On 19 February 1913, a businessman named Alfred Onninen established a plumbing business in Turku that operated under the name A. Onninen.
The focus of operations was transferred to Helsinki in 1927, in connection with which the Onninen Plumbing Company was established. Wholesale trading, which was started in the 1920s, overtook contracting from the early 1930s.
After the Second World War, the company began to build a network of business locations all across Finland. Municipal engineering became part of business operations in the 1950s, followed by ventilation and air conditioning in the next decade. The 1970s saw the start of electrical business operations, deliveries to industrial clients and project exports. The company began its international expansion.
The Are name has strong roots. In 1924, Keski-Suomen Sähköliike – which later became Are Oy – began its operations in Jyväskylä, Finland. From its origins in the electrical business and contracting, Are Oy grew into a successful diversified company operating in Finland. Electrical contracting abroad began in 1969. The company’s business operations expanded and exports to the Soviet Union and the Middle East grew vigorously up to the 1980s.
In the mid-90s, major M&A transactions were carried out, changing the ownership of the company and transferring Are to the new Onvest Group. Onvest’s subsidiary Onninen Oy focused on the wholesale trade, while Are Group focused on contracting. The President and CEO of Onvest, Maarit Toivanen-Koivisto, who has the honorary title of vuorineuvos, became the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Are in 2009.
Are has continued to develop its services in the in the 21st century. Are has expanded from building services contracting to property and renovation services. In international operations, Are has shifted from project exports to local operations via its subsidiary ZAO Are. Are is now one of the largest companies in Finland in each of its sectors.
In 2013, Are and the entire Onvest Group will celebrate the first one hundred years of operation of the family business that started from Alfred Onninen’s plumbing company.