Anders Siewertz the gentle invade
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Scania came, saw, but has no intention o conquering. Expansion is the name of th( game, and that could be good news for Britain too, as lain Sherriff explains in thit frank face-to-face with the Swedish company's md
;ANIA (Great Britain) Ltd came the United Kingdom in 1967 rfore our entry to the European :onomic Community, and while )th Sweden and ourselves are partners in the European ee Trade Area. In a highly impetitive market, Scania in't take long to prove itself a )rthy competitor.
Very soon the Swedish-built ;hides were in wide use on itish roads, and the men who ove them were soon the envy many of their colleagues. ver the years Scania has ayed an increasing role on the itish road transport scene, and a have watched its growth )m an inside position.
Frequent visits to the factory Iar Stockholm to meet senior d line management have ught us something of ad3nced management techc:lues; we have also met 3signers, builders and testers. iere is much to impress.
But how does a Scandinavian )mpany superimpose its philo)phy, methods and standards the British market? To get the 3swer to this and other ques)ns, I met Anders Siewertz, aania's Swedish managing rector.
Mr Siewertz is widely tra311ed, having spent almost as uch time abroad as in his )meland, which has given a .apth and breath to his outlook. is edited transcript of our inrview should help readers to iderstand better how the cornany has reached its place of .ominence in Britain. It will also ve an idea of how Scania (GB) .d sees future developments in le freight industry.
In the early days the UK mar31 proved to be lucrative. Was it ill so and how does it measure
in Scania's worldwide export ague table, I asked Mr Sieertz?
He went back to 1967 when cania began work in this couny to answer this. "We began are right after the EFTA agreelent had taken effect in 365/66," he said.
"Within the EFTA nations, weden was the only major )untry producing heavy corniercial vehicles and our major ompetitors during the first years were the domestic makes and Volvo."
Mr Siewertz explained Scania was successful right from the start and managed to gain a fair slice of the British commercial vehicle market.
The next development took place when Great Britain joined the group of EEC countries in 1974/75. He said that the EEC has attracted a number of other cv manufacturers and there was now a lorry market fully exposed to international competition, where many foreign marques and, or course, the British makes have sharpened their competitive attitudes, organisations, operations and products.
"Over the years," continued Mr Siewertz, "Scania has been able to maintain a considerable share of the market, and the UK is still one of the company's ten leading export markets.
"But, of course, we work constantly on improving our position in the British lorry market," he explained. "We don't aim at becoming the absolute leader, but we are confident that we can advance further without losing the overall consolidation of our network."
The next question referred to Scania's managerial methods which differ from those in the UK.
Did Scania in the UK keep in close communication with Scania in Sweden?
Could the Sodertalje atmosphere be transmitted to the UK staff, or was it modified?
"Besides all normal means of communications — such as personal visits to and from Scania in Sweden and daily exchanges of views and ideas over the phone and telex — we try to combine the Swedish company's analytic capacities; its international and product knowhow, with our domestic knowledge, and merge all this into 8 Scania (Great Britain) policy and work order," he explained.
Mr Siewertz firmly believes that Scania (Great Britain) has succeeded in doing this and built up an organisation that works hand-in-hand with Sweden. He likes to think that the constant interchange of ideas, views and experiences is improving both British and Swedish operations.
"Of course, we are always looking into the potential of new markets," he explained. "But Europe, South America, the Middle East and Africa will show the largest growth in years to come."
Moving on to Scania's new range, it has come onto the market at possibly the worst time but its launch was unavoidable. I Wondered how far the timing affected the launch and when Scania expects to see the vehicles taking a large share of their market sector?
Mr Siewertz did not agree that the launch date was ill-timed. "Although the factory had not timed the launch of the new products to coincide with a temporary slump in the British lorry market, we were lucky to receive these new vehicles," he said.
"The new range was ir duced at an appropriate I and increased our opportun to compete in this declining r ket as we now have new, n ern vehicles featuring rr items our competitors d have."
He believes Scania will seE effects of this early next when the new range has t fully introduced and campany is in a position tc crease the availability of the vehicles.
The new range and the tir of the introduction also 1lighted the move to M Keynes, and, Mr Siewertz lieves, helped enhance the nia image in the UK.
hat did he consider to be a e share in percentage terms, ked? Is his figure related to t Scania can produce or t it can sell?
r Siewertz wasn't inclined to ke any predictions regarding re shares of the market in s of numbers or percens. However, he believes it Id be only natural if Scania's re here would be an average ts position in other Western opean countries.
