Volvo Ocean Race: Overview, Marketing, History

56 CASE STUDIES
CASE STUDY 3: TEAM ASSA ABLOY
ASSA ABLOY, THE WORLD’S LEADING LOCK GROUP, PARTICIPATED IN THE
2001-02 VOLVO OCEAN RACE TO SUPPORT THE INTEGRATION PROCESS
OF 100 COMPANIES WORLDWIDE, DEVELOP ITS CORPORATE IDENTITY
AND STRENGTHEN THE RELATIONSHIP WITH CUSTOMERS AND
DISTRIBUTORS WORLDWIDE.
The company is interesting in that it is a young company established in
1994, yet comprised many old, well-established lock companies each with
strong national identities. By 2000, when the company decided to sponsor a
team in the Volvo Ocean Race, it had expanded rapidly by a mixture of organic
growth and acquisition, most notably of the Yale group in August 2000. Sales
growth has been rapid, from sales of SEK3 billion the group now has sales of
SEK25 billion (approx USD2.5 billion). Yet its share of a very fragmented world
market was still just over 10%.
In 2000, as a result of this rapid growth and acquisition, the Assa Abloy Group
comprised 25,000 employees in more than 100 companies in over 40
countries.
Because of the race’s global itinerary and nine month duration, Assa Abloy saw
the Volvo Ocean Race as a perfect vehicle for an accelerated integration of
many small to medium size companies and a way of establishing a corporate
identity strongly aligned with the race values.
BUSINESS ISSUES
Assa Abloy’s rapid expansion had created issues that needed to be dealt with
in order to secure the Group’s future success and continued growth. The
acquisition of the Yale Intruder Group created opportunities for the group in
new markets. Yale, in common with the other smaller global companies in the
Assa Abloy Group, had its own strong corporate identity, work ethic and
culture.
A GROUP OF DISTINCT, GLOBAL COMPANIES
Including the Yale Group, Assa Abloy had acquired 100 companies since the
company’s birth in 1994. Until the acquisition of Yale in 2000, the integration
process had been relatively straightforward.
The acquisition of the Yale Group presented new challenges. Of comparable
size with Assa Abloy with 13,000 employees in 30 companies, the newly
expanded group was clearly going to need a well-managed global operation