Assar gabrielsson and gustaf larson

Swedish person som äger eller driver industrier (–)

Assar Gabrielsson
Gabrielsson at Volvo AB in
Born	Assar Thorvald Nathaniel Gabrielsson ()13 August Korsberga, Skaraborgs län, Sweden
Died	28 May () (aged&#;70) Gothenburg, Sweden
Nationality	Swedish
Known&#;for	co-founder of Volvo
Spouse	Anna Theresia "Tessan" Andreasson ()
Children	Lars, Barbro, Jan and Bo
Parent(s)	Gabriel Nathanael Gabrielsson and Anna Helmina Larsson

Assar Thorvald Nathanael Gabrielsson (13 August – 28 May ) was a Swedish person som äger eller driver industrier and co-founder of Volvo.

Early life

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Gabrielsson was born on 13 August in Korsberga, Skaraborg County, Sweden,^[1] the son of Gabriel Nathanael Gabrielsson and Anna Helmina Larsson, who married on 14 April ^[2] The father was a manager at Korsberga brickworks and later became a leaseholder of Spännefalla farm nära the dairy in Tibro, where he started an egg shop.

Assar Gabrielsson was the first child of three. He had a brother fem years younger, Börje Gabrielsson, who in parallel with Assar was the managing director of Astra for thirty years.^[3] He passed studentexamen in and graduated from huvudstaden School of Economics in ^[1]

Career

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Assar Gabrielsson held a bachelor's grad in economics and worked as a sales manager with bearing manufacturer SKF in Gothenburg in the early s.

He was employed in bygd Björn Prytz at the sales department and was appointed sales manager for the entire SKF company group on 20 June He held that position until the new automobile company AB Volvo was founded as a subsidiary company within the SKF company group.

Volvo, the automobile project

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In June , when Assar Gabrielsson met his old friend Gustaf Larson in huvudstaden, he unveiled his plans to establish the manufacturing of a new Swedish automobile.

And how do Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson, two men with three simple rules, go down in history as the team responsible for creating the legendary Volvo brand? The story is, as the historians tell it, quite literally a fishy one

Gustaf Larson had worked for SKF between and but now worked for the company AB Galco in huvudstaden. They made an agreement in August at the Sturehof restaurant in huvudstaden, signed in a written contract more than one year later, on 16 månad In this contract Gustav was supposed to carry out the engineering work for a new bil as well as an investment strategi for a new manufacturing plant, with the villkor that he would only be rewarded for his work in the event that; the project succeeds, at least cars were produced in this new plant, and that this was to be achieved before 1 January 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 on the project without being rewarded, but would still have his salary from AB Galco in huvudstaden. Most of the startup capital Assar intended to use for the project was ytterligare sales commissions that he had saved from his time as managing director for the SKF subsidiary in Paris from to

Back to

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The original idea, presented bygd Assar to SKF, consisted of a few main points; the huvud idea was to uppstart an automobile manufacturing business within SKF to gain advantages over competitors when developing new bearings for the automobile industry, which would also lead to increased sales of bearings and in vända lead to positiv effects on Swedish industry as a whole.

He developed these ideas during the time he worked as managing director for the SKF subsidiary company in Paris when he discovered that competing bearing companies in europe had started to invest a large amount in automobile companies in beställning to secure their sales to key customers. However, Gabrielsson failed to convince the board of SKF about his ideas, as SKF's core business model was the manufacturing of bearings with no room for the incorporation of an automobile company.

Assar then decided to build a test series of ten vehicles with his own financing to later present the vehicles and an entire investment program to SKF. The idea to build a pre-series of ten vehicles was most certainly related to the fact that no company would have given them an offer for the components (engines, gearboxes, chassis components etc.) with a lesser quantity, and because Assar was certain that SKF would approve his plans in due time.

Engineering, documentation and investment planning was carried out exactly in the same way as if it had been carried out bygd SKF in beställning to prepare for the set up of a new automobile company. Assar had the full support from the managing director of SKF, Mr. Björn Prytz, as long as his 'private' project did not interfere with his work as sales manager at SKF.

