Leading the way in body straightening

The Kuopio company Autorobot Oy manufactures body straightening and body measuring equipment for use by repair shops. These products are used, for example, when repairing crashed cars. Eighty percent of the company's production is exported and its products are in use in more than 70 countries.

- The original innovation in body straightening technology came about at the end of the 1970s and most of our products are still based on that same concept. While the materials that cars are made of have changed, high tensile steel for example, as have our quality requirements, the basic technology behind our products has stayed the same, explains Autorobot's Head of IT Jarkko Venäläinen.

Autorobot's products are the result of considerable product development and the methods the company has developed are protected by more than 60 patents.

- Our own product development has been one of our undisputed strengths over the years. We continue to invest heavily in product development and we try to develop and manufacture products of the highest possible quality. The benefits of this can be seen in the service life of what he produce, and customers are still using body straightening equipment we manufactured back in the 1980s, affirms Mr Venäläinen.

He believes that quality is one of Autorobot's trump cards out in the global marketplace. A lot of body straightening equipment manufacturers have entered the market in recent years, from Asia in particular, and a Finnish company will find it difficult to compete on price.

- Competition globally is getting tougher and with the advent of our Asian competitors in particular, we have had to differentiate ourselves through our quality even more than before, Mr Venäläinen says.

If the past decades are to be believed, Autobot quality will continue to attract customers in the future as well.

www.autorobot.fi