The NDO takes over SAAB Parts
January 31, 2012 in News
Not a lot of news came out of the information meeting with the bankruptcy administrators but some things have happened on the Saab Parts front.
A few days ago the EIB loan was paid off by the National Debt Office and now its been announced that the NDO will take over operations of Saab Parts and thus the company will become a government owned and operated company. The current board will be replaced. Saab Parts would still be part of a sale of Saab Automobile AB however if the administrators would fail with a complete sale, Saab Parts could become government owned for many years.
Saab Parts is a very profitable company so it would serve well to repay the debt for the former EIB Loan to the government.
Red J said on January 31, 2012
It is good news that the NDO prefers to get their money back by running the company rather than selling it.
If Saab can’t be sold as a whole, Government parts would be better for the Saab drivers than Greedy Parts.
scand said on January 31, 2012
They, and the consumer, would be better off if they sold it to the private sector. If the Swedish government try to run it, it will become a beaurocratic mess on a downward trajectory, until such time as they close it.
If the private sector had it, they could find other income streams as the need for Saab parts declined, and evolve and grow the business in other directions.
Capitalism. One oh one!
Red J said on January 31, 2012
It’s an opinion. As valid as mine.
davidgmills said on January 31, 2012
Pure capitalism has worked great for Saab so far. Privatize the profits and socialize the losses. It might be nice to socialize the profits for a change.
Marco said on January 31, 2012
I remember when the Government strictly refused to take over the whole of Saab with words like “The state can not run a car company”… Maybe the parts company is easier…
alwaysSaab said on January 31, 2012
The Swedish Government is coming in simply because Saab Parts is a company that has always been profitable. Otherwise, I am sure it will adopt the usual can’t-be-bothered attitude. It sucks, in my view.
kochje said on January 31, 2012
+1 ;Too few and too late
Yerrun said on January 31, 2012
Isn’t it ironic how a government that always claimed they never wanted to run nor own SAAB now, after letting it go bankrupt, suddenly owns parts of the leftovers. Sure it’s a good thing at the moment but still…
zippy said on January 31, 2012
+9
Snowshoe said on January 31, 2012
I have read the article from DI in two papers and I do not interpret it this way.
That article only says that the NDO might take over. Not that it now does.
There might be more to it than that article but I do not see anything new, That the NSO took over the EIB loan is also old news.
Red J said on January 31, 2012
The “new” part is that the NDO will get rid of the old board and assign new people for the board.
FYI
Snowshoe said on January 31, 2012
I noticed that directly after my comment :-/
I can understand that you want to have oversight through the board when there is a debt of that size.
mpprh said on January 31, 2012
Saab Parts was very profitable when they were mainly sold through Saab wholesale and retail channels at high markups. This will rapidly cease.
The common GM parts will now have to compete on price, which will reduce the margins.
Manufacture of exclusively Saab parts will become more difficult (and some may be impossible) once the current stocks have been sold.
The market for Saab parts will be very small in 10 years time.
Rover enthusiasts are cannibalising used vehicles and buying from scrap yards to keep some of their cars on the road. Metros are getting rare as people buy them to keep old minis on the road.
Red J said on January 31, 2012
But Saab parts does also sell GM parts in the Nordic countries, and could also take care of the spare parts of other non Swedish brands, as they have a very good logistics and infrastructure.
SAABNUT said on January 31, 2012
I agree – its not only the parts as such – to run an efficent parts business you also need to have a good infrastructure – IT-support, EDI systems and distribution network.
Most likely SAAB parts own the stamping dies and production equipment for many of the spare parts which mean they can controll and nominate subcontractors once the bancrupcy procedures are ower.
At the same time there will be third party providers or even competition from various GM suppliers (some opel / generiv GM parts will also fit SAAB.
Again SAAB parts future is challenging – with warranty work and in house orders from the network drying out in the wake of the bancrupcy, competition from third party manufacturers or independent shops will increase.
Its also logical that SAAB parts is offered in a total package solution to a potentianl buyer of SAAB.
It can be a cash generator and part of any future recovery of SAAB, should a new owner acquire the company to get a full new start aiming at rebuilding the brand on a larger scale.
Now all options still seem to be open.
Thylmuc said on January 31, 2012
Only if Saab is not resurrected. Which will however happen.
scand said on January 31, 2012
if you look at the approximate average number of cars produced 10 – 15 years ago, (call it 100 000 units a year) , then by extension, those cars are potentially at the end of their service life. Sure some diehards will keep some of them going, but many are going to be heading to the scrap heap, at somewhere around 8000 units a month.
