Assar Gabrielsson

Assar Nathanael Thorvald Gabrielsson (1891-08-13 - 1962-05-28) was a Swedish industrialist and co-founder of Volvo.

Family

He married Anna Teresia Andreasson 1916. They had four children; Lars, Barbro, Jan and Bo.

Biography

Assar Gabrielsson held a bachelor degree in economics and worked as sales manager at SKF in Göteborg in the early 1900. He was employed in 1916 by Björn Prytz on the sales dept. and was appointed sales manager for the entire SKF company group the June 20, 1922. He held that position until the new automobile company AB Volvo was founded as a subsidiary company within the SKF company group.

Chronology

* 1891 Born Aug 13 in Korsberga, Skaraborgs län, Sweden. The son of Gabriel Nathanael Gabrielsson and Anna Helmina Larsson.
* 1911 Bachelor degree in Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Trade (HHS).
* 1912–1916 Employed as stenographer in the Chancellery of the Lower House of the Swedish Parliament.
* 1916 Marries Anna Teresia Andersson.
* 1916–1920 Employed at SKF in Göteborg on the sales department.
* 1921–1922 Managing Director of the SKF subsidiary in Paris, France.
* 1922–1926 Sales Manager for the SKF-company group.
* 1926–1956 Managing Director in AB Volvo.
* 1947-1951 President for the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
* 1956–1962 Chairman of the board of AB Volvo.

Volvo - the automobile project

In june 1924 when Assar Gabrielsson met his old friend engineer Gustav Larson in Stockholm, he unveiled his plans to try to establish the manufacturing of a new Swedish automobile. Gustav Larson had worked for SKF between 1917-1919 but now worked for the company AB Galco in Stockholm. They made an agreement in august 1924 at the restaurant Sturehof in Stockholm, signed in a written contract more than one year later, December 16, 1925. In this contract Gustav was supposed to carry out the engineering work for a new car, as well as an investment plan for a complete new manufacturing plant, but would only be rewarded for that work in the case the project would turn out well, after at least 100 produced cars and in the case this was achieved before the January 1, 1928. This famous contract shows that Assar Gabrielsson "owned" the project and that it was a high-risk project without any guarantees. Assar took the economic risks himself and Gustav, in the worst case, would have worked in the project without being rewarded, but still would have had his salary from the company AB Galco in Stockholm. Most of the capital that Assar intended to use for the project initially, was actually extra sales commissions that he had saved from the time he was the managing director for the SKF subsidiary in Paris 1921-22. Back to 1922-23

The original idea, presented by Assar to SKF, was to start an automobile manufacturing within SKF in order to get advantages over competitors when developing new bearings for the automobile industry, increased sales of bearings, but more important, the positive effects it would have on Swedish industry as a whole. These ideas he developed during the time he worked as managing director for the SKF subsidiary company in Paris 1921-22 when he discovered that competitor bearing companies in Europe had started to invest a lot in automobile companies in order to secure their sales to key customers. However, Gabrielsson failed to convince the board of SKF about his ideas, and the SKF company core business was bearings with no room for an automobile company. Assar then decided to build a test series of 10 vehicles with his own financing and later present the car and an entire investment plan to SKF. The idea to build a pre-series of 10 vehicles was most certainly related to the fact that no company would have given them an offer for the components (engines, gearbox, chassis components etc) with a less quantity and Assar were at that time certain that SKF would approve to his plans in due time. The engineering, documentation, investment plans etc. was carried out exactly in the same way as if it had been carried out by SKF in order to prepare for the set up of a new automobile company. Assar most certainly had the full support from the managing director of SKF at that time, Mr. Björn Prytz as long as his 'private' project did not interfere with his work as sales manager for SKF.

The first 10 pre-series vehicles, model ÖV 4, were designed and assembled in Stockholm at AB Galco under the supervision of Gustav Larson, at that time still having his other work in AB Galco to attend to. A "design-office", often called "Volvo's first design-office", was established in one room of Gustav Larson's private apartment at Rådmansgatan 59. The design work started in the autumn 1924 and a number of engineers were involved, among them engineer Jan G. Smith that had returned from America in 1924 and later engineer Henry Westerberg. All the invoices related to the project was sent to Assar's private address at Kungsportsavenyn 32 in Göteborg. In a lot of orders that Gustav Larsson made himself, he referred to Assar Gabrielsson as a "guarantee" that the deliveries would be paid by him personally. These details shows that the Volvo automobile project in the beginning was a true private project, not sponsored by SKF from an economic point of view.

