Ejendals' AB moves its product development to Jalas in Finland

Acquisition of the Finnish company Jalas by Ejendals will not mean any hanges in the operations of either Jalas or of Famon Oy,  Ejendals' othersubsidiary in Finland. However, product development for Ejendals' safety andwork footwear will be concentrated at the Jalas plant in Jokipii, Jalasjärvi.

In June Ejendals AB acquired the Finnish company Urho Viljanmaa Oy or Jalas, which makes Jalas footwear. The companies have long worked together;Ejendals has served as Jalas' importer in Sweden since 1984 and handled sales in Norway since 2004. During this time Jalas has become one of themost important suppliers of work and safety footwear in the Nordic countries. According to the strategy recently defined by Ejendals, all productdevelopment for the company's work and safety footwear will be concentrated in Jalasjärvi. Jalas CEO Klaus Viljanmaa is pleased with the newarrangements."We are of course delighted that Ejendals wants to invest in Finland. Wehave a very skilled and innovative product development department, which has influenced this decision. The transfer of product development will probablyrequire further recruitments, although it's still too early to talk aboutnumbers of personnel and time tables," Viljanmaa points out.

In Finland, Ejendals owns Jalas and also Famon Oy, which was acquired by the Swedish company in 2004. Famon is one of Finland's largest suppliers of workand safety gloves. Its net sales for last year amounted to 10 million euros.Famon and Jalas will remain separate companies on the Finnish market.

"Both companies have established their names on the market and have improved their positions over the years. Of course we are not going to change thissuccessful concept. Our ownership will certainly have a positive effect onemployment at Jalas," explains Mats Aspemo, the new chairman of the Jalas board and deputy CEO of Ejendals. "We're definitely poised for growth, because we now plan to expand Ejendals'operations via Jalas' strong product brand," Mats Aspemo thinks.

For further information:
Jalas CEO Klaus Viljanmaa, telephone 050359 8531
Chairman of the Board Mats Aspemo, telephone +46 247 360 41.

Urho Viljamaa Oy - Jalas is a family company founded in 1916. It has 217 employees and net sales of 36.3 million euros. Over the years the companyhas developed and improved its production. Its net sales have tripled in thelast decade alone. 65% of production is exported, mainly to the Nordic countries, Central Europe, the Baltic countries and Russia.

Ejendals AB is a family business that was founded in 1949 with headquartersin the central Swedish town of Leksand. Ejendals develops, manufactures and markets special protective products for the hands and feet and is one of theleading businesses in its sector in Europe. Almost all of the major Swedish industrial companies are customers of Ejendals. Its turnover last year cameto 60 million euros and it employed a staff of 120.