- Very welcome to Protex Balti, said Diana Strömnes, Sales Manager, and Helena Almquist, Business Development Manager, as SCCE members made a study visit to their Tallinn HQ and factory, Wednesday 8 April. While we enjoyed a delicious Sushi Lunch provided by SCCE's member Sushi Cat, Diana and Helena gave us a presentation on Protex Balti:

- Founded in 2007, Protex Balti had a period of considerable growth, mainly due to company acquisitions in the Estonian textile trade up until 2012. The outcome included the classical difficulties with merging different corporate cultures. Additionally, we also faced problems connected to the former Soviet styled production set up with strong hierarchies, fear of admitting mistakes, a strive to stay in the comfort zone, high resistance to changes, and the "No, it’s not possible“ attitude, said Diana and Helena.

- At the same time we saw that textile production was coming back from Asia. There are several good reasons for this including quality issues, long and expensive deliveries, as well as lack of corporate social responsibility and sustainable production methods.

- Obviously, considerable changes were needed and in 2013, our ISO 9001 certification process became the first step in this work. The result was a well functioning quality system with unified core processes in the organization and we passed the certification with 0 remarks!

- We continued the change process in 2014 with structural issues, among them closing two factories, appointing more operational management and exchanging some key persons. We also developed our business portfolio with own brands and left low potential customers alone while focusing on our gold, silver, and bronze customers. Furthermore, we totally changed the organizational culture up to the standards of a modern Scandinavian enterprise.

- Today, we are committed to being a responsible and flexible partner to our customers. Our current main business areas include Protex Wear with technical sportswear, work wear, fashion, and uniforms, and Protex Tech including advanced R&D, furniture and tents. We also have the resources in place for being a one-stop shop for our customers as we can offer solutions and services through the entire value chain; Development, Purchasing, Cutting, Sewing, Warehouse and Logistical Services, as well as advanced R&D.

- Implementing further improvements should never stop and this year we are continuing the process optimization. We will also introduce a new ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning system, and we will launch two own brands; Ragnarök and HiP, concluded Diana and Helena.

On behalf of all SCCE members joining our study visit to Protex Balti, I would like to thank Diana and Helena for a very interesting presentation and an equally interesting factory tour. My sincere thanks also go to Sushi Cat for providing us a delicious Sushi Lunch.

Sincerely,

Kristiina Sikk

SCCE Ombudsman