The first prototype car was ready in June 1926. Assar and Gustav took that first car and drove themselves, on bumpy roads, down to SKF in Göteborg to show the SKF-board and now present the final investment plan.

The automobile company AB Volvo is founded

At a board meeting held in Hofors, Sweden the August 10, 1926, SKF decided to use the old subsidiary company Volvo AB, for the automobile project. AB Volvo, that was first registered in 1915 on the initiative of Björn Prytz, was originally set up to be used for a special series of ball bearings for the American market but it was never really used for this purpose. A small series of ball bearings stamped with Volvo was manufactured but it was never introduced on a larger scale. A contract was signed August 12, 1926 between SKF and Assar, stipulating that all 10 prototype cars, engineering drawings, calculations etc. should be handed over to Volvo AB and Assar in return would be refunded most of his private investments for the prototype cars. In other words, Assar Gabrielsson sold his project to AB Volvo. The contract was signed by Björn Prytz, managing director of SKF and Assar Gabrielsson. In the original contract from December 16, 1925 Assar stated that he might sell the automobile project to any company that would be interested, but of course hoped that SKF would be the company to stand first inline. Larsson also finally got paid for the initial engineering work with the ÖV4 according to the 'private' contract he and Assar had signed the December 16, 1925.

Assar Gabrielsson left his position as sales manager for SKF and was appointed president and managing director for the 'new' Volvo AB the January 1, 1927. Gustav Larson was at the same time appointed vice president and technical manager and left his employment at AB Galco in Stockholm.

The first series produced Volvo ÖV4

On April 14th, 1927 about 10 p.m., the first series produced ÖV 4 left the new established factory on Hisingen in Göteborg.

The 10 prototype cars that had been assembled in Stockholm were never sold except one that was sold to Volvo's photographer, Sven Sjöstedt and later donated to the Volvo Industrial Museum around 1930, but was used as transportation vehicles within the manufacturing plant and as 'test benches' for new developed components during the first years.

Economic problems

The new company did not show any profit for the first couple of years and SKF invested a lot of money to keep the company running. In 1928 the production of trucks began with the basic chassis components from ÖV4. The production of trucks was on a small scale in the beginning but the concept was successful from start. However in late 1929 it was real close that SKF sold the company to Charles Nash, president of Nash Motors in America, but Björn Prytz and Assar Gabrielsson managed to convince the SKF board to call the deal off, just one day before Charles Nash arrived by boat to Göteborg. Charles Nash and Assar Gabrielsson became good friends during his visit in Sweden and Assar visited Nash in America on several occasions later to discuss the automobile business. At the end of 1930 AB Volvo showed a small profit for the first time. In 1935 SKF came to the conclusion that Volvo now was ready to stand on its own feet. Volvo was introduced on the Stockholm stock exchange and SKF sold most of its shares. SKF now could concentrate in the core business, development and manufacturing of bearings and still are, more than 100 years from when the company was founded in 1907.

Volvo - finally a success

When Assar celebrated his 50th birthday 1941, the 50,000th Volvo car was delivered. It took ten years to produce the first 25,000 cars but only four years for the other 25,000 cars. In 1944-45, just after the end of the Second World War, the 'modern' family car PV444 with a completely new design was introduced and the car was an immediately sales success.Fact|date=October 2008 The company now stood on solid ground and the production of both cars and trucks was increasing fast.Fact|date=October 2008

The last years

Assar Gabrielsson held his position as managing director for AB Volvo until 1956 when he became the chairman of the board (CEO) of the Volvo group and held that position until his death, 1962.

References

* Title: Volvo Personvagnar från 20-tal till 80-tal, by Björn Eric Lindh, 1984. (In Swedish language only). ISBN 91-86442-06-6.
* Title: Volvo Göteborg Sverige, by Christer Olsson, 1996. (In Swedish language only). ISBN 3-907150-57-0.
* Volvo customer newspaper 'Ratten' (The steering wheel), No. 2, 1969 (In Swedish language only).

External links

* [http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/pdf/VolvoHistoryByAssarGabrielsson.pdf The 30 year history of Volvo, by Assar Gabrielsson, 1959.]