Spirit 38 - Volvo Construction Equipment

The dynamic Moscow skyline
“THE PLAN IS TO TREBLE THE NUMBER OF OUR
DEPOTS, TRANSFORM OUR SERVICE COVERAGE
AND TO MORE THAN DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF
VOLVO MACHINES IN THE COUNTRY.”
Within a few years,
says Carl Slotte, the company’s
distribution network – along
with its sales and market share
– will be unrecognizable.
“The plan is to
treble the number of our
depots, transform our service
coverage and to more than
double the number of Volvo
machines in the country. It’s a
huge challenge.”
Slotte is Volvo
Construction Equipment
General Director for Russia
and the Commonwealth of
Independent States, comprising
the former Soviet Republics.
He took over in 2008 - just
before the global credit crunch.
“Everyone thought
Russia’s dynamic economic
growth would continue but
suddenly the construction
equipment market collapsed by
over 90%. We had to change
our strategy from growth to
cost cutting and inventory
optimization.”
RUSSIAN RECOVERY
Now, though, the
recovery has begun. Official
figures show the Russian
economy grew 4% during 2010
alone. Finance Minister Alexei
Kudrin says Russia, as an
emerging market as well as the
world’s largest energy exporter,
is better placed than developed
economies.
It is also time
for the next phase of Volvo
Construction Equipment’s
development. It has teamed up
with Ferronordic Machines, a
privately held sales and service
company for the automotive
and machinery industry acting
as its exclusive dealer in Russia.
Ferronordic plans
to invest 100 million Euros
over five years, boosting its
workforce from 160 to 1,000
and increasing the number of
Volvo Construction Equipment
affiliated branches from 30 to
around 90.
“This is a clear
statement of our commitment
to the Russian market and
to bringing the benefits of
Volvo’s products and services
to customers across the
country,” says Erik Eberhardson,
Ferronordic Founder and CEO.
CARING ABOUT
CUSTOMERS
“Volvo’s approach to
business is an extremely good
fit with the Russian situation
- caring about customers and
customer profitability.”
“There will be
an element of educating
customers, especially through
service. It’s really exciting to
participate in their growth,
helping them to analyze how to
develop their business, how to
best use and maintain machines
and, working with financial
institutions, how to maximize
the utilization of working
capital.“It’s a trust issue – first
you have to gain trust of the
customer, then you can develop
a deeper relationship.”
Russia is already
an economic superpower,
fuelled by its energy industries.
It boasts the largest reserves
of natural gas in the world,
the second largest coal and
the eighth largest oil reserves.
These industries, however,
desperately need state-of-theart
construction equipment as
they modernize and upgrade
their ageing fleets.
SPIRIT40