Dawn of a new year at Ainoa
The dawn viewed from Ainoa Winery 01.01.2026
Just like the dawn, Ainoa’s promise of growth looks bright.
For the last four years Ainoa’s growth has stalled. We could blame external factors like the aftermath of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the drastic spike in electricity prices or the ongoing poor economy in Finland. It has been just one thing after another, but the reasons Ainoa has not grown are actually not due to any of those, it comes down to two factors:
1. There are only two of us attempting to handle too many tasks to allow us to focus on growth-specific initiatives.
2. Growth of a winery business requires large amounts of capital for new equipment, expanded facilities and especially for working capital to enable an increase in production.
Planning for expansion in a not so hot economy can be very surprising. However, we did not just start planning for it recently. In fact, we planned our winery, built in 2019, with the long-term goal of expansion and designed it to allow for doubled capacity as soon as it was possible. However, due to the factors mentioned above, Ainoa’s growth has stalled. We regularly come across opportunities that would result in increased sales for us but cannot devote enough time to them. And we certainly did not have the capital to dramatically increase production.
Then more than a year ago, Tuomas Tenkanen (one of the Entrepreneurs who invited us to move to Finland in the first place) asked a question: “what do you need to grow your business?" Having worked with Tuomas for more than 20 years, I knew he was not just asking for an investment figure. He wanted a well thought out plan for how to effectively use the investment to achieve specific goals. Months of careful thought and planning resulted in a proposal that he found intriguing enough to move forward and further refine the plans. We invited Antti Ojala (who worked with us both at Mobidiag) and Tuomas’ friend Erkka Schönberg (who had a long and successful career in the wine industry) to help us with the planning, along with our long-time advisor Samuil Angelov. Almost a year after asking his first question, we finalized our investment agreement with Tuomas and are moving forward with our growth plans.
But now? The economy here in Finland is currently one of the slowest in the developed world. Wouldn’t it be better to wait a bit until it improves? Our answer is “definitely not, we move forward now.” Both Paola & David are of the same mind in this. We do not believe that you should focus on one negative factor and conclude that you cannot succeed because of it. We know the situation, which means we can (and have) planned for how to succeed with the way things are now. We have also planned contingencies for what we can do if the situation improves or deteriorates further, so that Ainoa can make adjustments as needed. Plus growing a wine business is in some respects quite similar to making wine: it takes time and patience to make it right. We do not know when it will happen, but the Finnish economy will improve. If we start building our capacity now, we will be in a position to take advantage of that broader economic improvement when it occurs.
So what are the plans? This year we will both expand our warehouse space and purchase more equipment, which together will allow us to almost double our production capacity after the new harvest this summer. But our biggest and most immediate need is to grow our team. We are inviting qualified candidates to apply for the position of Winery Manager. The job description posted will soon be posted on Linkedin.
For those of you who have a different question, like “are we planning to release new products this year?”, the answer is yes. Finland is a country rich in tasty natural resources, and we are thrilled to explore new flavors and share them when they are ready. Several projects, one of which began even before we moved to Hollola should be ready this year. We look forward to sharing them with you.
Paola & David