Lars Henning Furu becomes Ability's new Chief Procurement Officer.

Ability is strengthening its procurement work and has hired Lars Henning Furu as Chief Procurement Officer. He joins from the Toma Group and has long experience from top management at companies including Peppes Pizza, Selecta and Sodexo, where he served as Managing Director. He starts at Ability on January 1, 2027 and will join the group management.

We are pleased to welcome Lars Henning Furu as Chief Procurement Officer at Ability from January 1, 2027. He will join the group management and report to CEO Frode Standahl. As Chief Procurement Officer, he will be responsible for the group's procurement and for our cooperation with suppliers. He will ensure that we make good, profitable and responsible purchases that support the quality of our services, our sustainability work and our goal of profitable growth.

Joins from the Toma Group

Lars joins from the Toma Group, where he has worked for 10 years, first as head of the canteen division and for the past 7 years as Director of Procurement and Projects. Throughout this time he has been part of the management team for Toma Facility Norge and Toma Camps and reported to the Monsen family, who own the Toma Group. He has also held board positions in Toma and in NHO (the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise). In NHO he has, among other things, chaired NHO's industry committee for food service and meal services and served on the board of NHO Reiseliv Innkjøpskjeden.

Long experience from food, service and facility management

Lars has spent his entire career in industries where service, food and good customer delivery are at the centre. He started as a salesperson at ISS and moved on from there into management roles. He has since led businesses in Norway and the Nordic region, including as chief executive at Sodexo, Peppes Pizza and Holmedals, which provides food services in Bergen.

He has led several turnarounds and built up new businesses. He has also led large organizations with many employees. At Sodexo Norway and Denmark he took the company from loss to profit in a short time. He has also led Nordic cooperation on sales, contracts and sharing of best practice within the Sodexo group. Lars also worked for 7 years at PepsiCo, responsible for the Nordic food service market, and helped relaunch Pepsi in the Norwegian market, including the launch of Pepsi Max.

Knows our services from the inside

Lars has experience from cleaning, food services and facility management, both as a manager and on boards. He therefore knows our services and what it takes to deliver them well. He has long experience with negotiations, contracts and restructuring. This is important expertise as we work to secure good agreements with our suppliers and contribute to quality and profitability in everything we deliver.

Good agreements and sustainable solutions

«I am incredibly pleased with the trust I have been given by joining Ability. The people I have met during the recruitment process have inspired me a great deal, and local ownership and exciting growth plans are a particular source of motivation. I want Ability's procurement department to be a support function for the other departments in the company, by making everyday work towards customers as simple, painless and professional as possible – so that this contributes to high quality in Ability's services. I care about good discussions and well-anchored decisions before action is taken, and I look forward to working with the other departments in Ability that are affected by various procurement processes – here the specialist teams, operations and the sustainability function in particular will be important partners for me», says Lars Henning Furu.

«I am quite certain that my procurement experience from Toma, combined with all the skilled employees at Ability, will together find good solutions that lead to good purchasing agreements, better margins and liquidity, as well as sustainable solutions. I want to begin my work at Ability by meeting key employees and mapping what they expect from the procurement function, to better understand how procurement can contribute to a simpler and better everyday working life and help improve the company's margins. I also look forward to taking part, together with Frode and the group management, in discussions where I can draw on my previous experience from the industry to develop Ability further», he continues.

«Lars brings valuable experience from procurement, top management and restructuring to the group management. He knows what it takes to create good agreements that strengthen quality, profitability and sustainability alike. We look forward to having him on the team», says CEO Frode Standahl.