The new centre will manage most of Ahlstrom's finance, accounting and customer service operations in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region.

“Our decision to establish a Service Center in Vilnius was based on existing infrastructure, availability of talented and multilingual staff, and favourable cost structure. In addition, we were impressed by the attention and support the authorities provided to us,” said Marco Levi, President & CEO of Ahlstrom.  

Source of foreign investment

“The arrival of companies such as Ahlstrom to Lithuania is very important for the whole country,” commented Evaldas Gustas, Lithuanian Minister of Economy.

“Finland is in the eighth biggest source of foreign investment in Lithuania. Globally operating Finnish companies bring not only capital, but also the international work culture and the drive for continuous personal development and improvement of products. Ahlstrom particularly stands out in this area with an emphasis on innovation and aspiration for the highest standards.”

Customer and financial services

“The company's goal is to be the best in their field, but not the biggest in the world,” commented Arvydas Arnašius, Director of the foreign investment development agency Invest Lithuania.

“We saw what this means in practise while working with Ahlstrom: the final decision was taken quite quickly and processed smoothly. This shows that the company is not only able to respond immediately and take a quick decision, but is also well aware of where it is going.”

Ahlstrom plans to employ approximately 70 highly skilled professionals in Vilnius to provide customer and financial services in nine languages in the EMEA region. The company established a Customer Service Center in North America last year.

Ahlstrom

Ahlstrom is a high performance fibre based materials company, partnering with leading businesses around the world.

The company aims to grow with a product offering for clean and healthy environment. Its materials are used in everyday applications such as filters, medical fabrics, life science and diagnostics, wall coverings and food packaging.

In 2013, Ahlstrom's net sales from the continuing operations amounted to EUR 1 billion. Our 3,500 employees serve customers in 24 countries.

www.ahlstrom.com