Yep, I heard the same rumors. Reportedly 19 people were laid off today.
The negotiations won’t last longer than two weeks.
54 person-years and 44 job description changes.
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Tj Parikka really made things stink. He already has experience with restructuring, for example, on behalf of Delta-Auto and Laakkonen, and that went ‘splendidly’ there too. We’ll see how long the lights are still on in this bunker.
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Here are also Thomas Westerholm’s comments on the conclusion of Wetteri’s change negotiations.
Wetteri has concluded the change negotiations started at the beginning of September. The annual savings of approximately EUR 4 million achieved as a result of the negotiations were in line with the company’s previous announcement and thus expected. The news does not cause changes to our forecasts.
I’ve wondered about Wetteri’s antics before, and there’s still plenty to wonder about. First, the chairman of the board is replaced, then the CEO is fired and replaced by a veritable destroyer who once brought the powerful Laakkonen family to its knees and set a Finnish record for losses for Delta/Hedin. But let’s get back to brand dealerships. All dealership agreements were terminated during 2024 for all brands. So, getting Mercedes to Lahti and Skoda to Joensuu is not thanks to the current CEO; those decisions were made earlier. There’s no need to bask in their glory. At the same time, a highly profitable truck business is being sold off. It inevitably makes one wonder who is really making these decisions – are financiers behind it, as there’s constant talk of debt repayment? Go figure, but it’s very concerning.
Helkama and Hedin are related to this mess in the sense that Helkama will probably not let Hedin Group continue with Skoda for very long. There’s something behind it, as Hedin has first had its Espoo, then Helsinki and Tampere points taken away. At the same time, Helkama has turned its own dealerships into pure Skoda stores. Other branded used cars are then sold off in the dealers’ own auctions, which certainly doesn’t yield the best price, and at the same time, financing revenues are lost. This inevitably leads to a spiral: when a trade-in car results in a loss, the next one is priced too low to avoid a loss – but then no sales happen either. You don’t need to be a prophet to see that Skoda’s market share in Finland will no longer grow.
Mazda is another story, but it’s part of the same picture. A good and reliable car, a powerful brand from years past. However, the importer, Inchcape Motors Finland, has for years done everything it can to make reselling unprofitable, and service and spare part prices are astronomical. When a customer goes in for service once and gets the bill, they switch brands next time. Mazda is starting to run out of dealers. As someone once said – you shouldn’t kill the cow that gives milk. As an English operator, Inchcape probably doesn’t know all Finnish proverbs.
But it’s astonishing how many leaders have settled into the car industry who have no clue about business. To return to Wetteri, the new CEO immediately initiated change negotiations and reduced staff. Excel probably showed there were too many. But what does this mean for shareholders? In an industry that is entirely dependent on service, as service weakens, turnover also decreases – and new co-determination negotiations are again on the horizon. I don’t believe the current CEO can create an Excel sheet that would make the business grow. If I were a shareholder, I would quickly take what I can get.
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Here are Thomas’s Q3 preliminary comments as the company publishes its Q3 report on Thursday 
In Wetteri’s turnaround story, attention is focused on the company’s profitability and actions to improve it. We expect the Capital Markets Day on November 27 to provide more visibility into these actions. During the review period, we expect profitability to have weakened from the comparison period due to the changed group structure, but improved from the Q2 level due to ongoing efficiency programs and the improved result of the Maintenance Services segment.
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Wetteri’s CEO Pietu Parikka and CFO Maria Halttunen were interviewed by Thomas regarding the Q3 results.
Topics:
00:00 Introduction
00:16 ”Quarter of Changes”
01:45 Non-recurring expenses
02:40 Development of passenger car sales
04:06 Inventory level
05:05 Role of additional service sales
06:17 Maintenance services segment
08:19 Decrease in maintenance service sales revenue
09:24 Heavy equipment a bright spot of the quarter
10:27 Growth investments made
12:26 Upcoming Capital Markets Day
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Wetteri’s Q3 “turnaround” looks more like an accounting trick than a display of management skill – selling off profitable businesses, booking it as profit, and calling it an earnings improvement, even though the business foundation weakens while results are temporarily prettified; Parikka still doesn’t understand that a company and its people are not managed with spreadsheets but by building direction, trust, and growth potential – he seems only capable of cutting, selling, and shrinking, just like at Laakkonen and Hedin Automotive, where only losses remained without any sustainable growth, so this looks more like securing the interests of financiers than building the future for investors.
