dose dispensing of pharmaceuticals, and the innovative Olo pharmacy chain is a growing provider of local health services to its customers.

Tamro's own service offering is also growing at a good pace and we invest in it strongly. We utilise previous innovations and also build new value on them, as well as providing completely new services through close cooperation with our customers. We are also making progress in home care and the development of healthcare at nursing homes through our Smila care service offering.

Ultimately, it’s all about people. It's about every Tamro employee and our strong commitment to our work. Our work has meaning: We create health and wellbeing and life years with more vitality.

We look to the future with confidence. We will continue working systematically to improve the health and wellbeing of the Finnish people. Congratulations to Tamro on 125 years in business!