Scania gang takes over Volvo

[kscarbel2]

In addition to Volvo Group CFO Jan Guander and executive board appointee Hakan Samuelsson, both long-time Scania veterans, Martin Lundstedt will now be working with another old Scania colleague at Volvo.

Lars Stenqvist, has agreed to leave Volkswagen Truck & Bus and become head of Volvo R&D.

Martin Lunstedt and Lars Stenqvist grew up together from the age of kindergarten in the city of Mariestad. After high school, they served their two years of compulsory military service together and went on to attend college at the renowned Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg where Volvo is headquartered. Both men joined Scania in 1992 after graduating.

Last September, Volkswagen Truck & Bus head Andreas Renschler removed Stenqvist from his position as Senior Vice President and head of Vehicle Definition at Scania, and gave him a new assignment as head of R&D at VW’s truck & bus unit.

(Volkswagen Group managed to acquire enough shares of Scania in May 2014 so as to take control)

Like Lundstedt, Stenqvist was unhappy with the new German control of Scania.

Born in 1967, Stenqvist began his Scania career by working at several of the company’s production units. From 2002 to 2004, he served as head of Scania’s chassis assembly operations in the Netherlands. From 2004, Stenqvist worked within Scania's R&D unit. In 2007, he was appointed Senior Vice President and Head of Vehicle Definition.

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[kscarbel2]

Lars Stenqvist joins Volvo Group management

Volvo Group Press Release  /  April 6, 2016

Lars Stenqvist has been appointed member of the Volvo Executive Board and Executive Vice President of Volvo Group Trucks Technology, the Volvo Group’s technology and product development organization for trucks. He will also hold the title of Volvo Group Chief Technology Officer.

Lars Stenqvist was born in 1967 and has been active for many years in the heavy vehicles industry, with several years of international experience.

Currently, he is working for the Volkswagen Group as head of research and development for trucks and buses. Previously, he worked with Swedish truckmaker Scania.

Lars Stenqvist replaces Torbjörn Holmström, who will be employed as the Volvo Group’s senior advisor on research and development. He will assume his new assignment in October, 2016.

[kscarbel2]

Scania gang takes over Volvo

Dagens Industri  /  April 6, 2016

In their struggle for higher profitability, the Volvo Group flick excellence from arch rival Scania.

"It is not unnatural that you look at those who have experience in commercial vehicles. It is even healthy, "says Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO of Volvo. He himself had spent his entire career at Scania until last year when he agreed to join Volvo as president and CEO.

At Wednesday's annual shareholder’s meeting at the Gothenburg concert hall, Lundstedt greeted a former Scania colleague - Hakan Samuelsson, current president of the car manufacturer Volvo Cars and former CEO of MAN - who was elected to Volvo Group's Board of Directors.

At the meeting, Lundstedt announced that another former Scania colleague, Lars Stenqvist, would join Volvo as the technology and product development director of the Volvo Group Executive Committee.

With the recruitment of Lars Stenqvist, Volvo is once again taking a key worker from the heart of Volkswagen Truck & Bus, which includes Scania and German truck giant MAN.

Lars Stenqvist was appointed in September last year as head of Research and Development at VW Trucks, an extremely important position in the coordination of MAN and Scania. Between 2007 and 2015 he was director of development and continuous quality improvements at Scania.

Scania has over the years been far more successful than Volvo in terms of profitability and efficiency of production.

Volvo Board Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg sees the benefits of recruiting from Scania.

"That it comes in Scania, Volvo People of course depend on the changes that have been at Scania, where people which is looking for new work, and then we are a natural alternative," said Svanberg.

He added, "We also wanted to change the culture a little bit [at Volvo] and focus more on efficiency and the customer. And, it’s also exciting to bring in people from outside Volvo with fresh thinking. To look at how the customer thinks, Scania has been very strong and it can be coming in to contribute. "

Volvo has been able to take advantage of Scania takeover by Volkswagen, leaving the stock market in 2014. It has not only attracted Martin Lundstedt and Lars Stenqvist to Volvo, but lower level employees as well.

Last year, Volvo recruited Scania’s Frederick Ljungdahl, who now is the head of Treasury and Corporate Finance.

Mats Ekberg, of the Swedish Shareholders' Association says Volvo is in favor of recruitment from Scania.

"They take ideas from Scania and it is good. Volvo has a lot to learn, especially with respect to modular custom manufacturing. "

Mats Ekberg sees several reasons.

"It certainly reflects dissatisfaction with the ownership of Scania and Martin Lundstedt helps, of course, too."

It is clear that the Volvo Group's strategy in recent years has been to replace large sections of the board and senior management. 2013 had the whole group management has made a long career in Volvo, after it has several external recruitments have been made to management.

Last year when Martin Lundstedt agreed to become the new president of Volvo, he received SEK 5 million (US$612,700). He viewed the compensation as a sign-on bonus similar to those encountered in the sports world.

"It was a compensation for a number of elements that froze inside when I agreed to become president of Volvo. Then they thought it was fair that I was replaced. I do not want to be seen as greedy, "said Martin Lundstedt.

