CITYCON BUILDS SHOPPING CENTRES OF THE FUTURE

Goal to be a part of society

Citycon is the leading owner, developer and manager of grocery store-led, city-based shopping centres in the Nordic and Baltic countries. The Iso Omena Shopping Centre in Matinkylä in Espoo owned and managed by Citycon is the company’s largest recently completed development project in Finland. During the project, the shopping centre was expanded by integrating it into the adjacent new metro and bus station. Now, the shopping centre offers its customers an area of 80,000 m2 full of different services.

Senior Property Manager Esa Sihvonen of the Iso Omena Shopping Centre shares the company’s visions
for the future by explaining that shopping centres are being developed no longer to include just shops and restaurants but also cinemas and public services, such as libraries and health centres.

“The goal is to be a part of society and offer a full range of services, not just a place for shopping,” says Esa. Managers of shopping centres are increasingly aiming to ‘capture’ their customers and to turn them into loyal customers of their shopping centre. Esa has had a long career at Citycon, performing the dual role of property manager and carrying out group-level duties of Citycon Finland Oy involving framework agreements and competitive tendering for service providers.

“We chose Europress as our partner due to their responsiveness to customer needs and flexibility to change.”

waste management agreement

Matti Turunen, CEO, Europress (on the left) and Esa Sihvonen shaking hands after signing the agreement.

Considerable benefits and strong cooperation

In March 2016, Citycon and Europress signed a waste handling equipment cooperation agreement that further strengthens the already excellent cooperation between the companies.

“We chose Europress as our partner above all due to their responsiveness to customer needs, flexibility to change and the good quality and domestic manufacture of their equipment. Europress is constantly developing its equipment and proposes solutions for its customers. The personnel are highly competent and the service functions operate without a hitch,” Esa Sihvonen says, listing the criteria for selecting the partner.

Sihvonen warmly recommends the equipment and maintenance agreement to other customers of Europress:

“From the client’s perspective, the cooperation agreement is very good and comprehensive in terms of its content. The agreement makes acquisitions and correct budgeting easier when competitive tendering is not necessary and resources become available for other functions,” he says.

During the agreement period, the equipment base can be updated as conditions change to match changing needs.

Waste handling fully revamped at Myyrmanni Shopping Centre

There are also several other Citycon shopping centres in the Helsinki region. One of them is Myyrmanni in Vantaa. The framework agreement led to full renovation of waste handling – some of the old compactors were outdated.

“I am so glad that we were able to replace the old equipment with new Europress SMART compactors and balers. Now, I am able to monitor emptying intervals and status of the equipment from my phone. Due to the messages sent by the equipment, I am constantly on top of things,” says Property Manager Maiju Lassila
of Myyrmanni.

Maiju Lassila, jätepaalain, muovijäte
Property Manager Maiju Lassila is excited about the separate collection of clear plastic that has recently started at Myyrmanni.

Lassila has made full use of the remote services. The messages keep her in the loop when the container starts to fill up and when the emptying has been performed no matter where she is in the shopping centre or out on a business trip. When a user reports a problem situation, Lassila uses the remote connection to always first check whether an emergency stop button has been accidentally pressed. Minor problems are quickly resolved on site and there have been no major ones.

Myyrmanni is also a pioneer in equipment choices. Europress’ most recent Mega series compactors have been selected for cardboard, and incineration waste is collected in CombiMax waste compactors equipped with a floating roof solution. The maintenance is included in a full leasing agreement that helps with budgeting of waste handling.

“A large fill opening and a well-designed loading dock area with railings are essential in keeping the sorting point clean,” says Lassila.

Clear plastic is now separately sorted and two Balex-30 balers were acquired for the purpose. In order to facilitate baling, the balers have been programmed to send messages to the serviceman, when the bale starts to fill up. This way, a full bale can always be removed in time and filling can continue almost without interruption.

Flexible solution for a pop-up shopping centre

One of Citycon’s Espoo locations, Shopping Centre Lippulaiva, is being entirely rebuilt. During the construction project, a temporary shopping centre called Pikkulaiva will serve customers. It was opened in summer 2017. Europress delivered a waste management setup to the pop-up shopping paradise with a long-term approach: the same setup will also serve the new, twice bigger Lippulaiva to be opened in three years time.

“Cooperation with the Europress Sales Department worked extremely smoothly. Their response times are short, and I have always been assisted and my questions answered quickly,” says Property Manager Kimmo Hyttinen.

waste management in shopping centre

Citycon Oyj

• The largest listed company in the Nordic countries specialising in shopping centres
• Market leader in Finland and one of the largest companies in the sector in Sweden and Norway
• Location of the shopping centres: Finland 20, Sweden 9, Norway 32, the Baltic Countries and Denmark 3
• The supplier of waste handling equipment in Finland is Europress Group Ltd. It has also delivered SMART equipment to shopping centres in Norway.