GEELY’s acquisition of Volvo Cars

Manama : On August 2nd, 2010 in London, Ford officially delivered 100 per cent of Volvo Cars assets to GEELY Holding Group, indicating GEELY’s successful acquisition of Volvo Cars. Thus, GEELY becomes the very first multinational automaker in China. In the past year, through rational planning and effective management, GEELY not only made great strides itself but also helped Volvo Cars turn loss into gain.

In several months following the acquisition, it had been a general concern that GEELY might suffer from organisational deficiencies. However, GEELY soon proved that the acquisition was a smart move. First, even after the acquisition, GEELY still allowed Volvo Cars employees to manage Volvo Cars. With this management style, Volvo Cars employees are fully responsible for managing and operating their own brand and products. Second, GEELY also helped Volvo Cars build its own board of directors and senior management team which consists of financial, R & D, manufacturing and logistics elites. The established ‘Volvo-GEELY Cooperation and Collaboration Committee’ encourages extensive communication between Volvo Cars and GEELY in fields including production, purchasing, R & D, marketing and sales, and employee training. Additionally, in the next five years, GEELY plans to invest a total of 10.5 billion US dollars on Volvo Cars. 

For the first half of the calendar year of 2011, GEELY has sold a total of 215,451 units. It is 7.21 per cent increase compared with the sales in the same period of last year and twice as much as the overall sales growth of the auto industry. Many main products of GEELY (including EC7, LC, SC7, etc) have been launched in every regional market, and their sales are all on a steady increase.

Currently, GEELY has an R & D team of over 2,000 members and has established five technical platforms, 15 product platforms, and platform frameworks for 42 models, which all greatly enhance its R & D efficiency. To further improve safety and security of its vehicles, GEELY’s collision laboratory is being constructed in full swing. Additionally, GEELY has made many significant advances in important auto parts. All GEELY vehicles will carry the six-speed MT/AT transmissions which are independently designed and developed by GEELY. 1.3T turbo-charged engines will also go into production next year. 

GEELY has been continuously increasing its investment on logistics and is now planning to build several regional logistics centers for auto parts. With these centers, 70 per cent to 80pc of auto parts can be delivered to stores within 24 hours, and 90pc can be delivered within three days. 

“The acquisition of Volvo Cars allows for collaboration and cooperation between an eastern enterprise and a western enterprise, and it also effectively links the market in the East with that in the West’, says Li Shufu, Chairman of GEELY, in an interview. 

For more information visit www.geely.kekanoo.com or call 17680110 or 36288004/ 36288665. Download GEELY BAHRAIN mobile app now.