Was it a requirement that you would go to Volvo?
"No, it was not."

During the meeting, he described Volvo’s tough savings program where costs have been reduced by SEK 10 billion (US$1.2 billion) between 2012 and 2016, and several thousand employees have been let go. He highlighted how Volvo is now focusing on organic growth and increased profitability.

Even on Volvo's Board under Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg's leadership, there have been major changes. After the shareholder’s meeting yesterday, only three of the nine board members are left over from 2013.

Hakan Samuelsson was clearly pleased with his new assignment.

"It's great to be back in the truck world," he says.

His appointment to the board has been seen as a plan to have a new chairman when his contract as CEO of Volvo Cars expires at the end of 2017. The question is whether he is prepared to grab the helm of Volvo.

His short answer is, "It is not a current issue."

Industrivärden's CEO Helena Stjernholm, a new member of the board, is expected to put increased pressure on profitability. She also improves gender equality on the board to four women out of eleven people.

 

New to Volvo’s Executive Committee since 2013
Name	Arrived	Previous work background
Jan Gurander,	2014	Finance Director Volvo Cars, Scania, MAN Financial Officer
Martin Lundstedt,	2015	CEO Scania CEO, president
Henry Stenson,	2015	Communications SAS, Ericsson Communications Sustainability Director
Bruno Blin, Head	2016	Internally recruited from Renault Trucks
Lars Stenqvist, Head	2016	Volkswagen, Scania Group Technology *
Jan Ohlsson, chief	2016	Internally recruited group Truck Production
Claes Nilsson,	2016	Internally recruited head of Volvo Trucks

* Effective formally later this year

 

People who have left Volvo’s Executive Board since 2013
Name	Departed	Worked at Volvo since
Olof Persson, President and CEO	2015	2006
Peter Charles Stone, truck head of Europe	2014	2001
Torbjörn Holmström, Chief Technology Group *	2016	1979
Mikael Bratt, chief global truck production	2016	1988
Håkan Karlsson, Head of business	2013	1986
Anders Osberg, CFO	2016	1992
Karin Falk, head of strategy	2014	1998 (employed elsewhere 1999-2008)
Marten Wikforss, Director of Communications	2014	2001
Niklas Gustavsson, Director of Sustainability	2014	1987 (employed elsewhere 1999-2008)
Magnus Carlander, IT Director	2014	1985

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[HeavyGunner]

From a average joe's perspective things don't seem to add up at Volvo. It seems they've done nothing besides buy established companies in the market they want, then (usually) axe the company they bought and then try and fill the void with their product to gain a foothold but they never seem to really dominate any market. Is that just my perception?  If not how can they afford to continually dump money into what seems to be a fairly unsuccessful venture i.e. heavy trucks?  

[TeamsterGrrrl]

I wonder if some of these executives are fleeing VW and their TDI emissions nightmare?

[kscarbel2]

3 minutes ago, TeamsterGrrrl said:

I wonder if some of these executives are fleeing VW and their TDI emissions nightmare?

Nothing at all to do with dieselgate, but everything to do with being under German control.

[kscarbel2]

26 minutes ago, HeavyGunner said:

From a average joe's perspective things don't seem to add up at Volvo. It seems they've done nothing besides buy established companies in the market they want, then (usually) axe the company they bought and then try and fill the void with their product to gain a foothold but they never seem to really dominate any market. Is that just my perception?  If not how can they afford to continually dump money into what seems to be a fairly unsuccessful venture i.e. heavy trucks?  

From 2000 and particularly during the Persson era, Volvo had no friends among its supplier base.

The universal feeling was, they had little sympathy with the Swedes at Volvo. They were no stranger to copying (stealing) another truckmaker's or a supplier's designs (technology).

[TeamsterGrrrl]

I knew they weren't happy taking orders from VW, I suspect dieselgate just added fuel to the fire of independence. Perhaps Volvo and some Swedish investors will buy Scania and merge it with Volvo? There'd be antitrust hassles in the EU, but not in America...

[Red Horse]

Unhappy with German leadership?...Hmnn shades of Chrysler?

[kscarbel2]

7 hours ago, TeamsterGrrrl said:

I knew they weren't happy taking orders from VW, I suspect dieselgate just added fuel to the fire of independence. Perhaps Volvo and some Swedish investors will buy Scania and merge it with Volvo? There'd be antitrust hassles in the EU, but not in America...

We've been down that road before. But Scania's company culture is so much different from Volvo, A merger with Volvo was justly and widely resisted.

Scania is organized with profitability as a key priority (Scania is the most profitable truckmaker in the world).

But Volvo is a mess, focused on volume over profitability, as their goal (dream) has been to become the number one global truckmaker by volume. Meanwhile, Volvo Construction Equipment doesn't make money.

