The Makers of Professional Fashion - Director of Sourcing and Logistics Jaana Vinnari leads Medanta toward its vision for the future.

In the second part of The Makers of Professional Fashion series, we introduce Jaana Vinnari, the procurement director. The title procurement director often brings to mind endless Excel spreadsheets, but Jaana demonstrates that the role can be visionary, people-centred and strongly future-oriented.

Jaana’s childhood dream of working in fashion has evolved into a career of more than 30 years at Finnish pioneer companies, including Seppälä, Tokmanni, Aleksi13 (part of the Luhta Group), and most recently, Marimekko – the most internationally recognised of Finnish fashion houses.

“I have always gravitated toward organisations that represent excellence. As a pioneer in professional workwear, Medanta is a natural continuation of that path. For me, Medanta represents an entirely new business area within the fashion industry. I am a good fit for Medanta, and Medanta is a good fit for me,” Vinnari concludes.

Jaana describes herself as a solution- and goal-oriented eternal idealist. “I have an endless curiosity about life – and especially about people. That has been a major reason why I wanted to work in fashion, as I knew it would allow me to meet interesting people.”

Despite the company, the core principles of a Procurement director's role remain largely the same. In her position, Jaana leads Medanta’s procurement and logistics team, which is responsible for the company’s sourcing and production across different parts of the world.

The role requires strong planning capabilities, data analysis and close collaboration with sales and production partners to ensure operations are cost-efficient and optimised. Her weeks are filled with project management, strategic procurement planning and the search for new sourcing partners as needed. 

Leadership built on trust

Jaana has long experience in leading diverse teams. She finds it meaningful that everything does not have to be done alone, but that each team member’s expertise can be fully utilised. This, in turn, frees up her own resources for strategic, future-focused work. “I hope that learning stays with me for as long as I live. It is never a failure for a leader not to know something,” she says.

Jaana describes the development of her team members as the most rewarding part of her work. As a leader, she strives to ensure that everyone in her team understands their own full potential.

“My greatest success this year has been seeing one team member move from one role to another and boldly take on an entirely new kind of responsibility. In addition, they share business-critical information with us that others may not necessarily have access to. I am especially proud of them, and at the same time, I feel there has been something truly special in the way we have worked together. I have earned their trust, and that is one of the best Christmas gifts of this year.”

Work fashion guided by values

Medanta’s values: quality, responsibility, beauty and integrity, guide the work of Jaana and her team. Beauty is often understood purely as aesthetics, but for Jaana, it carries a deeper meaning as a value: “Creating things together is beautiful in itself. And of course, when we design and produce our work fashion and people wear it, I hope they feel a sense of self-worth and that they feel valuable.”

The terms work fashion and workwear evoke different associations, but at Medanta, work fashion is strongly connected to professional pride and respect - values that are deeply intertwined. “I see workwear as an industrial segment within the fashion field that could have much greater visibility. Workwear is essential for many people whose roles require specific clothing. How we can bring comfort, functionality and well-being into workwear is an important topic and, in fact, a growing trend.”

Quality is the best act of responsibility

Production and procurement play a crucial role in the sustainability of a garment. The choices made define the product’s DNA: where it is manufactured, which materials are used, and how the processes are carried out. Over the past year, Medanta has made significant progress in developing its sustainability efforts.

Customer expectations are a key driver of Medanta’s continuous development. An increasing number of customers now require product-level carbon footprint data. In early 2025, Jaana and her team finalised a carbon footprint calculation tool for Medanta in collaboration with Infine Oy. Using this tool, we have calculated the carbon footprint of Medanta’s key products, enabling a new level of transparency and more meaningful communication with our customers. All of these efforts are encapsulated in Medanta’s statement: “Quality is the best act of responsibility.”

Over the past year, the quality has been a major focus for Jaana’s team. Together, they have systematised their ways of working and taken a deeper dive into quality assurance. A quality manual is also currently in development, defining precise quality assurance processes for every stage of production.

The recently published Medanta Magazine sustainability edition was, in Jaana’s view, another important milestone. “The sustainability magazine is truly impressive. As a team, we had gathered a great deal of information, and now all of that knowledge has been refined into a format that works beautifully on the pages of the magazine. It’s incredibly rewarding to reflect on where we started and to now hold a finished publication in our hands.”

The roadmap for growth 

Jaana has always had a clear vision of the future and moves toward it with confidence and courage. Medanta is in a strong phase of growth and, as a pioneer, has successfully established its position in the market. “I can already see far into the future, because I’m an idealistic visionary,” Jaana says with a laugh. Impatient by nature, her thoughts are already in 2027 – the roadmap is in place, and the journey forward is made step by step together with the team. “For us, growth requires well-functioning processes. Without them, development simply isn’t possible.”

For Jaana, the most important goals are protecting, clarifying and continuously developing Medanta’s DNA. The company has not stood still, but has invested boldly – investments that have carried Medanta forward along its growth path. International expansion is also visible on the horizon as a natural next step. “Even jeans started as workwear and went on to become a massive global phenomenon,” she reflects.

What is your favourite work tool?

“Interaction – because that’s where the best ideas and outcomes are created. Being genuinely interested in people, in what they do and how they do it, is the only way to truly be present and engaged. Interaction is one of my favourite words. In procurement, interaction is an extremely important tool, as it enables the building of strong and successful partnerships,” Jaana explains.