Newly-appointed managing director of Scandinavian supplier body, FKG, Fredrik Sidahl, was 25 years with Volvo before working for Saab. In the first of two interviews, he talked to Simon Warburton in his Gothenburg office about the collapse of the iconic Swedish brand and gave some frank views on the receivers’ attempts to save it.
j-a: There has been criticism of the speed with which Saab’s receivers have acted to find a potential new buyer – what is your view?
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FS: “I expressed my concern [to the receivers] that it is extremely important you do this work very fast instead of doing it in the traditional lawyer way that calculates the exact value of the company, meaning you count the value of the screwdrivers in the workshop.
“They are taking an extremely long time which means the employees – which are so important if someone acquires Saab – the competence is more or less gone.”
j-a: The Chinese manufacturer Youngman has made repeated attempts to purchase Saab – do you think they have a realistic chance of success?
FS: “I met Youngman in Stockholm and they asked me the question: ‘Could you be [ready] to start up the supply network?’ and I said yes, along with [European supplier body] CLEPA.
“They seem as a company able to acquire Saab – [they are] very, very serious about that. They invited us to China – we sent our chairman who is also part of the CLEPA board.
“It is a serious company and what we understand [is they have] muscles, financial-wise to do something about Saab and make it go again. It takes such a long time – I wonder – are all these [other] companies who were interested – are they interested?”
j-a: CLEPA estimates its members have lost at least EUR150m (US$199m) – is there a possibility FKG suppliers will recover their money?
FS: “Our members will not get their money back – not a chance. What we want is our customer back – Saab is a vital part of the automotive cluster in terms of good technique and innovation. We lose the momentum we had in Sweden for the car industry, although we still have the truck industry which is tremendously strong, 70% of FKG business is to the truck industry.
“We don’t know the exact figure [owed] – figures we have speak about around SEK1bn. Of course we have not got a penny back – the cost of solicitors is tremendous.”
j-a: The Swedish government has come under sustained fire for not doing more to help Saab – although it claims it did back the automaker – what is your view of the political action from Stockholm?
FS: “The [Swedish] government did not understand the value of Saab beyond Saab as a company. Saab has been in financial problems since it was born more or less, but in broader terms has been an extremely [good] driver for what we are today. Sweden is a small country, completely wrongly located when it comes to logistics, but we still have two truck industries and two car industries. They [government] are restricted by rules, but they could have interpreted the European rules in a more positive way.”
ja-a: What sort of signal does Saab’s bankruptcy send out to the wider world?
FS: “How could we let that happen? The sign we put up over Sweden is the Swedish government does not care about the automotive industry. How does that look for investors from China or foreign countries?
“The government obviously does not support the industry – that is the message we send out.”
j-a: Can you estimate the knock-on effect to your members of Saab’s collapse?
FS: “Our members have had to lay off people of course – a significant number. Another 2.5 employees go as well as one car employee, everything from the hairdresser to the small restaurant – it is about 10,000 jobs in the region.
“That is not the biggest worry for me – it is about the future – the trend of future development of the car industry in Sweden.”
