From Askøy Vask to Ability — same owner, same ambition.

We started Ability in 1991 on Askøy outside Bergen. The company was called Askøy Vask back then, and it was founded by me and my brothers. I have led the business since the very first day. Through more than thirty years of growth and name changes, one thing has remained unchanged: the ownership is Norwegian, private and family-held.

To me, this has a direct practical meaning for those we deliver to. Decisions concerning the contract are made in Norway — not at a group headquarters in another country, and not in an international matrix organisation. The path from operations manager to me is short. When something needs to be resolved quickly, there is always an available person with the mandate to decide, and the one who owns the company is the same one who answers for the delivery.

I see the continuity most clearly in our customer relationships, not just in the ownership structure. Growth has followed the customers, not the other way around. From our starting point on Askøy we first built up the Bergen area, before moving east to Oslo in 2005 and on to Rogaland in 2006. Today we deliver services from Lindesnes to Hammerfest. Where we do not have a presence of our own, we work with permanent partners — and we always state clearly which parts of a delivery that applies to.

We are around 1,800 employees from more than 75 nationalities, and many have been with us for a long time. I believe that is a precondition for quality in this industry: the cleaner who knows the building, the chef who knows the guests and the operations manager who knows the customer deliver better than someone who is new every season.

We have documented the ambition for quality along the way. We have delivered Nordic Swan-labelled cleaning since March 2016, and the licence has been renewed and is valid until December 2029. We are certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001, and we have been a member of the UN Global Compact since 2012.

In 2021 we brought the business together under the name Ability. The name was new. The ownership, the management and the professional community were the same — and it is still me who answers for what we deliver.