In 1977, Antti Ranta had only begun his working career when he decided to become an entrepreneur and founded the business Konepaja Antti Ranta Oy. What had started as clearing equipment manufacturing soon began to expand to cover other kinds of road maintenance equipment.

Particularly in the 1980s the business began to respond to customers’ changing needs. Due to the demand from the customers, equipment became larger to allow more operating width. The customer-based approach has since been a core part of the business. The first export trade was in 1986, and the destinations were in Latvia and the Soviet Union.

As the need to expand the road maintenance equipment selection grew, in 1997 Konepaja acquired Ratemex Oy from Reijola, specialising in underbody scrapers and snow ploughs.

In 2015, Konepaja Antti Ranta Oy proceeded to acquire the fixed and current assets of Vikmet Oy. The business has accomplished significant developing and manufacturing of road maintenance equipment with products such as the snow-throwing ploughs, and the company’s tradition lives on under the current name of Ratemex Oy. The designing, manufacturing, selling and maintenance and repair services of the Vikmet and HOKKE products were included in the road maintenance operations of Ratemex Oy.

Previously the different kinds of road maintenance equipment were manufactured in different workshops. Later all of Ratemex’s road maintenance equipment operations were focused in one factory in Tolosenmäki, Kitee. Currently the selection of road maintenance equipment contains the durable high-quality brands AJO and HOKKE and products such as cutters, spreaders, underbody scrapers and side ploughs. Ratemex Oy employs six people at present.

Ratemex’s prior brand Lumex System was integrated into the brand AJO in 2015–2016, meaning that the equipment itself is still manufactured, and only the name has changed.