Volvo

AB Volvo (or Aktiebolaget Volvo) is a world-leading Swedish manufacturer of commercial vehicles, buses and construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications, aerospace components and services. more...

It was founded in April 14, 1927 in the city of Gothenburg, as a spin-off from roller ball bearing maker SKF. Volvo Cars, the automobile manufacturer, has since 1999 been owned by the Ford Motor Company.

Volvo is Latin for "I roll", and although fitting well to their products, vehicles, it was originally a name for a ball bearing being developed by the company SKF, which provided funding to a few employees to set up the car-manufacturing business.

The Volvo Group today has more than 81,000 employees, with manufacturing in 25 countries and sales in more than 185 markets. The group provides complete solutions for financing and service. The Volvo Group's net sales 2004 amounted to €22 billion. Renault owns 20% of the Volvo Group.

Change of strategy

Among the reasons why Volvo took the initiative to sell the automobile manufacturing was the increasing development costs for new car models, coupled with the fact that it was a relatively small producer. The strategy was instead to grow as a truck manufacturer where it had a stronger market position. The buyout of Volvo Cars was announced on January 28, 1998. In the following year acquisition was completed at a price of $6.45 billion USD. Volvo used the funds from the sale of the automobile division to finance the purchase of Scania, another leading Swedish truck manufacturer, but the deal was stopped for competition reasons by the European Union. Instead Volvo acquired the commercial vehicles division of French Renault and the American truck manufacturer Mack.

The Volvo trademark

The Volvo™ trademark is now jointly owned (50/50) by Volvo and Ford. One of the main promotional activities for the trademark is the sailing contest Volvo Ocean Race, formerly the Whitbread Around the World Cup. There is also a Volvo Baltic Race.

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