| Image Alt: | Former Tampella factory in Tampere, Finland; taken from Ratinansuvanto |
Oy Tampella Ab was a Finnish heavy industry manufacturer, a maker of paper machines, locomotives, military weaponry, as well as wood-based products such as packaging. The company was based mainly in the Naistenlahti district of the city of Tampere.
Until 1963 the company was called Tampereen Pellava- ja Rauta-Teollisuus Osake-Yhtiö (The Flax and Iron Industry of Tampere Stock Company). In Swedish it was called Tammerfors Linne-&Jern-Manufakt.A.B.. In 1993 the company’s forest and packaging business was bought by Enso-Gutzeit Oy.
Tampereen Pellava- ja Rautateollisuus Oy was a company based on the merger in 1861 of two factories - a linen mill and foundry - situated by the Tammerkoski rapids. After a modest start it grew to become an institution employing thousands of people in the centre of Tampere alone, and more in its other units. In the 1950s the company's name was shortened to Tampella. The company went into decline during the 1980s and eventually went bankrupt in 1990. This was at a time just before the economic recession of the early 1990s. After bankruptcy the company's operations were split and sold to various, mostly international, owners.
Among the company's products was the manufacture of linen: in later times this was not an important product, but the company continued it for apparently historic reasons. However, its main concern was iron and steel products. These included grave crosses (in the very early days), guns, mining drills, paper machines, locomotives (both steam and diesel), steam boilers and turbines. The company also produced cardboard and packaging at its Inkeroinen mill.
The industrial activity, under the new ownership, in the centre of Tampere gradually ceased and the machines finally stopped operating in 2000. Soon after this many of the buildings in the industrial complex have been taken into new uses as museums, cultural centres, artist's workshops etc. though some had already been demolished. Other buildings were converted to new commercial uses, but many were demolished to make way for blocks of flats.
Together with an Israeli cooperative organisation Solel Boneh, Tampella also founded the Israeli defence contractor Soltam, in 1950.[1]