Mirka: A local partnership with global reach

Along the coast of Ostrobothnia in Jeppo is the headquarters of one of the world's largest companies of abrasive materials. Mirka has been a leader in the industry for 80 years and today their products are sold all over the world. Mirka has collaborated with Forsberg for a long time - an Ostrobothnian partnership with a global reach.

As an operational buyer at Mirka, one of Mårten Strand's most important tasks is to select suppliers and develop new packaging solutions together with them. Developing a product solution is a long and time-consuming process that requires attentiveness, good communication, and above all, trust.

– Mirka has collaborated with Forsberg for over 30 years, long before they started their packaging production. At first, we only ordered brochures and banners for our marketing, but when they started their packaging production, the next natural step for us was to also buy packaging material. As we had worked with them before, we knew what their brand stands for: high quality, punctual deliveries, and good communication. Forsberg has been an important supplier to us for a long time and we know we can trust them, says Mårten Strand.

Cooperation is part of the solution

Mirka is known for high-quality and revolutionary abrasive products, and the company naturally demands the same for its packaging - which is also part of the product.

– Developing a product solution often takes several years, and therefore it's important that we can trust each other and that the process runs smoothly. Together with our suppliers, we create a packaging solution, so the supplier's technical knowledge is very important. The packaging must not only be functional, but it must also work well for both product and machine and at the same time be part of the brand identity. The majority of what we manufacture is exported worldwide and so the packaging impacts our customer's perception of us. It's important to us that the quality of the packaging is as good as our products.

A major project between Forsberg and Mirka over the past year has been to renew one of Mirka's packaging series. It has been a time-consuming process that has required a lot of trial and error.

– For us, it's important that our suppliers have strong technical knowledge. Forsberg has helped us along the way, and they have been very active throughout the process: they have bounced ideas off of us, given us technical advice on what is possible and what is not, and also given us several test products to try. In the end we decided on a solution and have since then tuned our machines based on the partnership with Forsberg. Forsberg has solid technical knowledge and has been an indispensable part of the entire process right from the start, and that's how we want to work with our suppliers.

Ostrobothnian products worldwide

The partnership between Mirka and Forsberg began locally, but today Forsberg manufactures packaging that is sent worldwide. The key to the successful collaboration between Mirka and Forsberg has from the very beginning been trust.

– What makes Forsberg Forsberg is their reliability and flexibility. They are here for us and help us solve our problems. In all the years that we have worked together, they have shown time and time again how good they are at what they do. Our collaboration started locally with brochures and banners and has now grown into a partnership with global reach. Forsberg's packaging is now available all over the world. It's a pleasure to work with them because we know what we get: attentiveness, good communication, and a reliable partner.