Medtech, cleantech, aerospace & defence and advanced industrial are the key customer sectors that are served by Darekon Ltd. They are supported by three electronics manufacturing facilities – in Finland, Sweden and Poland – and two plants for mechanics in Finland. The company employs around 500 people and generates an annual turnover approaching €100m.
Darekon Ltd’s 40-year journey is a story worth telling. Where many companies in the industry have risen and fallen, Darekon has adapted, persevered, chosen wisely and with steady growth and development has become one of the best in its field.
An entrepreneur who did not wish to retire
It all began when Heikki Orpo decided he did not, after all, want to retire. At the age of 49, in 1984, he had sold his business and stepped back. Before long, however, he found himself missing the world of enterprise. The idea emerged to start manufacturing electronics and exporting them to the Soviet Union. The next step was to set up a manufacturing centre.
Heikki pursued the plan with vigour, soon attracting public interest in his wealth-creating initiative. Finland’s then Minister of Finance, Ahti Pekkala, was from Haapavesi. He and local municipal manager Pentti Silvola were active in promoting the idea, and so Haapavesi was chosen as the location.
Stefan Widomski, a Polish-born executive, was also involved. He managed Nokia’s Eastern trade and played a key role in Nokia’s mobile phone success in Eastern Europe. He is remembered, for example, for the famous moment when, at Helsinki’s Kalastajatorppa, he placed the world’s first mobile phone – connected live to Moscow – into the hand of Mikhail Gorbachev. A photograph of the occasion shows Widomski grinning broadly beside a visibly astonished Gorbachev.
Starting in the town hall basement
When Darekon Ltd was founded in 1985, the company’s first office was a single room in the basement of Haapavesi’s town hall. There the telex machine chattered away in Russian from interested customers. At the same time, the first training course for electronics workers was organised, with some 25 participants. The instructor was Eero Meriläinen, who would go on to make a long career as director of the Haapavesi facility.
Locally the project was significant, and the press debated it for weeks. Suspicion lingered at first: Heikki Orpo came from Turku and there were fears that “men from the south had come to swindle us”. But attitudes soon shifted when it was seen that the southerners’ intentions were genuine.
In the first stage the municipality built a 1,000m2 facility, which Darekon acquired a few years later. In 1996 the municipality built a 1,000m2 extension, which Darekon also purchased, followed in 1999 by a second extension of more than 1,000m2.
A third expansion came in 2016 and a fourth in 2024, alongside wide-ranging modernisation of the building’s systems, including ventilation, geothermal heating and solar power. The property has since returned to municipal ownership. Today some 190 professionals work in the 5,600m2 facility.
Drama at the turn of the decade
Heikki’s eldest son, Kai Orpo, had graduated from the School of Economics, married, and moved to Germany in 1988. That same year Heikki fell seriously ill, and Kai was called back to Finland to take charge of Darekon. He was appointed CEO in 1990.
For Darekon 1990 was a year of crisis in many ways. The Soviet Union collapsed and the company’s promising export business ended abruptly. A banking strike in February triggered Finland’s deepest recession in decades, leading to a devaluation of the mark in 1991 and a free float in 1992.
In 1990 Darekon lost two-thirds of its industriously developed turnover. The company resolved to concentrate on contract manufacturing. At the time it employed 40 people, with contract manufacturing’s share worth just 300,000 marks. Yet even in the depths of recession more work could be found.
The first step towards internationalization came in 1991 with the founding of a production facility in Gdansk, Poland – a choice no doubt influenced by Stefan Widomski.
Darekon had begun working with Fiskars in 1989 to produce UPS devices, but by 1991 this was judged too costly in Finland. Darekon set up a joint venture with a local partner in Gdansk, transferring its old equipment from Finland. It later acquired full ownership.
Kari Koponen became director of the Polish facility at the start of 1992. He recalls his excitement at such a completely new challenge. When he began, a production manager and an administration manager had already been hired but there were no workers at all. There was, however, one customer – and an order book worth 2,000 marks. Production started in April and by summer there were already 15 employees. Koponen retired in 2018 after nearly 27 years as managing director of the Polish plant.
Succession and new challenges
The generational shift at Darekon was formalized in 1992 when Kai and Henri Orpo became owners. Widomski was bought out at the same time. Although the company had survived the devaluations, by the mid-1990s its capital was exhausted. Kai Orpo nonetheless succeeded in negotiating a refinancing deal with Merita Bank, enabling operations to continue.
Business gradually improved, debts were repaid, but the entrepreneurs still had everything tied up in the company. A bigger leap came in 2004, when turnover nearly doubled from the previous year to almost €14m.
In 2006 Darekon made its first acquisition, buying ET-Electro of Savonranta, whose activities and clients complemented the rest of the business. In 2019 the Savonranta facility was transferred to the city of Savonlinna and in 2022 its operations were moved to Haapavesi.
A majority stake to private equity – and back
Darekon’s strong performance in the early 2000s attracted investor interest and in December 2007 an agreement was signed under which 60 % of the company was sold to private equity firm Sentica Partners. The deal gave the brothers their first real financial return from years of entrepreneurship. The financial crisis of 2008 cut the contract manufacturing market roughly in half. Darekon, however, fared considerably better, with 2009 turnover falling by just 15 %.
In 2009 acquisitions continued as Darekon bought Mecanova’s sheet metal facility in Klaukkala. This opened a completely new line of business and allowed Darekon to serve electronics customers with an even broader range of manufacturing. A further acquisition followed in 2012 with the purchase of all the shares in Apelec Oy, bringing valuable new customers.
Over time Sentica grew restless; private equity exits are typically made within three to six years. In 2015 Sentica invited bids and the Orpo brothers proposed to buy the shares back at the same price as the best offer. Financing was secured with Nordea and the deal was done.
Growth and new thinking
In 2015 Darekon’s turnover was €37.5m; last year it was €87m. Acquisitions have continued: in 2020 Darekon bought a painting business that had long been a subcontractor and was based in the Klaukkala property. The business perfectly complements Darekon’s sheet metal production.
In 2021 Darekon expanded into Sweden with the acquisition of contract manufacturer IHAAB Component Systems AB and its subsidiaries. The idea had been brewing for some years, following a study of potential partners in the Baltics, Scandinavia and neighbouring regions.
Later that same year Darekon acquired Premec Oy, a Ylivieska-based sheet metal contract manufacturer. Premec was a financially solid growth company seeking new customers and markets. According to Kai Orpo this matched Darekon’s strategy of growth both organically and through acquisitions. Premec was merged into Darekon in summer 2025.
For Kai Orpo 2015 was a turning point: as leader of a wholly family-owned business once again and with no thought of selling, he has been free to think differently. Development can now be planned and implemented with the long term in mind.
Text: Jouko Lampila