From Wholesale Trader to Expert Organisation

The history of Hansel Ltd can be considered to comprise three main phases.

Hansel’s roots lead back nearly 70 years to the Government Procurement Centre, which operated for over half a century until the mid-1990s, when its operating model was reformed.

Due to the corporatisation of its operations, the centre was replaced in 1995 by Kauppatalo Hansel Oy. The company invested strongly in developing new trade models, particularly in electronic trading concepts.

In its current form, Hansel Ltd was established in 2003, when the company was transferred from the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance. Its old operations were closed down during 2004, and new activities were channelled towards the role of a central procurement unit in line with the European Union’s procurement directives, in order to support the fulfilment of the State Procurement Strategy.

Today, Hansel Ltd is the central procurement unit of the Finnish Government and handles the framework agreements that cover the entire government’s procurement functions. Hansel has markedly developed and updated its operations in the last decade. The company’s core functions involve running the tendering processes for procurement, handling the procurement contracts arising from these processes, and selling and marketing these contracts.

Hansel Ltd is a non-profit-making company.