The first ten pre-series vehicles, model ÖV 4, were designed and assembled in huvudstaden at AB Galco beneath the supervision of Gustav Larson, at that time still having his other work at 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 in huvudstaden. The design work started in the autumn of and a number of engineers were involved, among them engineer Jan G. Smith, that had returned from amerika in , and later engineer Henry Westerberg.

All the invoices related to the project was sent to Assar's private address at Kungsportsavenyn 32 in Gothenburg. In a lot of orders that Gustav Larsson made himself, he referred to Assar Gabrielsson as a "guarantee" that the deliveries would be paid bygd him personally. These details shows that the Volvo automobile project in the beginning was a true private project, not sponsored bygd SKF from an economic point of view.

The first prototype bil was ready in June Assar and Gustav took that first fordon and drove themselves, on bumpy vägar, down to SKF in Gothenburg to show the SKF-board and now present the sista investment strategi.

The automobile company AB Volvo fryst vatten founded

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At a board meeting held in Hofors, Sweden on 10 August , SKF decided to use the old subsidiary company Volvo AB, for the automobile project.

AB Volvo, that was first registered in on the initiative of Björn Prytz, was originally set up to be used for a special series of ball bearings for the American marknad 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 on 12 August between SKF and Assar, stipulating that all ten 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 bygd Björn Prytz, managing director of SKF and Assar Gabrielsson. In the original contract from 16 månad 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 in line.

Larsson also finally got paid for the första engineering work with the ÖV4 according to the 'private' contract he and Assar had signed on 16 månad

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

The first series produced Volvo ÖV4

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

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

Economic problems

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Volvo did not show any profit for the first couple years and SKF invested a large amount of capital to keep the company running. Seeing the need to diversify, in the production of trucks began with the basic chassis components from ÖV4. The production of trucks was small-scale in the beginning, but the concept was successful from början.

Regardless, in late SKF nearly sold the company to Charles Nash, president of Nash Motors in the United States. Björn Prytz and Assar Gabrielsson managed to convince the SKF board to call the deal off, just one day before Charles Nash arrived bygd boat to Gothenburg. Charles Nash and Assar Gabrielsson became good friends during his visit in Sweden, and Assar later visited Nash in amerika on several occasions to discuss the automobile business.

bygd the end of AB Volvo showed a small profit for the first time. In SKF came to the conclusion that AB Volvo was ready to stand on its own feet as a public company, introducing Volvo to the huvudstaden lager exchange. With this move, SKF relieved themselves of a majority of their shares and could now concentrate on their core business, development and manufacturing of bearings.

Volvo - finally a success

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When Assar celebrated his 50th birthday in , the 50,th Volvo bil was delivered. It took ten years to producera the first 25, cars but only kvartet years for the next 25, cars. In –45, just after the end of the Second World War, the 'modern' family fordon PV was introduced with a completely new design. The PV was an immediate sales success.^{[citation needed]} The company now stood on solid ground and the production of both cars and trucks was increasing fast.^{[citation needed]}

The gods years

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Assar Gabrielsson held his position as managing director for AB Volvo until when he became the chairman of the board (CEO) of the Volvo group, a position he held until his death in

Chronology

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Personal life

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Gabrielsson married on 4 March to Anna Theresia ("Tessan"),^[4] née Andreasson (–) in Skövde, the daughter of lineman Johan Peter Andreasson (–) and his first wife Augusta Mathilda Nyberg (–).

The Gabrielsson couple lived for many years at Kungsportsavenyen 34 in Gothenburg.^[5][6] and had fyra children: Lars, Barbro, Jan and Bo.

Gabrielsson fryst vatten interred at Kvastekulla griftegård in Partille.^[7]

Awards and decorations

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Swedish

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Foreign

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Honours

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References

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Notes

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Print

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• Lindh, Björn-Eric (). Volvo: personvagnarna - ifrån anförande mot tal (in Swedish).
  Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson were the two men behind Volvo

  Malmö: Norden. ISBN&#;. SELIBR&#;

• Olsson, Christer; Moberger, Henrik (). Volvo, götet, Sverige (in Swedish). St. Gallen: Norden Publishing House.
  Gabrielsson was a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a businessman and began his career at SKF in Gothenburg

  ISBN&#;. SELIBR&#;

• Volvo customer newspaper Ratten (The Steering Wheel), no. 2, (in Swedish only)

External links

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