Assar Gabrielsson

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Assar Gabrielsson
Gabrielsson at Volvo AB in 1960.
Born
Assar Thorvald Nathaniel Gabrielsson

(1891-08-13)13 August 1891
Korsberga, Skaraborgs län, Sweden
Died28 May 1962(1962-05-28) (aged 70)
Gothenburg, Sweden
NationalitySwedish
Known forco-founder of Volvo
SpouseAnna Theresia "Tessan" Andreasson (1916-1962)
ChildrenLars, Barbro, Jan and Bo
Parent(s)Gabriel Nathanael Gabrielsson and Anna Helmina Larsson

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

Early life

Gabrielsson was born on 13 August 1891 in Korsberga, Skaraborg County, Sweden,[1] the son of Gabriel Nathanael Gabrielsson and Anna Helmina Larsson, who married on 14 April 1889.[2] The father was a manager at Korsberga brickworks and later became a leaseholder of Spännefalla farm near the dairy in Tibro, where he started an egg shop. Assar Gabrielsson was the first child of three. He had a brother five years younger, Börje Gabrielsson, who in parallel with Assar was the managing director of Astra for thirty years.[3] He passed studentexamen in 1909 and graduated from Stockholm School of Economics in 1911.[1]

Career

Assar Gabrielsson held a bachelor's degree in economics and worked as a sales manager with bearing manufacturer SKF in Gothenburg in the early 1900s. He was employed in 1916 by Björn Prytz at the sales department and was appointed sales manager for the entire SKF company group on 20 June 1922. 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

In June 1924, when Assar Gabrielsson met his old friend

managing director for the SKF subsidiary in Paris
from 1921 to 1922.

Back to 1922-23

The original idea, presented by Assar to SKF, consisted of a few main points; the central idea was to start 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 turn lead to positive 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 1921-22 when he discovered that competing bearing companies in Europe had started to invest a large amount in automobile companies in order 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 plan 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 by SKF in order 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 Stockholm at AB Galco under 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 Stockholm. The design work started in the autumn of 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 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 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 Gothenburg 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 on 10 August 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 on 12 August 1926 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 by Björn Prytz, managing director of SKF and Assar Gabrielsson. In the original contract from 16 December 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 in line. Larsson also finally got paid for the initial engineering work with the ÖV4 according to the 'private' contract he and Assar had signed on 16 December 1925.

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 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 14 April 1927 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 Stockholm 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 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

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 1928 the production of

Stockholm stock 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

When Assar celebrated his 50th birthday in 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 next 25,000 cars. In 1944–45, just after the end of the

PV444 was introduced with a completely new design. The PV444 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 last years

Assar Gabrielsson held his position as managing director for AB Volvo until 1956 when he became the

CEO
) of the Volvo group, a position he held until his death in 1962.

Chronology

Personal life

Gabrielsson married on 4 March 1916 to Anna Theresia ("Tessan"),[4] née Andreasson (1889–1964) in Skövde, the daughter of lineman Johan Peter Andreasson (1849–) and his first wife Augusta Mathilda Nyberg (1862–). The Gabrielsson couple lived for many years at Kungsportsavenyen 34 in Gothenburg.[5][6] and had four children: Lars, Barbro, Jan and Bo.

Gabrielsson is interred at Kvastekulla griftegård in Partille.[7]

Awards and decorations

Swedish

Foreign

Honours

References

Notes

  1. ^
    SELIBR 8198271
    .
  2. SELIBR 11931231
    .
  3. SELIBR 10328164
    .
  4. SELIBR 1161406
    .
  5. SELIBR 11515992
    .
  6. SELIBR 10184558
    .
  7. SELIBR 7777883
    .
  8. ^ Kungl. Hovstaterna: Kungl. Maj:ts Ordens arkiv, Matriklar (D 1), vol. 12 (1950–1959), p. 119, digital imageing.
  9. ^ "Samtliga pristagare av KTH:s stora pris" (in Swedish). KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on 21 October 2020. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  10. ^ a b c d "VERKSAMHETSBERÄTTELSE" (PDF) (in Swedish). STIFTELSEN ASSAR GABRIELSSONS FOND FÖR KLINISK FORSKNING, SPECIELLT I CANCERSJUKDOMAR. 2011. p. 2. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  11. ^ "ORÐUHAFASKRÁ" (in Icelandic). President of Iceland. Retrieved 9 September 2020.

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