'Let me once again emsise that we are not here to quer Britain'. We plan a dy growth within the framek of international trade," he e went on to say that improvScania sales in Britain and in er parts of the world is of imlance to British industry at je, since the British engiffing industry is one of the iing suppliers of materials I components to Scania, ast year, the value of British )ds sold to Scania amounted E49m, whereas Scania sales vehicles, engines and parts illed £25m.
o international expansion of nia will certainly mean insing orders for the British iponent industry, he said. lerally speaking, Scania has intention of creating a fully led distribution system in the A network mainly with inde'dent distributors is more Ictive, believes Mr Siewertz. Our new range is a good mple of how market de-ids can be recognised and
t into a production proTime as we have never behad such a number of varian s within the standard lramme," he said. "Today we have a range that can meet nearly all transport needs. This, of course, is a result of the co-operation between the different Scania market organisations and Scania, Sweden."
In the development of new vehicles, how much of Scania's export market experience .worldwide is used in pre-planning or modifying models, I asked?
There is a constant flow of market feedback to Scania, Sweden, which has an open mind to product development ideas, replied Mr Siewertz.
Of course, he contined, all requests and ideas from different markets regarding product changes must be compatible with the Scania design and production policies, must be financially viable, and fit in with Scania's standardisation programme.
Turning to the world scene, I wondered where Scania next plans to develop?
Its strength in Europe and .South American is well-known, but is it out in force elsewhere?
According to Mr Siewertz, Scania will develop within already established Scania market areas such as Western Europe, the Middle East and South America. By strengthening its network in these areas, it aims at still higher market penetrations, he said.
For the future, Mr Siewertz cited Africa as a potentially viable cv market.
Would Scania like the facility of being able to offer a wider range of vehicles, I asked, and, if so, how far down the weight range would it go?
"A wider range? No". Mr Sie
wertz was emphatic. "We' have always specialised in medium and heavy vehicles and have tried to streamline our organisation accordingly."
New ranges added to the present range would demand heavy investments and put heavy demands on the marketing structure. Such a move would certainly call for major and dramatic changes of the present set-up.
In view of the investments and the effects of all organisational changes needed, said Mr Siewertz, it is doubtful whether this would pay off, and therefore be of overall benefit to the Scania network.
"However, we live in a rapidly changing world and we must always be prepared for alternatives if the situation calls for them," he added.
Many people are confused about the relationship Scania has with Scantruck, and I asked whether there was any business connection apart from supplier and dealer?
Scania is negotiating a takeover with Scantruck, replied Mr Siewertz. "An importer of heavy vehicles, we can learn a lot about the market from limited participation in the retail business, and experience from that area can be used to expand and improve the entire organisation," he said.
What was behind the recent Scania move from Feltham to Milton Keynes?
The facilities at Feltham had become too small, he explained. They were originally laid out for a much smaller organisation and there was no room for expansion. "We needed new purposebuilt premises with shorter lines of communication to our Scaniz UK network, to our import harbours, and to our customers," he said.
Scania also wanted better training facilities, as an important part of its work involves a high level of product knowledge and technical skill among those who work for the company in this country, continued Mr Siewertz.
In the new premises at Milton Keynes Scania is now able to extend sales, service and parts training courses and make them more efficient and up to date, he said, "We also obtained sufficient space for stocking chassis — which we didn't have at Feltham — so becoming more flexible in making chassis available for sale," he continued.
"Neither did we have any space for workshops in Feltham. In Milton Keynes we have workshop facilities for pre-delivery inspection and we are also building up demonstration vehicles there."
He stressed that the Milton Keynes premises provided a much better working environment. "This is beneficial for company morale and may result in a lower staff turnover."
Did the move cause staffing problems, I wondered?
According to Mr Siewertz, you can't avoid problems when a company of this size moves house. "As soon as the company board had taken the decision to move from Feltham, we introduced a Scania Milton Keynes moving project which aimed at helping as many of the staff as possible to move with us.
He added that Milton Keynes presented no staffing problems as there was a surplus of good secretarial and administrative people available. So Scania was operational from the very start.
Moves always cost money, but did Scania see theirs as an expensive long-term investment?
"Of course, building new premises is always a very expensive business in the United Kingdom — even more expensive than in Sweden. But we have to look upon this as an investment for the future," he said with typical foresiaht.
"It is a result of our growth and consolidation in this country and has provided us with much better resources so far as services to our distributors and customers are concerned.
"Our new premises here give us the opportunity to continue expansion in Great Britain."