The year ahead is full of challenges!

28. January 2025

2024 was a productive and successful year for our company. We can confidently say that SOL Baltics is sustainable, evolving, and highly competitive. These three aspects provide employees, owners, clients, and partners with a strong sense of confidence and satisfaction, making cooperation with SOL and our reputation in the market valuable.

What lies ahead this year?

We will actively continue with our strategic focus, which is SUSTAINABILITY.
Our actions and decisions aim to:

• Care for the environment and be an open and honest organization;
• Support the growth and confidence of SOL employees in their daily lives;
• Improve our business processes and implement innovative solutions;
• Help clients and partners succeed in their core business.

These may sound like ambitious slogans, but if we aim to be SUSTAINABLE (and we do), all our daily activities and decisions must—and indeed are—guided by the above principles.

SOL’s challenges in the economic landscape

Client portfolios, wages and productivity, taxes—these three areas are undoubtedly the keywords for SOL Baltics this year in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Regarding the client portfolio, our focus is on business clients, including public procurement clients. Our strength here lies in competencies and the diversity of our current client portfolio. Year after year, we have been increasingly effective in sharing valuable expertise and best practices between the three countries and standardizing the organization of services.

I am particularly pleased that one client segment where we have been a valued partner and have extensive experience is the manufacturing sector. For clients in this sector, service concepts and know-how are critically important, and they value the confidence provided by a reliable partner.

In addition to acquiring new clients, a central theme this year is expanding cooperation with existing clients, where the primary contribution comes from business unit leaders and their teams.

Wages and productivity – this pair of terms inevitably accompanies our development and competitiveness. It is no secret that wages in the property maintenance sector are generally below average (especially in cleaning services). At the same time, increases in minimum and average wages significantly impact us. On one hand, wages are the largest cost item in the services we provide, and on the other hand, we aim to pay our employees as well as possible.

At SOL, we base our wage calculation and payment on the principle of fairness and timeliness. We wish all market participants would act similarly, but even today, such honest and accurate behavior must be considered a strength rather than the norm.

In 2025, the introduction of various new taxes and increased tax rates also presents us with several challenges in running a successful and sustainable business. At the same time, it is understandable that maintaining small countries is expensive, and freedom and security are not free.

We strive to focus on the things we can change in our operations (such as activities with clients, employees, and efficiency). By doing so wisely and skillfully, we have achieved success and created added value for the company.

Regarding taxes, we can only hope that the state uses the money as purposefully and effectively as possible.

Priit Sipelgas
Managing Director of Estonia