“Sen var det bara att ta de nya lokalerna I besittning och nog kände Du I magen en sprittning När Kjell-Olof Feldt invigningstalade och en massa vackra ord memorialade Men Du hörde kanske inte på Du tänkte nog:’hur ska jag Atlet effektivare få?’” (Ragnvi).
To get rid of the problem of constantly having to move to bigger production facilities, Knut decided to build a production plant of his own. After tough negotiations with the bank – which included among other things the mortaging of the family house – he was able to obtain a big enough loan to realise his plans. In 1972 the new production plant in Mölnlycke (Gothenburg) was inaugurated by the then Swedish minister of commerce.
As building the plant made it fiscally beneficial, half of the share captial was, on the advice of the accountant, transferred to the five children. Now Knut started to think of his business as something that could be succeeded by coming generations.
”When building this we had reached the point of an established company. We expanded 47% a year, and we had enough capital to finance the business. I think it was when building this that I really built myself into this business. Having built this we were established, physically, in another way than before. We were established in the industry, and in the near society we were de facto a real industrial group” (Knut).
The rapid expansion continued, which soon made a 100% extention of the production capacity necessary. Hardly had this been finalised, when Atlet was struck by its first crisis consisting of a severe rise in costs and recession, causing a 40% plunge in the company’s most important markets. For the first time in its history, Atlet had seriously thought of sacking employees. But before this was realised, the trade conditions improved, to the extent that no one had to leave.
”At that time the whole of Sweden was facing a recession. Then the government financially supported us for building trucks to keeping them in stock. But our idea is to produce according to the specific needs of the customer, so it was doomed to be a failure. In the end, all trucks had to be
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rebuilt. It was not the right mast height, or the right width, or…. We had to remake them all, and made an enormous loss. Then the situation was rather troublesome” (Marianne).
In spite of the 1974-75 difficulties Atlet continued its expansion, and with the trade conditions improving the company started to grow even faster. As before, new products were developed. But novel business ideas were also launched. In 1977 the ”Truck Driver School” was started. This idea of starting the school was built on statistics from the Swedish Board for Occupational Safety and Health, showing an increasing number of accidents due to the use of trucks. Often the human element was the cause of these accidents, implying a need for education. In the mid 1970s’ Atlet launched a safety guidebook on how to use the trucks. Moreover, courses were offered to both the drivers of the trucks and their foremen. After a couple of years, the company was the largest provider of truck driving education in Sweden. Today courses are given both in cooperation with other organisations and at Atlet’s four own education centres. Over the years the number of students have increased at a steady rate, and recently the company exports its safety material and guidelines.
In 1976 a sale subsidiary was started in Germany. The German market is very large with many important actors competing for market share. Two of the biggest truck producers in Europe have their main production facilities in the country. When Atlet decided to enter Germany, it knew it would not be easy. And it surely has not. The German subsidiary has had lots of problems over the years, and although much has been done to improve matters, the company has never been profitable6
. In spite of this, selling the company has never been seriously considered.
”Not really. After all it is a question of calculation. If you include it in the calculation for the company as a whole, the result is that closing it down wouldn’t improve matters, because then it doesn’t provide a contribution margin to the Swedish company. Closing it down would only imply a preservation of status quo” (Knut).
”France and Germany are the biggest markets. When it comes to trucks, you have to be there. You can’t have 1% market share in a country like that. Earlier we haven’t had the right products for reaching big volumes, but today we have… We have to be successful in Germany and France, that’s where you find the big volumes.” (Harry).
”My way of thinking in relation to that question is, in a way, similar to Knut’s. It’s important to be present in Germany, because, after all, it’s the dominating market, and our toughest competitors are there: Jungheinrich
6 In 2001, after this study was completed, the German subsidiary was, for the first time,
and Linde. And I think that you prove you are a serious company by being established in Germany… Germany counts for about 30% of the market… I’m determined we will make profits (in Germany). If that means selling through agents, then we should do that, but leaving Germany is not an option. (Marianne).
The fact that the German subsidiary has been kept does not mean it has not been subjected to repeated discussions over the years.
”The development there (of the German subsidiary) has cost Atlet a lot, and it would never have worked in a publicly held company, or with a powerful board of directors. It’s due to Knut being very firm in relation to the issue, and that it would have been a loss of prestige to close anything down. It has always sustained losses, but it’s sort of still there for the sake of prestige. I think that has been a bond. Except for this things have developed very well. But the healthy parts have had to pump money into it, which has impeded development in other areas” (Lars).
”Of course it has been questioned by the board. But I think that here one can see the fact that profitability doesn’t always come first. It is more prestige, pride over having one’s own subsidiary in Germany, and France, and England and so forth. And I think Knut is very firm on this, and then you have to accept having the loss, and that the company makes a less positive result. And I think he does. Of course there has been an ambition, and a driving force to see something being built up, and grow and become bigger, and I think having subsidiaries is a representation of that. There should be subsidiaries, because that is a sign of being an international and a relatively big company. I think that has been a bit of a driving force for Knut too, and not always the bottom line, the result” (Peter).