Therefore Saab parts, best case, can project a potential marketplace decline of around 8 -10 percent this year, and accelerating, as time goes on
Hans H said on January 31, 2012
Slightly Off Topic:
TopGear aired the first episode of the latest series this weekend, and they showed a montage of what’s to come this season. And I spotted a Saab 9-5. They’ll be driving a 9-5 !!.
Let’s hope Saab has some really good news before that episode goes on air. It would be a perfect place to announce that Saab is back.
Katsura said on January 31, 2012
Top gear is a joke as far as car review is concerned. Unfortunately it also has a huge influence on ppl who should know better.
Bernard said on January 31, 2012
Top Gear is hardly a “car review” show. They only review supercars, German performance saloons, and old clunkers purchased for £2,000 or less.
They do have a huge influence, but it’s cultural, not commercial.
Turbo9000 said on January 31, 2012
Don’t expect them to say anything nice about the new 9-5; to them the car is probably just a glorified Opel Insignia; not ‘cool’ enough….
Jon said on January 31, 2012
They are actually doing a tribute to Saab in this series
Katsura said on January 31, 2012
Which will actually be counter productive because it will seal in ppl’s mind that Saab is dead.
I’d rather they do a special feature AFTER the outcome of sale is confirmed.
metalhead said on January 31, 2012
Strange, Clarkson said of the pre-06 9-5 as old as the 9000, but he actually likes it, stating it is good in some ways, and better in others.
SaabTurbo said on January 31, 2012
I saw the 9-5 in the teaser too. Lets just hope they didn’t take the base version like fifth gear did.
Paddan said on January 31, 2012
Oh the irony that the Swedish government is actually running a part of Saab. This all could have been so much easier had they assisted SWAN before. Talking about shooting themselves in the foot with their own gun.
sandycapp said on January 31, 2012
Hang on a minute here folks. On the one hand you’re excoriating SweGov for not supporting Saab, and on the other hand beating up USGov for bailing GM out. Can’t have it both ways, peoples!
RS said on January 31, 2012
Support and bailout are two completely different things. No one was asking the Swe Govt to bailout SWAN.
davidgmills said on January 31, 2012
Of course they can. They do it all the time. They bash the governments for assisting, then they bash the governments when the governments get out of the way. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?
dave lewis said on January 31, 2012
While it is not a monolithic opinion, yes there are a lot of people who talk out of both sides of their mouths.
My all time favorite for pro government intervention is this one:
“CSD_ChineseSaabDriver said on January 1, 2012
General Morons
I never hated GM so much but I do find them morons I can’t hardly imagine a smart business man would piss of his major customer, GM’s sales in China is even larger than in America, how stupid would GM be to piss off Chinese NDRC, NDRC is very powerful controlling the power to decide if a car company in China is allowed to do this or that, like expanding a new factory etc.
GM is screwed big time if they don’t knee down soon.”
RS said on January 31, 2012
When did Governments get out of Saabs way?! We had a string of Govt entities literally all over the world preventing the company from getting its finances freely in order. Government Motors didn’t help either, but I think we’ve had enough of the socialism vs. capitalism discussion on SU already.
When I say support I don’t mean handing over cash.
Rune said on January 31, 2012
Yes, I have seen those comments that are opposed to GM’s bailout package.
I am not aware though that those people opposed to that particular bailout have advocated that SweGov should have initiated a similar bailout of Saab.
As RS said, there is a difference between asking for a little support and requesting a full bailout.
Personally I think SweGov could have done a lot by simply NOT talking down Saab while declaring that “they can build windmills instead”. Had they taken a more positive approach then a lot of grief could have been avoided.
derek said on January 31, 2012
Now when we inquire about parts, they could answer some questions with “no comment” or “that is forbidden”! Or maybe offer parts cheaper if you can show your income is low. Just kidding!
derek said on January 31, 2012
Or recommend to the government that Opels will have extra import tariffs if GM boycotts selling certain parts to the NDO.
JH said on January 31, 2012
In my mind, the important thing is this: “Saab Parts would still be part of a sale of Saab Automobile AB”. We’ll just have to wait and see how things turn out, but it is encouraging to note that Youngman seems so confident about acquiring the bankruptcy estate.
saaburban said on January 31, 2012
On another note, news says that Opel unions is giving GM all clear to slimmad Opel down, for it to reach profitability. Only fenans is that GM moves all production in Korea back to germany.
- doesnt this sound like what opel did to Saab. Trying to move 9-5 away fr.o.m. Trollhattan.
As we might curse GM for treating saab so unfair, i think Opel is the rotten egg in that family, always attacking it’s siblings.
lab shala said on February 1, 2012
I am waiting for over 2 months, for the front strut and yoke. My 9-5 Aero 2011 is sitting at the dealer,. I see hard times coming for Saab owner particularly 9-5 Aero 2011