Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia said in a statement Monday it would slash up to 285 jobs at its factory in Salo in southwestern Finland.

"Nokia is planning to develop the operating mode of its Salo plant to ensure production is focused fully on the high-value smartphone market, especially in Europe," Nokia said.

"Salo is a crucial part of Nokia's global manufacturing network," said in the statement Juha Putkiranta, head of manufacturing and logistics at Nokia.

The shopkeepers at one small Helsinki shop are attempting to start a shopping revolution.

Remember the days when the local shopkeeper knew you by your first name and offered kids a taste of fresh bread every time they walked in clinching to their mother’s hems? Stepping into the small shop is like stepping right back into the good old days. As soon as I’m in the door I am greeted with a smile and offered a cup of steaming fair-trade coffee to warm my freezing fingers. This is not special treatment, but the genuine warmth with which each customer is treated at Juuren Puoti, The Juuri Shop.

Two snowflakes meet. The one asks the other: “Hey, what are you doing now?” The other one answers: “ I am flying to Helsinki. I am gonna meet some friends and we are gonna make a little chaos there. And you?” The other responds: “ Well, I’m flying to Frankfurt and going to make a huge chaos there all by myself.”

One good thing about Finland is its “weatherproofness”. Sure, there is an increased number of fender benders during and after heavy snowstorms and iced roads even in Finland, but these are just collateral incidences. When it snows, life as we know it still goes on. Whereas in ...

A new trend in sales techniques has come to Helsinki’s shopping centres.

For some, they are pushy salespeople, to others, entrepreneurs willing to take a risk in a new country. But however you view them, it looks as if the sales representatives accosting passers-by in the capital’s main shopping centres are here to stay.

One might think that pursuing this sales technique in Finland is a risky strategy, given the Finns’ twin reputation for shyness and sisu. Indeed, observing the salespeople at work, it seems as if few Finns are willing to stop and listen to their sales pitch, some ignoring them outright, others responding with a blunt “no”.

The Helsinki Flamenco Festival brings a breath of warmth amongst the wintry chill.

A FLAMENCO festival is perhaps one of the last things one would expect to come across in the heart of Finnish winter, but this is exactly what takes place in Helsinki beginning of February.

According to Emilia Aho of Helsinki Flamenco Association, the festival is organised in the winter to embrace the contrast of the passionate art with the freezing weather. “The artists find it quite exotic to perform here in February, though this year we are hoping that the weather will ease or they might not be able to leave their hotel rooms!”

The new Veikkausliiga contract signals big changes in the way Finnish football is run.

Finnish club football seems to be on the cusp of some major upheaval. The arrival of a paying broadcaster and all that entails in terms of fixture lists and revenue have ensured that the media coverage and economics of the sport will change substantially over the next year. The recent announcement of the 2010 match schedule has also caused rejoicing among many Finnish football friends, a reaction that requires a little bit of explanation.

Ice hockey aficionados beware: another major distraction available!

With the Vancouver Olympic Games imminent, hockey fans around the globe are again tantalised before TV screens. Endless debates ensue and bets are placed on statistical details, such as who scored how many goals for which team or who hails from whose hometown.

A great source of smart stats to feed that addiction is now available at QuantHockey.com, a website that has been up and running since September 2008. A brainchild of Finnish...

The first batch of financial reports gives signs of optimism, but some sectors continue to struggle.

The earliest financial releases by Finnish companies show that the long slide in earnings may be ending. Some of the largest firms reported better than expected results, while many smaller businesses continue to suffer.

As it is now earnings season, investors will be scouring through piles of releases to see how Finnish companies are doing. Since reading financial statements is a fine art, here’s a helpful glossary to make sense of what firms are really saying.

Better than expected – We thought we were doomed.

Challenging market situation – We have no idea what’s going on or what to do about it.

Credit downgrade – The ratings agencies figured out how much trouble we are in.

The Ministry of Employment and the Economy believes that the worst is yet to come.

In the near future we will see how much harder this year will become, says Minister of Labour Anni Sinnemäki (Greens). The reason is that until now businesses have tried to avoid layoffs.

This approach may not be possible to sustain in the future, and the pressure is mounting on the public sector. According to Sinnemäki the government intends to increase its efforts in managing employment in its expedited supplementary budget in March. More detailed methods have not yet been agreed on.

House buyers in Greater Helsinki are already paying 3,071 euros for a square metre in an older dwelling.

According to preliminary data from completed transactions in the final quarter of 2009, the prices of dwellings in old blocks of flats and in terraced houses went up by 2.8 per cent in the whole country. In Greater Helsinki prices rose by 3.4 per cent and in the rest of the country by 2.2 per cent. In comparison with the corresponding period of the year before, prices in Greater Helsinki went up by a whopping 10.5 per cent. In the rest of the country the number was 5.7 per cent, ...