Visit to Kouvolan Lakritsi: Finland’s greatest liquorice

Vol 27, Issue 18, 14 February 2025

On Tuesday, 11th of February, we visited the company Kouvolan Lakritsi, as part of our “New Business Environment” course. We had a chance to learn more about the company and its operations. 

The executive director of the firm, Timo Nisula, made a presentation, telling us a story of the liquorice and the company itself. Timo presented an ancient history of the liquorice, when it has been used in the field of medicine. Furthermore, he informed students about the ingredients of the product, which are liquorice extract, sugar, and a binder. Afterwards, he went in the story about different people who used the candy in various purposes. Timo even mentioned that Napoleon Bonaparte was addicted to it for quite a long time. The liquorice was believed to brighten the skin, reduce the amount of wrinkles, and soothe the nerves.  

Later, Timo shared the story of the company itself, which is starting from 1906 – the year Kouvolan Lakritsi was founded in. It has first been established in Vyborg, during the World War II transferred to Uusikaupunki, and since 1960 the entire production is concentrated in Kouvola. 1960 is the exact year when the English consultant H. Knoch changed the recipe and the company kick-started its growth, providing even the better taste to their consumers.  

At first, the company was named “English taste”, after the H. Knoch, as he had his origins from England. However, at that time most Finns could not speak English that good and among themselves were naming company according to the city name. Later on, the company owners took a notice of it and this is how it became the greatest Kouvolan Lakritsi as it is now! 

The company’s secret of keeping the product fresh is just simply not to warehouse it! They make it, pack and distribute straight away. This is an absolute great way to manage the quality, as well as customers’ satisfaction, of their product. Their motto is “We make either best or nothing!” after all. 

In the spring of 2008 Timo Nisula bought the company along with his partner Mikko Vilenius. In 2014 Timo became a sole owner of the company, putting all the efforts by himself. The Timo’s secret of managing such great company is putting himself on the place of customer, which means on the very bottom of the company, to get their outside perspective of the firm’s operations and product. “The key number one is consumer” — as Timo says.  

Such attitude helped him strive and win several awards over the years. One of them is “The best licorice in Finland”, given by MTV programme “Best of Finland”. Moreover, it was nominated as the best liquorice producer in the world in 2020, 2021, 2022 by the British magazine LUXLife.  

It was an extremely valuable presentation for all students and helped us understand more about the importance of passion, love, and approach. The main lesson I gained was concentrating on making people happy, instead of just working on the occupation. After all, every business is about people and their satisfaction and happiness.