It all started when Helge Ahola realized that there was a demand that he could fulfil using his truck. In Finland in the 1950s there was a lot of cargo to be transported, including gravel and other useful things, which would become the raw materials for an affluent country. For Helge, this meant hard and honest work accompanied with determination and real professional skills; it was a business that his sons Hans, Nils and Rolf would join later.
The family is the foundation for all Ahola operations.
1955 – Helge Ahola starts his transport business.
1965 – Oil transport for Neste and Union starts and continues until 1996.
1972 – Hans Ahola, the current CEO, starts working for the company as a driver of a gravel truck.
1973 – The first cross-border transport to Sweden.
1977 – Hans Ahola becomes his father’s business partner.
Cross-border transport services for industrial and retailing customers were to become the key areas of the company’s business, which led to a fundamental question concerning the long-term strategy in the 1980s: Is it about transporting goods in trucks or providing an unbroken chain of responsibility for logistics? Customized and comprehensive solutions were seen as a great opportunity in comparison with the more traditional transport services. The company focused on producing added value to its customers and other interest groups by providing efficient Europe-wide transport and logistics services.
1981 – The first service building is constructed. Hans Ahola brings his brothers Lars, Nils and Rolf to the company.
1982 – Helge Ahola dies.
1986-1988 – A turning point in the company’s profitability development: a decision to focus on own direct transport services: The Online concept is created.
1991 – Ahola Transport founds a subsidiary in Umeå, Sweden.
Goods need to move, even in the post-industrial information society, but this must happen more quickly, effectively and cost-efficiently – using an IT-based Enterprise Resource Planning system. The strategic decision of the 1990s was: Order the system from a supplier of IT services or do it in-house.
1992-1996 – A period of strong growth.
1996 – A decision to start developing a transport planning system, i.e. a system to support the optimization of the volumes of transported goods. Attracs project starts.
2002 – The company is awarded the ISO 14001 certificate.
2003 – The Attracs ERP system is introduced.
2004 – The company is awarded the ISO 9001 certificate. Transport operations expand to the Baltic countries and Baltic Translog is established.
2008 – A transport link is opened in Nykvarn, Sweden.
2009 – A new structure is created for the Group. Attracs is incorporated.
2014 – Members of staff and the next generation of the family subscribe for preferred shares. The group is restructured before going public in a suitable place of trading. Ahola Transport is the parent company of the group, which includes all logistics-bound companies, including Oy Attracs Ab.
2015 – A decision to submit a listing application to Aktietorget. A decision to extend the ownership base by an issue of shares for investors in Finland and Sweden. Ahola becomes a public company.
2016 – The company’s share listing is transferred from Sweden’s Aktietorget to Nasdaq First North in Helsinki.
2017 – Ahola’s new Service Tower planning and control center is taken into use at the Kokkola head office. The Service Tower has wall-mounted screens placed all around the space from which the operational staff can monitor data and information necessary for their work in real time.
2018 – Ahola Transport and truck manufacturer Scania announce a strategic cooperation agreement that will bring new transport technology to the Nordic roads. In the project, which also involves university and authority bodies, so-called platooning, i.e. semi-autonomous driving of trucks on public roads is tested.
2018 – The Group acquires a majority stake in the project management and installation services company AT Install Oy.
With the acquisition, Ahola Special’s business expands with project management and installation services.
2019 – A new office for Baltic operations is opened in Tallinn.
2019 – EU emission targets for 2030 achieved for Ahola Transport. The University of Oulu confirms the calculations and the emission reduction figures are certified in 2020 by DNV.
2020 – Ahola Transport delists and returns to a family business.
2021 – The brand is unified and updated, with the reform the Group’s segments (Ahola Transport, Ahola Special and Ahola Digital) are now united by the Ahola name and brand.