Our story starts with Per Uddén

The story of the foundation Promobilia is nearly linked to doctor and inventor Per Uddén (1925-2002). As he was working as a doctor, he rapidly got interested in mobility problems. Short before his death in 2002, Per Uddén was honoured by the Karolinska institute that appointed him to honorary doctor for his insets for the mobility of disabled persons and the dyslexics.

Per Uddén is most famous for his efforts for the mobility disabled persons. When working as a doctor in Kälarne and Timrå, he met people who needed better wheelchairs than those that were available in the sixties. Per Uddén meant that the wheelchair should give the disabled persons a more active life. The wheelchair should be easy to displace oneself with, both indoor and outdoor, on roads or even in the country. Unhappy with what was available Per Uddén didn’t see any other solution then to contruct an electric wheelchair on his own.

To get the dream of an electric wheelchair to come true it wasn’t enough to solve all the technical problems, money was needed too. When Per Uddén couldn’t raise any external development support he started the Foundation of Help for Handicapped, nowadays called Foundation Promobilia. About thirty people were engaged on a non-profit base. By selling stamps and simpler office articles to enterprises or private persons they managed to collect the means necessary for the development of the electric wheelchair.

The Foundation was very successful in its efforts to collect support to the benefit of the disabled persons. Even the management of the collected money was fortunate. A major part of the foundation’s means could be used to finance projects in Permobil AB.

The wheelchair became Permobil

Per Uddén’s electric wheelchair was developed in Permobil AB. With Timrå as headquarter, has development, production and sale of the electric wheelchair been done since the middle of the seventies.

Selling Permobil AB

For the foundation to be able to focalise on its main task, to support the development of technical help for disabled persons, Permobil AB was sold to Nordic Capital in 2005. The receipts of the sale gave the foundation increased resources to contribute to other project helping disabled persons. Also, Permobil AB got an owner that had the capital and the competence to lead the company towards benefits for everybody XX.