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Revision as of 17:24, 12 December 2005
For other uses, see Volvo (disambiguation).- Volvo Cars is the car maker using the brand Volvo.
AB Volvo (or Aktiebolaget Volvo) is a Swedish world leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles, buses and construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications, aerospace components and services. The group also provides complete solutions for financing and service.
Founded in 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 Volvo Group's net sales 2004 amounted to €22 billion.
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.
Volvo companies
Business areas
The Volvo Group is organised into the following business areas:
- Volvo Trucks
- Mack Trucks
- Renault Trucks
- Volvo Buses
- Volvo Construction Equipment
- Volvo Penta
- Volvo Aero
- Volvo Financial Services
Business units
The group business areas are supported by a number of business units:
- Volvo 3P
- Volvo Powertrain
- Volvo Parts
- Volvo Technology
- Volvo Information Technology
- Volvo Logistics
- Volvo Technology Transfer
- Volvo Business Services
- Celero Support
- Volvo Cars
See also
- Ainax - ownership of Scania shares acquired by Volvo
External links
Company websites
- Volvo - Official site
- Ford Motor Company - parent of Volvo Cars Corp