Assar Gabrielsson

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

Family: Married to Anna Teresia Andersson 1916. Four children; Lars, Barbro, Jan and Bo.

Assar Gabrielsson held a bachelor degree in economics and worked as sales manager at SKF in Göteborg. He was employed in 1919 on the sales dept. and was appointed sales manager in 1921. He held that position until the new automobile company Volvo AB was founded as a subsidiary company within the SKF company group.

[edit] The Volvo project

In the beginning of summer 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 signed an agreement later where Gustav Larson was supposed to take the responsibity for the entire engineering of a new car as well as calculations for a complete new manufacturing plant while Assar Gabrielsson should handle the financing for the prototype series. Initially Gabrielsson failed to convince the board of SKF to start the manufacturing of automobiles and Assar and Gustav then decided to build a test series of 10 vehicles with their own financing and later present the car and an entire investment plan to SKF. Assar had the full support from the managing director of SKF at that time, Mr. Björn Prytz, but SKF-board was not prepared to invest anything in the project. The original idea, presented by Assar, was to start an automobile manufacturing within SKF in order to get advantages over competitors when developing new bearings for the automobile industry, combined with the positive effects it would have on the Swedish industry as a whole. The first pre-series of 10 vehicles, model ÖV 4, were designed and assembled in Stockholm under the supervision of Gustav Larson, at that time still working for AB Galco. A "design-office" (often called "Volvo´s first design-office") was established in one room of Gustav Larson's private apartment. The design work started in the autumn 1924 and a number of engineers were involved. 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 present the final investment plan. SKF now became more interested when they had seen the new automobile working. At a board meeting held in Hofors, Sweden the 10th of August 1926, they decided to use the old subsidiary company Volvo AB, owned 100% by SKF, for the automobile project. (Volvo AB, first registered in 1915, was originally set up to be used for a special series of ball bearings for the American market but it was never used for that purpose). Assar Gabrielsson left his position as sales manager for SKF and was appointed president and managing director for the 'new' Volvo AB the 1st January 1927. (Gustav Larson was at the same time appointed vice president and technical manager). On April 14, 1927, the first series ÖV 4 left the new established factory on Hisingen in Göteborg (Gothenburg).

The new company did not show any profit for the first couple of years. In late 1929 it was real close that SKF sold the company to Charles Nash, owner of the Nash-industries in America, but Björn Prytz 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 however became good friends during his visit in Sweden and Assar visited Nash in America on several occasions to discuss the automobile business. At the end of 1930 Volvo AB showed a small profit for the first time.

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

[edit] References

• Title: "Volvo Personvagnar från 20-tal till 80-tal", by Björn Eric Lindh, 1984. (In Swedish only). ISBN: 91-86442-06-6
• Title: "Volvo Göteborg Sverige, by Christer Olsson", 1996. (In Swedish only). ISBN: 3-907150-57-0