bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
in 1928–1932.
The company was founded by Mauritz Packalén and it built coaches and cabins mainly on
Chevrolet
Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...
chassis
A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...
. After falling into financial problems, the funding
bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
Mauritz Packalén, a Helsinki businessman who had gained experience in automobile business, founded together with
Gustaf Wrede
Gustaf Woldemar Wrede af Elimä (28 July 1889 – 17 February 1958) was a Finnish Freiherr, engineer and businessman. He is best known for his contribution to Finnish tractor production.
Wrede was born to influential Finnish industrialist Wrede ...
, Birger Sourander and Birger Holmström a company called O.Y. Henry-Auto A.B. for automobile trading in 1924. At an early stage Henry-Auto and Metro-Auto Oy founded jointly Munkkisaaren Autotalli ja Konepaja, "
Munkkisaari
Hernesaari (; sv, Ärtholmen; until 2013 known as Munkkisaari / ''Munkholmen'')
Foundation
Packalén invested the funds which had remained from Munkkisaaren Autotalli ja Konepaja on new company, O.Y. Autoteollisuus – A.B. Bilindustri; the name means "automobile industry" both in
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
and
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
. A suitable location was found in Fleming Street in
Kallio
Kallio (; sv, Berghäll; literally " the rock") is a district and a neighbourhood in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, located on the eastern side of the Helsinki peninsula about one kilometre north from the city centre. It is one of the mo ...
, Helsinki where were many workshops and also a plenty of skilled workers. The new company continued the operation of its predecessor.
Ownership and management
At the initial stage the major owner was Packalén and other shareholders were Birger Holmström and
Arne Söderberg
Arne may refer to:
Places
* Arne, Dorset, England, a village
** Arne RSPB reserve, a nature reserve adjacent to the village
* Arné, Hautes-Pyrénées, Midi-Pyrénées, France
* Arne (Boeotia), an ancient city in Boeotia, Greece
* Arne (Thessa ...
. Later Söderberg sold his part and Gustaf Wrede became an owner with a minor share. At the beginning Packalén was both the chair and General Manager; Kosti Nieminen held the manager’s post for some time until Packalén took it again. However, he was not willing to stay on the leadership, but gave it to young engineer
Tor Nessling
Tor Ragnar Nessling MSc ''(diplomi-insinööri)'' (6 September 1901 – 23 November 1971) was a leading Finnish industrialist, entrepreneur and engineer. For nearly four decades he was the general manager of the Finnish heavy vehicle producer ...
at the end of 1929. Nessling remained the manager until the company was discontinued.
Operation
Autoteollisuus-Bilindustri built partnership with the
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
subsidiary of
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
; the initial plan was building coaches and cabins on Chevrolet and G.M.C. chassis for the Swedish market, but the Swedish operators preferred the domestically produced
Scania-Vabis
Scania AB is a major Swedish manufacturer headquartered in Södertälje, focusing on commercial vehicles—specifically heavy lorries, trucks and buses. It also manufactures diesel engines for heavy vehicles as well as marine and general indus ...
, Tidaholm and
Volvo
The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
chassis; moreover, there was a strong local coachbuilding industry. Eventually the project lead to producing of vehicles for the Finnish market.
The company started negotiations with the Swedish Volvo about building of lorries in Finland from Volvo parts. Although Nessling’s calculations showed the business to be profitable, the project led only to importing of a few Volvo chassis. Finally there were not capable domestic component suppliers, so Autoteollisuus-Bilindustri had to use more Volvo parts than originally planned.
Creating Suomen Autoteollisuus
Autoteollisuus-Bilindustri, as well as its neighbouring competitor O/Y Autokoritehdas, had major financial problems. The banks, which were funding both companies, pressed them to put together their operations. This took place in April 1931, when O/Y Suomen Autoteollisuus A/B (SAT) was established by
Lars Wilhelm Åberg
Lars Wilhelm Åberg (19 December 1879 – 21 January 1942) was a Finnish engineer and businessman. Most notably he was the General Manager of Wärtsilä and co-founder of Suomen Autoteollisuus (SAT).
Early years
Lars Wilhelm Åberg was born in ...
,
Karl Arthur Nordgren Karl may refer to:
People
* Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne
* Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer
* Karl of Austria, last Austri ...
and
Emil Anton Winckelmann
Emil or Emile may refer to:
Literature
*''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
*''Emil and the Detective ...
. Unlike often thought, incorrectly, SAT was not created through a merger. It was founded jointly between the two companies and both Autoteollisuus-Bilindustri as well as Autokoritehdas moved their operations gradually under the new organisation thereafter. As soon as the process was completed, both companies were discontinued; for Autoteollisuus-Bilindustri this happened 20 October 1932.