Atlet’s expansion continued during the 1980s’ when customers raised new and increased demands. Their store rooms got bigger. They increased the height of the staples of goods, and they started working 24 hours a day. To meet these needs, new products were developed, and old ones were improved. At the end of the decade the company had one of the worlds most extensive truck program for internal handling. The service organisation continued to grow. In order to make more efficient use of the sales and service organisations, Atlet became distributor of Toyota counter balance trucks in 1981. Once again, the continued expansion made it necessary to restructure the company, this time into a divisionalised form. Moreover, Atlet again ended up in a situation with a too small production plant. Therefore it was further enlarged during 1984-85.
When Atlet in 1986 chose to start its own subsidiary in France it had been present on the market through two agents for a number of years. Unfortunately, both agents ended up with financial problems, wherefore Atlet decided to establish a sales company of its own, a venture which turned out very
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well. In 1990 it received a price as the most successful Swedish subsidiary. In 1988 a subsidiary was started in Chicago. The US is known for being a difficult market for European actors, and not many foreign truck companies have succeeded to get established. Atlet decided to go for a niche strategy. Whereas most American customers chose cheap, mass-produced trucks, Atlet decided to focus on customers of particular industries looking for high quality solutions to their logistic problems. ”This does our products justice and is economically beneficial for the customer, even though the price for the truck is higher” (Knut,) At the beginning of the 1990s’ subsidiaries were started in Holland and Belgium. Together with the Swedish sale organisation the six subsidiaries account for 80% of Atlets total sales. Moreover, by having its own sale organisation, Atlet is able to work also as a consultant for logistics (manuscript 35), and make sure after-sale service, such as reparations, work satisfactorily. With its extensive contacts the company is also a well-respected player on the international arena.
”He has a tremendously good reputation among the international actors. We cooperate with organisations in Europe, and Japan, and the US, and they know of Knut Jacobsson and Atlet. The company has a reputation of being nice and well-run, a company you can trust” (Marianne).
In the beginning of the 1980s’ the family started to be more actively involved in Atlet.
In 1982 Ragnvi entered the company to replace Marianne, who at the time worked with the company statistics. With only a week’s notice, Marianne was accepted as a student at the university of Uppsala, which made it necessary to very quickly find someone to replace her. This someone turned out to be Ragnvi, who accepted her position with the intention to just help out temporarily.
”I have always said I’ll never start working for Atlet. I’m a social welfare worker… It was the closing of the books for the month, and Knut said to me: ’We have to have someone who does it, why don’t you?’. And I said I could do it until we found someone else. And then the union approached me and said they needed someone who could take care of the guests, and show them the production, and give an introduction to the products. And the same thing with the newly employed. At that time we had no formal introduction for the employees, but there was a need for one, so I made an introduction program. And after that one thing has led to the other. Again the union approached me: ’Wouldn’t it be a good idea to make something out of the company magazine ”Trucksvärtan”’, which led a languishing life. So I caught that as well. And then Knut’s secretary resigned, and the new secretary said she didn’t want to be responsible for the travel arrangements. And then Knut asked me to do that. And that’s the way it is, and here I am. In May I turn 67 and now I work Tuesdays and Fridays” (Ragnvi).
Not only Ragvi but also the daughters got more involved in the business in the beginning of the 1980s’ when they started taking part, two at a time, in the board meetings. This was initiated by Knut who is of the opinion that ownership requires having a certain amount of knowledge of the business, and sharing its responsibility.
”To understand the meaning of running a family business, of being a family business, and of the responsibilities that are attached to it, it does not imply only being a share holder. Somehow you have to be involved in the problems and have a knowledge of what it all means” (Knut).
The siblings’, however have mixed feelings about the board. On the one hand they find it interesting and rewarding in terms of the increased understanding they get of what goes on in the business. On the other hand they feel a bit like outsiders, since their lack of knowledge of technology and business administration as well as of the truck industry makes them feel ”non- professional” and uncomfortable.
”In a way it’s kind of exciting, but for me it’s a bit hard being on the board because I sort of feel I am. As a medical doctor I have a lot of power, and I am respected, and suddenly one sits there like nobody, that’s what I find hard. But apart from that I think it’s interesting. It’s kind of special being part of such a context “ (Lilian).
”I like it. I really do. It has been a topic for discussion among all the siblings, and we all feel we are lacking knowledge. One feels one gets more engaged in the business. And it’s just like dad says, everyone does listen to us if we say something. The other (board members) don’t complain, but we don’t feel we have any impact. We don’t have the same value, or function, as an external board member. That’s not the reason for us being there… This is how we feel. I wouldn’t be elected as board member in another truck company’s board. I’m not on the board because of my knowledge of business administration or the like, but I am there as a representative of the family. But of course one sometimes feels one is there mostly as a listener” (Monika). ”I can tell I do it with mixed feelings. I think it’s interesting when I am there, but I think it’s so terribly embarrassing that I don’t have more knowledge. To me it’s humiliating not to say anything… But when sitting there I think it’s interesting to hear the discussions. And it gives you a fairly clear picture of how the company is doing. And it’s much better than just reading the statistics I prefer to sit there to get the information” (Margareta).
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