And, like Volkswagen who dreamed of passing Toyota to become global no.1 by 2018, as Volvo's chase of a dream took them further and further away from reality, it all finally caught up with them.......hence Persson's firing and a phone call to Scania's Martin Lundstedt from Volvo board chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg. He's wants Scania-style management at Volvo, which amounts to a cultural revolution. And Martin has assembled some of Scania's finest talent to get the job done.

 

“Martin Lundstedt has 25 years of experience in R&D, production and sales within the commercial truck industry [at Scania]. He is also known for his winning leadership style.”

Carl-Henric Svanberg, Chairman of the Board – AB Volvo

 

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Volvo urges truck merger with Scania

Independent / January 16, 1999

Volvo yesterday urged Scania to merge with it and create the biggest truck and bus manufacturer in Europe after picking up a 13.5 per cent stake in its Swedish rival in a stock market raid.

A Volvo-Scania merger would produce a combined group with truck and bus sales of 130,000 a year, turnover of pounds 7.6bn and 50,000 employees.

In the market for heavy trucks of 16 tonnes and over, the merged business would leapfrog Mercedes Benz into the number one spot commanding 30 per cent of sales in West Europe. Worldwide, it would be the second biggest truck and bus company.

The controlling shareholder in Scania, Investor, reacted angrily to Volvo's move. Investor's chief executive, Claes Dahlback, described the pounds 385m share purchase as "unfortunate" and said it would make the merger discussions so far held between the two companies more difficult.

The discussions are thought to have stalled because of a dispute between the two companies over the valuation of Scania. Mr Claes said a merger with Volvo could produce significant synergy gains but there were alternative possibilities that were even more interesting which it would continue to pursue.

Volvo said it was interested in pursuing a "constructive dialogue" with Scania's shareholders, suggesting that a hostile bid was unlikely. However, it indicated it could launch a tender offer for the remaining shares. If that happened, it would pay the difference between the price at which it picked up shares yesterday and the final takeover price.

The move on Scania fuelled speculation that Volvo would sell off its car division in a deal with a volume car maker. It has appointed the investment bank JP Morgan to examine a sale and two possible partners are Ford and Fiat of Italy.

However, Leif Johansson, Volvo's chief executive, appeared to contradict this yesterday saying the strategy in cars was to be a niche player based on organic growth.

In 1997 Volvo produced 70,000 trucks and 12,000 buses while Scania produced just over 42,000 trucks and 4,500 buses. In the key heavy trucks market they each have a 15 per cent share compared with Mercedes Benz's 21 per cent. Any merger could run into trouble with European Commission competition authorities.

Karl-Erling Trogen, president of Volvo Truck Corporation, said there is a need for consolidation within the automotive industry and Volvo wants "to take part in this industry restructuring."

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Prospects dim for Volvo-Scania merger approval

Today’s Trucking / March 8, 2000

Volvo AB chairman Leif Johansson said his company would offer no further concessions to quell concerns of the European Commission (EC) that its proposed acquisition of rival Scania AB would create near monopoly conditions in Sweden and a dominant position in Nordic Europe.

The EC will meet on March 14 and is expected to rule on the deal by March 23. The Reuters news agency said an EU source has said that the planned takeover in its present form is likely to be stopped on antitrust grounds.

Hans Westberg, an analyst at den Danske Bank, told Reuters news agency that Volvo wants to pressure the EC to consider the future political ramifications of its decision.

"Volvo is saying that if the EC blocks this deal it is probably going to block other truck deals, and that will allow the North Americans into the market with their strong currency,' Westberg said.

If the EC blocks the deal, Volvo may be forced to come up with an alternative strategy, which could include entertaining offers from prospective buyers.

"If such a bid is proposed the board will look at it and see what is best for its shareholders," Johansson told a news conference. "We never see bids as hostile," added

PACCAR, Volkswagen, and Fiat were among those opposed to the deal, according to daily Dagens Industri. These firms have also been mentioned by analysts as possible buyers of Volvo.

The Financial Times speculated today that Volvo could make a bid to buy Chicago-based International if the Scania deal failed.

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European regulators reject Volvo-Scania merger

Today’s Trucking / March 15, 2000

The European Commission (EC) yesterday rejected Volvo AB's planned $6.9 billion US merger with rival Swedish truck and bus maker Scania over concerns that it would be anticompetitive.

The unanimous decision was based in part on a report that the combined companies would own 50% to 90% market shares in several European countries. While Volvo is not allowed to combine operations, its 45.5% ownership of Scania is not affected by the decision. Volvo has said it does not plan to sell its stake in the company; shares purchased from stockholders that accepted Volvo's takeover bid will be returned, however.

The commission's decision sparked rumors about how Volvo would react. Some market analysts have said Volvo may put itself up for sale, a strategy Volvo CEO Leif Johansson would consider.

"We will evaluate the alternatives both in Europe, North America and Asia," Johansson told journalists during a conference call. "We have as an overall strategy to make sure that we are among the world's biggest in all our business areas. ... We certainly feel that we have the opportunity as a company to be in the driving seat to make acquisitions but we have also said that if good proposals come from outside, whatever the structure, we will look at them."