Change of leadership. Gustaf Ljunggren CEO of Orio AB.

In the end everything went really fast. On the 10. In June Jonas Tegström left his desk at Orio AB after 5 years. With the takeover by successor Gustaf Ljunggren the announced change of leadership in Nyköping took place. Ljunggren is after Tegström only the second CEO of the company without Saab background.

Saab / Orio partner workshop. Image: Orio AB
Saab / Orio partner workshop. Image: Orio AB

Ljunggren is considered an experienced logistician and a specialist for companies in transition. Most recently he worked at GID Consultancy, Envirotainer and Inflight Service. After graduating from KTH, he held various positions at Unilever for 16 years, as Orio reports in a press release. Some of his activities were only short-term or as an interim manager. Experience in the automotive after-sales area does not seem to be available.

Spare parts division. The market is shrinking and changing.

Before Gustav Ljunggren lie great tasks. The company is under the Observation by the Swedish public. The successful logistics sector is to be expanded, and for the business with Saab spare parts, the CEO has to deliver concepts for the future. Although the spare parts business is still profitable, the market is shrinking and changing alike.

Change of leadership at Orio AB. Gustaf Ljunggren is the new CEO
Change of leadership at Orio AB. Gustaf Ljunggren is the new CEO. Image: Orio AB

So far, the focus has been on keeping Saab vehicles mobile in everyday life, but now the focus is increasingly shifting to the preservation and restoration of classics and youngtimers. While the availability of everyday vehicles was successfully resolved despite a few gaps, there are items in the range of the classics that have to be filled. So far there have been no signals from Nyköping that the problems would be addressed.

The future availability of spare parts for the classics and classic cars from Saab will determine the future of the spare parts division. The customers are known to be loyal, and it is noticeable that another generation of vehicles is enjoying the increased attention of fans. Good Saab 9-5 with early production date have arrived in the Youngtimer age. They are now rediscovered and suddenly enjoy increased attention.

If one recognizes the trend in Nyköping, and until now it was difficult to deal with the tendencies that exist beyond Sweden, then the company can profit from it. Ignoring the development, more and more freelancers will divide the market among themselves and earn the profit that one would like to have on the Swedish accounts. Because one thing is clear and could be one of the reasons for the change of leadership in management: The Swedish state does not want to keep Orio AB in its portfolio until all eternity.

A change of ownership, at the most favorable terms possible for taxpayers, is firmly on the political flag. The government in Stockholm, regardless of which party it represents, must be measured by this. In order for it to come to that, Ljunggren needs reliable black numbers from both business areas and a concept that will last for the next few years. His success will also be measured by how he leads the spare parts division into the future.

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dakoma
dakoma
4 years earlier

I very much hope that you can discover the “Classic Parts” section for yourself and fill it out in full. It should boil down to the preservation of automobiles.

Gosh
Gosh
4 years earlier

Let's keep our fingers crossed that there is enough potential and customers willing to pay for Oirio and let's hope that we get a good price / performance ratio from Oiro for our treasures

Jan_HH
4 years earlier

Maybe Orio will eventually be picked up / bought by a new SAAB group, which will take care of the remaining legacy of the SAAB brand. But hopefully Orio now recognizes the market of oldtimers and youngtimers!

9-5 AERO
9-5 AERO
4 years earlier

It would be very desirable again to produce a lightbar of the 9-5 NG. In recent years, only empty words. Because almost you do not necessarily trust in such a supposedly great company.

Herbert Hürsch
Herbert Hürsch
4 years earlier
Reply to  9-5 AERO

GROUP?

A Swedish aktiebolag is still a long way from making a group. Orio is rather the opposite of a group and in the course of the SAAB insolvency was spun off from such a company twice ...

First from the GM Group and then from the SAAB Group of the VM era.

I do not want to do word-winnings, but the distinction seems important to me. Also for a better understanding of Orios current situation or our perspectives as SAAB driver in spare parts supply. Orio AB (formerly SAAB Parts AB) mainly presents itself to me as a logistics and distribution company.

If still available, Orio maintains contact with former suppliers. But there is no direct contact with an in-house production or even development department, simply because there is no longer an automotive company to which one would belong. This inevitably has consequences.

Whether Orio AB is “supposedly great” or not has to be seen against this background and can only be judged sensibly by whether it disappoints, meets expectations or even surprises positively under the given conditions.
Orio certainly cannot be measured by the spare parts supply of an existing automotive company ...

A new and this time durable Lightbar would be very big Orio cinema.
If I had an NG, I would fall on my knees ...

Herbert Hürsch
Herbert Hürsch
4 years earlier
Reply to  Tom

"What you do with it (...)"

Hopefully a new and durable lightbar. It is always in demand and reminded.

Employees from the development? Sounds exciting. Is there any spare part that Orio has modified and brought to market in an improved way? That alone would be worth a happy story.

Or are the developers all gone after 7 years because they have felt chronically under-challenged since 2012? It would be worth a story, but it would be a different one, a rather sad one ...

Freising86
Freising86
4 years earlier

Let's hope that Ljunggren also deals responsibly with the SAAB heritage. With two functioning business units, things are going better in the long term.

dersaabler
4 years earlier

Tom, again very well written ...... Sweden will read along, hopefully.

Herbert Hürsch
Herbert Hürsch
4 years earlier
Reply to  dersaabler

Possibly. should not go much wrong 😉