PONSSE News 1/2011 ENG In English

logging HeroesGENEraTiONS chaNGE –PONSSE rEmaiNSMetsä- ja Maansiirto Kastinen Oy from Ilomantsi, Finlandhas been in the business of machine contracting for over 30years. This great tradition will continue also in the future,as the the company is currently undergoing a change ofgeneration.Brothers Pertti and Eero Kastinen startedthe business in 1979 with one excavator.Three years later, Pertti's son, Harri Kastinen,who has been working for his father'scompany since 1992, joined in with a 26%holding. At the moment, a generationalchange is taking place, enabling the necessarytime to be taken to transfer the businessexpertise to the next generation."I have been growing into this job sinceI was a young boy, I never even consideredother alternatives. It's good that I can learnthings little by little," says Kastinen, 35.Growing into the job applies also toPertti Kastinen, the founder of the company."I loved working in the forest alreadyas a little boy alongside my father and hishorse. Then for seven years I was operatinga farm tractor to transport logs and Ialso worked as an excavator driver for fiveyears before I founded this company," PerttiKastinen says.In addition to Harri, Pertti has two otherchildren, Laura (33) and Henri (29), whois a graduate engineer in wood processingtechnology and is currently working at theStora Enso Imatra mill.iN ThE EaSTErN BOrdEr fOrESTS WiThElEVEN PONSSE machiNESToday Metsä- ja Maansiirto Kastinen Oy isworking in the forests on the eastern borderwith seven PONSSE harvesters (two Ergos,three Beavers, a Fox and a HS10) andfive PONSSE forwarders (three Elks, a Bisonand a Wisent 10w), which are transportedwith the company's own platform truck.Furthermore, the company performs jobswith various types of excavation machines."In addition to the five PONSSE harvestingchains, one of our excavators is44Ponsse News 1 • 2011