Etola Group
Etola Group is a Finnish corporate group. Etola Group’s business sectors include industrial products and supplies, building materials, marine supplies, and home products. In 2025, Etola Group’s turnover was approximately EUR 583 million, with industrial products and supplies accounting for 70 %. In industrial products and supplies, we are Finland’s largest and most versatile provider.
Etra is responsible for providing full service in industrial products and supplies. Etra’s extensive product portfolio includes over 300,000 standard items. Etra’s offering and services are complemented by Etola Group’s specialized technical trade stores in their respective fields: Nestepaine in hydraulics, Tiivistekeskus in machinery and equipment seals, Tiivistetekniikka in process industry seals, Foiltek in plastic sheets, Euro-kumi in conveyor belts, and Etra Electronics in electronic components.
We have integrated specialized centers of expertise across different sectors through a unified enterprise resource planning (ERP) system into a flexible corporate group, where individual companies can offer customers the best possible partnership options—both together and independently. For standard products, we cooperate with major international market leaders, while also maintaining our own manufacturing for specialized products in Finland. Etola Group’s in-house manufacturing, employing a total of 300 people, ensures high delivery reliability for specialized products as well. Furthermore, the product expertise gained in manufacturing enhances our competence in standard products. Etra’s efficient logistics in delivering leading international quality brands, combined with our own specialized manufacturing, forms the foundation of our comprehensive customer service concept.
We continuously enhance our companies’ service capabilities, omnichannel experience, supply chain efficiency, and overall customer service concept. Our goal is to boost our client companies’ operating environment and competitiveness through efficient, high-expertise supply services. As a Finnish family-owned business, our investments are focused on Finland. Etra’s logistics center was expanded to 40,000 square meters with increased automation in 2024. We continuously modernize our branch network, service inventory solutions, and online services to deliver the best possible customer experience. In line with our core values, we also invest in environmentally friendly solutions.
Reliability, high quality, customer-centric service, sustainable development, as well as supporting the manufacturing industry and maintaining and building a welfare society, are key values for us—now and in the future.
History
Etola’s founder, Johan August Etholén, worked as the sales director at the Savio rubber factory in the early 1930s. When the Nokia rubber factory acquired the Savio plant, the entire management team was dismissed. It was the Depression era, and job opportunities were scarce. However, the father of six had saved a small amount of capital for a rainy day and created his own employment by purchasing three operating rubber shops in 1932.
One of the stores was located in Turku and two in Helsinki. Today, you can still visit the original Helsinki store on Iso Roobertinkatu. A few years later, operations began to expand, and Johan August Etholén started manufacturing simple rubber products, such as rubber gloves, on Aleksanterinkatu in central Helsinki.
From these humble beginnings, Etola Group has grown into a corporate group that currently employs around 1 800 people, approximately 100 of whom work in Etola retail stores.