Facts: Hägglund’s
The company was founded as early as 1899 as a family business and was initially focused on furniture manufacturing. Through the manufacture of bodies for cars and buses, they began to manufacture aircraft for the defense during the Second World War.
In the 1960s, however, the company was close to bankruptcy and the company was restructured.
Since 2004, the company has been owned by British-American BAE Systems, which is one of the world’s largest defense groups.
Vant Tommy Gustafsson-Rask demonstrates the 35-tonne combat vehicle CV90 parked in front of BAE Systems Hägglund’s factory premises.
— I think Ukraine is worth it. They are fought for us and then they must have real stuff. That our products are used for that purpose feels good, he says about the government’s decision to send 50 combat vehicles 90 to Ukraine.
Once upon a time, the company in Örnsköldsvik was Norrland’s largest furniture manufacturer. In the 40,000 square meter premises, which are also being expanded, two products are now manufactured:
CV90 with room for eight soldiers and equipped with automatic cannon. It is the one for which Slovakia, among others, has placed an order worth almost SEK 16 billion.
The track wagons with the designation BvS10. There, just before the turn of the year, Hägglunds announced a giant order of 760 million dollars for 436 vehicles to Sweden, Germany and Great Britain.
Increasing investments
All this is happening at the same time as the war in Ukraine is now entering its second year. A simple explanation for the sharply increasing demand for Hägglund’s products could have been the invasion of Ukraine, but Tommy Gustafsson-Rask emphasizes that it is more complex than that:
— The change was the annexation of Crimea in 2014. That’s when the West and Central Europe realized that Putin is up to something, will do more, and the security policy changed, he says.
– Then the outbreak of the war has increased decision-making and in the coming years we will see the real effects of the war, investments will increase.
Geoffrey Martins makes a final check before one of Hägglund’s track wagons is to be delivered to a customer.
Hägglund’s success is also about the fact that it has succeeded in becoming a world leader in a single production category in the form of the tracked wagon, which, in addition to armed conflicts, can also be used civilian, for example in healthcare.
— The trolley is a niche product and not many have tried to enter the market. We have been able to maintain the lead we had. Then it’s the case that you have a product that can handle traffic in Norrland with, among other things, marshland — then you can handle almost all other conditions, says Tommy Gustafsson-Rask.
Quadruple turnover
The order situation means that Hägglunds has secured continuous production for ten years for the track wagon, which Gustafsson-Rask describes as “incredible”. Financially, it is about the company now quadrupling its turnover to twelve billion kroner based on a five-year perspective and all of a sudden experiencing new conditions.
“We are now investigating whether we can grow six times as big to meet the demand,” says Gustafsson-Rask.
It is a marked difference from when he stepped into the post and had to start by notifying a couple of hundred employees, still his worst time at work. About 30 positions are now being advertised, ranging from welders to 3D graphics. There is also one of the company’s future challenges, the CEO points out:
— If we are to manage this long-term in Ö-vik, we have to get a net move into town, right now it is close to zero, but what worries me the most in the long term is the availability of welders and CNC operators. White-collar workers are more mobile and can work remotely, but with the collective it is different. You cannot weld remotely.
One of the few women
One of those recruited in recent years is Amanda Haneskog.
Almost 23 years old, she stands out as a woman and welder on the otherwise male-dominated production floor.
— I majored in commerce in high school but felt that I wanted to work with something practical and with my hands. When I started it was pretty empty. Now things have really started to happen and it’s really a lot of fun to be here.
Amanda Haneskog is employed as a welder at Hägglunds. However, the company assesses that they need to employ even more people in the welding profession in the next few years.
About the fact that the products she herself helped to complete could end up in armed conflicts, she says:
— You have to be able to think like that if you work with this. Then the work is about everything we do must be of top quality, but I think if you come from this town, no one questions that you work here.
She shares the view with Tommy Gustafsson-Rask. As CEO, he is used to answering questions about working with products intended for use in war, but his view has changed. Tommy Gustafsson-Rask illustrates the change with a visit to the local gym.
— It was a woman, maybe 65 years old, who came up to me. She said: “Tommy, I have not liked what you have done but now that I have seen the consequences of the war, I think it is wonderful what you are doing”.
Easier to recruit
All this is also reflected in the fact that it has also become easier to recruit for the company.
— In job interviews, we always raise the question that we are a defense industry, we manufacture these gadgets that can be used in this way and what approach you have to this. For me, who is an old officer, it’s dead simple, but you can be questioned at a dinner.
TT: For your own part, does it get easier over the years to be questioned exactly as you say?
— I’ve never had a hard time with it, but it’s a little easier now. The question does not come up very often, rather then from a positive perspective.