Tampere City Region is like winning the logistics lottery

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Tampere City Region is a traffic hub, growth centre and industrial cluster, where municipalities actively offer good locations for companies.

The Tampere Region Economic Development Agency Tredea markets the region to both Finnish and foreign companies. For Tredea, the logistics opportunities of the region are a clear selling point that helps it stand out. Tampere City Region is the second largest growth centre in Finland, and it is preparing for continued population growth.

“Preparation is particularly important. More people are moving in, and we are really investing in ensuring that everyone will continue to have enough room for good mobility,” says Petri Nykänen, Director, Business Development and Investment at Tredea.

To guarantee smooth traffic flow, the region is investing in long-term forward-looking logistics solutions, such as the city tramline, underground parking in Tampere city centre and the Rantatunneli tunnel, which offers a fast route for bypass traffic and calms down the traffic in the city centre. Those caught in the occasional rush hour traffic jams on their commute in the region may not realise that they are getting off fairly lightly.

“Tampere did excellently in the global Traffic Index comparison by the navigation company TomTom. According to the report, the traffic jams in Tampere are also much lighter than those in Helsinki in Turku,” says Nykänen.

As a traffic hub, Tampere City Region is a crossing point for both road and railway traffic routes. Ports, which are crucial for export industry, are easily accessible, and there are also growth opportunities in air traffic. The long-term growth plan of Tampere-Pirkkala Airport is to become an internationally significant airport in Western and Central Finland.

“The AiRRport Project links the railways, road network and air traffic into a seamlessly functioning transport system. The target is 8 million passengers in 2030,” says Marja Aalto, Director, Air Transportation Development at Tredea.

“Thanks to its location, Tampere-Pirkkala Airport also offers growth opportunities in air freight for the export of import of the entire Central and Western Finland. The development of cargo connections is a key part of the air traffic development project,” says Nykänen.

As a growth centre, Tampere is attractive to companies because the growing population offers a more secure customer base and source of skilled and diverse labour. On the other hand, Tampere City Region also has industry, and together these factors help keep the wheels of production rolling.

“The Tampere region is located on the growth corridor of Finland, at the heart of the country’s economic growth and competitiveness, where approximately one-half of the turnover of all the companies is generated,” says Nykänen.

The municipalities in the Tampere City Region have been actively involved in organising good locations for companies close to the main traffic routes and their junctions. A location along a major road also provides visibility, when tens of thousands of people pass the company’s facade on a daily basis. New route investments are being planned.

Jalmari Halminen looks at the transport sector from the viewpoint of Area Sales Manager at the logistics company DSV Road. He leads the Tampere sales office and gets to see a wide range of Tampere region companies and the industrial sector, especially from the viewpoint of European import and export.

Halminen would like to open discourse about the role of the Tampere City Region and the entire Tampere region in the overall picture of logistics in Finland. A good starting point is to study the map of Finland and pay attention to the location of the population and industry, in particular.

“Tampere City Region offers excellent opportunities when we consider where the central transport warehouses and logistics centres in Finland should be put,” Halminen says.

He has worked in logistics and also in real estate investment. In the latter sector, the consequences of wrong warehouse and terminal placement became very clear. An affordable plot along a heavily trafficked route alone is not enough to make a warehouse a good investment if the location causes empty running for transports; situations where cargo is transported from site A to site B with no useful cargo for the return trip.

“In this sense, Tampere region is a good and also very popular transit location. There is always plenty of export and import to and from here, which helps avoid the problem of empty running,” says Halminen.

Read this article in Finnish >

Translation: Lingoneer