3 Friends makes Finland’s best ice cream and invests in risk management

Images: ©3 Kaveria

It’s a busy time at 3 Friend’s ice cream factory in Kivikonlaita, Helsinki. The factory produces a huge amount of Finland’s favourite ice cream in cones, bars and cups. Risk management plays an important role in the company’s high-quality products and safe production. In 2021, they stepped it up by introducing the Rego risk management solution.

Some 5,000 ice cream cones per hour

3 Friends’s story began back in 2012 in one of the founders’ home kitchen, with an ice cream machine ordered online. Over a decade later, the scale of production has changed, but the core idea has remained the same: making ice cream from real, natural ingredients without extra additives.

Ice cream made by these friends has permanently made its way into Finns’ hearts and freezers, and the company has seen remarkable growth over the years. The small producer has become a company employing around 50 people. As production and staff numbers have grown, the company has also faced increased space requirements, which is why production moved to new premises in Kivikonlaita, Helsinki, in 2019. Ice cream cones, for example, can now be manufactured at a rate of up to 5,000 pieces per hour, and the number for bars is even higher.

“Our growth has allowed us to solve some very positive problems. Our demand has risen steadily, and even as we speak, our hands are full. Not all this growth is seasonal, so we recently began working in two shifts,” says Production Director Micael Saranpää.

In the food industry, quality and safety are the cornerstones for all companies, and the same goes for 3 Friends. Work safety has also been taken into account from the get-go in the new production facilities.

“Occupational safety was considered right from the design and construction phase. The floor was roughened to prevent slips, for example. Sometime after implementation, we did a staff survey, and based on the results, we roughened the floor even more. It is important for us to have a free and open atmosphere, and we always encourage staff to bring their concerns and thoughts to our attention,” Saranpää says.

In 2021, the company also introduced the Rego risk management system. The goal was to enable further improvements in occupational safety and paying more attention to safety issues in everyday work.

“These goals have been met. We have become more safety conscious with Rego. The process of safety assessments, for example, is clear and straightforward with Rego – partly because it’s based on the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health assessment form,” says Production Manager Kimmo Karonen.

“We have received explicit, positive feedback from both our management and inspectors of the Regional State Administrative Agency. They stated that Rego is a great system.”

Production Director Micael Saranpää, 3 Friends

Easy entries, responsibility allocation and scheduling

In addition to making the most delicious and highest quality ice cream in Finland, 3 Friends also want to have a strong emphasis on occupational safety. Compliance with legal requirements is an absolute prerequisite, but on top of that, the company wants to ensure the overall safety and comfort of its employees.

Production Director Micael Saranpää is responsible for overall production at 3 Friends, both on a daily basis and in terms of long-term planning. Production Manager Kimmo Karonen is responsible for practical work arrangements and staff well-being. Both are also the company’s safety and health representatives, which means that they continuously monitor, evaluate and develop processes.

Safety work has also borne fruit. At the time of interview, the company is in its 769^th consecutive day without an accident. The record so far is 1,200 days.

“We have very few accidents at work, especially the kind that trigger an insurance claim or otherwise require further investigation,” says Saranpää.

The aim is to discuss and deal with issues as transparently as possible, and to allow employees to have a major say in safety matters. The Rego system has contributed to the work by facilitating notification and reporting.

“For us, some of the best benefits of the system have included incident assessments and safety walks. After some initial training, it has been easy to enter notifications, allocate them to the right people and schedule them,” Karonen says.

“We have also found it useful that the system reminds us of unfinished tasks. When nothing happens, occupational safety easily becomes an area that is overlooked due to supposedly more important matters. And then a ‘whoops’ happens. A little extra pressure from the system is just the thing we want,” Saranpää states.

3 Friends has been very satisfied with Rego. It has helped them to approach safety issues in a systematic and practical way. For example, it allows risk level assessment at any given moment and identifying the means to reduce the level.

“We have received explicit, positive feedback from both our management and inspectors of the Regional State Administrative Agency. They stated that Rego is a great system. Working with Qreform has been easy and straightforward overall. We definitely want to continue using systems that support our own production and operations, and our ambition is to gradually start using more Rego modules,” Saranpää says.

What is ice cream professionals’ no. 1 recommendation for summer 2025?

“Hazelnut & Chocolate Truffle cone,” says Production Manager Kimmo Karonen right off the bat.

“That’s right. It’s pretty damn good,” Production Director Micael Saranpää confirms.