That’s why the market currently values the company so low: it doesn’t believe in future growth, strategic vision, or that management can turn the business onto a sustainable, profitable path. The valuation level tells what investors really think – not about promises, but about a lack of expectations. This direction is not about building a growth company but a temporary earnings makeup, and the future doesn’t look any better based on this.
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Insiders also seem to have been on the selling side, and I’m not surprised when looking at the company’s figures; the cash is starting to run out.. 
The company is making millions in losses per quarter, and its debt is enormous. If the company is to be saved, a share issue will likely be coming soon.
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Here are Thomas’s comments on Wetteri’s new guidance for 2026.
Wetteri announced on Wednesday that it would issue new earnings guidance for 2026. The company estimates revenue will grow and adjusted operating profit will turn profitable in 2026. The guidance is in line with our current forecasts, in which we expect the company to turn profitable next year.
EDIT:
And this one here too:
Thomas interviewed Wetteri’s CEO Pietu Parikka in connection with the CMD
Topics:
00:00 Introduction
00:13 Focus areas of the new strategy
00:53 Profit turnaround as the most important goal
01:22 Goal to be Finland’s most recommended multi-brand house
02:36 Investing in corporate culture
03:24 Investments in used car sales
05:50 New car sales
07:28 Developing maintenance services
09:00 Achieving revenue target
10:19 Inventory management
11:25 Profitability target
Here is Thomas’s company report after the CMD
Wetteri’s Capital Markets Day presented an updated ‘Unstoppable’ strategy, aimed at enabling an earnings turnaround. Based on this, profitable growth will be sought later. We have slightly raised our growth forecasts, as the financial targets are more growth-driven than our expectations. However, our forecasts are below the targets, as Wetteri needs to provide concrete evidence of the earnings turnaround progressing for confidence in the targets to strengthen. We reiterate our target price of EUR 0.18 and our Reduce recommendation.
Miksu and Thomas discussed, among other things, the company’s new strategy.
Topics:
00:00 Introduction
00:19 Two-part strategy
01:08 Focus on used car trade
02:11 Roles of different business operations in the new strategy
08:14 Ambitious financial targets
11:50 Challenges in the Finnish car market
13:44 Concrete results required
The 14.5 million euro income recognition from WetteriPower deals kept Wetteri “afloat” in January-September 2025. Without it, the result would have been -16,700,000€, or over -10c/share. Also, the heavy equipment maintenance operations in Eastern Finland have been sold. Wetteri has thus sold “the raisins and also the sugar” from the bun.
Since the “pent-up demand” for new cars is not materializing, it has now been decided to focus on profitability and used car sales. How will that succeed for a group that has never been able to do it? Why does almost no one besides me dare to state that Wetteri will not survive and faces bankruptcy after a restructuring attempt?!
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I mentioned a few messages above that Wetteri won’t go bankrupt, but a share issue will soon be arranged there, in which the ownership stake of current owners will be significantly diluted.. 
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Any guesses how long this company will keep the lights on?
Q4 is traditionally the most difficult in the automotive industry. Q3’s result was indeed grim to look at. Of course, a lot of people were laid off, which lightens the cost structure, but will even that be enough?
I went through the inventory a bit, and the long-standing junk was sold off through an auction. Is there still an inventory bubble? Monsieur Parikka at least claimed that one-off items burdened Q3’s result, did he specifically mean the inventory? Or what, I can’t say.
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Wetteri’s current loss rate is approx. -20m€ per year. Interest expenses approx. 10m€ per year. If we play with the idea that Wetteri would get 100,000,000€ through an offering and be debt-free, the loss rate would still be -10m€ per year. In reality, I don’t believe there are even such FOOLISH “investors” among Wetteri’s people that significant sums could be raised through an offering.
Wetteri’s main owner, Simula Invest, has invested a total of approx. 24 M€ in Wetteri. (Häqqvist deal approx. 11 M€ + redemption offer approx. 12 M€ and Herttakuutonen approx. 0.7 M€). Interest has accumulated along the way, estimated at 4-5 M€. The largest sale was 3.5 million shares to Kakkonen at 0.29€/share. The theoretical value of the ownership is now approx. 8 M€. It would be nice to know who/what finances Simula. The Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) is OF COURSE unable to obtain Simula Invest’s financial statement data. According to them, it’s such a cumbersome process. Merry Christmas while waiting for bankruptcies.
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Here are Thomas’s comments on the Finnish car trade last year.
In the Finnish car market, used car sales developed strongly in December, but a clear decline from the previous year was seen in new car registrations. Used car trade is at historical levels, but new car sales are languishing at a very low level. After a historically weak 2025, the automotive industry predicts healthy growth for new car sales in the current year.
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