From Veikko Nummela’s
Legacy to Esteri Group
Esteri Group’s earliest history stretches back to the 19th century. Founded in 1816, the blacksmith’s shop and later wagon factory G.W. Wulff manufactured a variety of carts, sleds, and different types of horse-drawn vehicles. By the late 1930s, the company had started manufacturing bus bodies until it was sold to Kustaa Nummela, Veikko Nummela’s father. The Wulff’s red-brick factory still stands on Turku’s Itäinenkatu. Before the war, K. Nummela moved the operation to Kaarina, where it continued as a corporation from 1944 onwards.
In 1950, K. Nummela Oy relocated to new factory premises in Piispanristi, Kaarina. At the same time, Kustaa’s eldest son Veikko Nummela was trading used cars in the Itäinenkatu property.
The new Piispanristi factory was completed in 1963. By 1968, K. Nummela’s share capital was
sold to Helsinki-based Mako Oy.
That same year, 58-year-old Veikko Nummela established his own company, Veikko Nummela Oy – a name that still stands behind Esteri Group today.
Esteri – The Birth of a Success Product
A few years before founding his own corporation, Veikko Nummela began designing a frontmounted pump equipped with a single impeller. As with many other inventors who achieved global fame, the design work took place in a garage.
The first completed pump featured a universal-jointed drive shaft, an automatic pressure regulator, and connectors heated by the engine’s cooling system. It was finished in 1965 and named Esteri.
Subsequently, pumps were manufactured in the garage for a long time. The garage evolved into a fully equipped miniature machine shop. When Veikko Nummela Oy was officially established in 1968, the company’s operations also expanded. In addition to pumps, the company manufactured front-mounted pumps, motor sprayers, water cannons, foam projectors, suction hose connectors, submersible pumps, and self-propelled motor sprayers on tracks. The latter were known as Kulkuri. They even made it into the Guinness Book of Records when a Kulkuri motor sprayer was driven from Turku to Jyväskylä in 1982.
Years of Change
By 1976, the Nummela name no longer played a leading part in the K. Nummela company founded by Veikko’s father, but it was still involved in many areas. The owner company Mako Oy changed the company’s name to Nummela Sky-Lift Oy, reflecting the company’s new products, the manufacturing of vehicle-based lifting platforms, also known as personnel lifts.
In 1983, Mako sold Nummela Sky-Lift to Tampere-based Telinekeskus, which included a company from Sweden starting with Bronto. A little later, Bronto Sky-Lift Oy was established as the marketing organization for this entity. The owners have since changed several times, but the Bronto name remains one of the key players in the rescue and personnel lifting sectors.
As the 90s approached, a new lifting platform company named Vemast Oy Kaarina was established in Kaarina, the company behind today’s Vema Lift. Meanwhile, the company bearing Veikko Nummela’s name had grown into a significant player in the industry. A new modern hall was completed on Kaarina’s Autoilijantie in 1978. The founder, Veikko Nummela, was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year in Kaarina in 1985. Additionally, the Finnish Association for Fire Protection had honored him for his contributions to the development of firefighting equipment with merit crosses from the Finnish Association for Fire Protection and the Fire Chiefs Association.
Veikko Nummela’s entrepreneurial spirit had produced significant products for the firefighting equipment industry and a strong market position for which it is still known. Esteri had become a legendary name in the field, with a market share that at times was nearly a hundred percent. Practically everyone in the field still recognizes the Esteri pump. Over five decades, more than 2,000 pumps have been manufactured, most of which have ended up in domestic rescue vehicles, but hundreds have also been exported over the years.
Steady Growth
Veikko Nummela sold the company to Leo Huttunen in 1988, who had joined Veikko Nummela’s service in 1979 after graduating as a mechanical engineer. Huttunen became the CEO in the early 1980s.
The next couple of decades were a time of steady growth. Esteri pumps were produced frequently, some for export, with some pieces even reaching as far as Siberia. However, the early 1990s were marked by a recession that tested all Finnish companies.
Veikko Nummela Oy came through the recession with relatively minor damages, thanks to the understanding of its employees who recognized the spirit of the times. Through layoffs arrangements, the company was kept afloat. For example, maintenance was kept running throughout, protecting vital fire safety. At the time, there were about 560 municipalities in Finland, and their volunteer fire departments on top of that. For many municipalities, a single fire truck was often the only one of its kind, with correspondingly large responsibilities.
Leo Huttunen recalls mornings with a queue of fire trucks waiting for repairs. They were renovated as needed, and service customers were attended to regardless of the hour, a principle that was strictly adhered to. Spare parts were sent even if it was Christmas Eve.
The current CEO, Iivari Kalliomäki, was a familiar sight in Piispanristi even as a knee-high boy running around the yard and playing pranks by stuffing pine cones in car exhaust pipes. However, working at the company’s helm was not a given for years, as the ownership had already transferred out of the family.
Veikko Nummela Oy Returns to Its Roots
Leo Huttunen recalls that in the early 2010s, while serving as the chairman of the Finnish Fire Equipment Association, he was returning by train from Helsinki to Turku and met Iivari Kalliomäki after many years. They agreed to a meeting where Iivari suggested buying the company if there were any intention to sell. Over the years, Kalliomäki had accumulated extensive sales experience, and the time had come to bring Veikko Nummela Oy back into family ownership.
Huttunen and Kalliomäki agreed on financing options. Arrangements were made, and the deal was agreed upon in 2013. Iivari became the CEO, and after more than 30 years “on loan,” the company returned to family ownership.
Towards Esteri Group, Towards the Future
Iivari Kalliomäki’s first few years are characterized by a strong desire for growth, which has not subsided – quite the opposite. But one had to start somewhere. Through company acquisitions, a group of corporations joined Veikko Nummela Oy, significantly expanding the product portfolio: TR-Vesitykit (TR Water Monitors) Oy became part of the new corporate family in 2014. Rauplan Oy joined in 2017, and in 2019, the group added hose maintenance equipment manufacturer Allgotech Ab from Sweden, the company behind Hosemaster™.
At the same time, there were changes in politics. Regional rescue services came as a new administrative model, and inspiration for their operation was drawn from Sweden. In that model, the state would have acted as a single large buyer and tenderer, and the market for firefighting equipment suppliers would have been overhauled, even endangering its existence. However, the model did not materialize as such.
For over a decade, various companies and their products have been welded into a tighter Esteri Group entity that offers a comprehensive range of fire and rescue products from pumps to fire hoses.
Esteri Group looks back proudly at its past, supported by companies bearing the Nummela name, especially Veikko Nummela’s legacy. At the same time, Esteri Group is firmly rooted in the present through its own design, manufacturing, and sales organization, as well as comprehensive maintenance services.
The future is particularly represented by opportunities for export growth. From the perspective of a family business, the next generation also weaves history into the future. Iivari’s sons, Antti and Emil Kalliomäki, are also employed by the company. The brand renovation carried out in 2024 reflects Esteri Group’s will to serve as a meaningful and progressive player in the industry, with a purpose to reliably serve the rescue sector where it matters. As the slogan freshly puts it, Esteri Group – Reliability in Action.
