Volvo 2009 Annual Report Download - page 14

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 14 of the 2009 Volvo annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 146

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116
  • 117
  • 118
  • 119
  • 120
  • 121
  • 122
  • 123
  • 124
  • 125
  • 126
  • 127
  • 128
  • 129
  • 130
  • 131
  • 132
  • 133
  • 134
  • 135
  • 136
  • 137
  • 138
  • 139
  • 140
  • 141
  • 142
  • 143
  • 144
  • 145
  • 146

45%
(52)
Other
18%
(16)
8%
(7)
8%
(7)
21%
(18)
Europe
North America
South America
Asia
A GLOBAL GROUP 2009
Based on its strength factors, the Volvo Group's ambition is to further increase its
competitiveness and improve its protability.
Strength factors
– foundations for success
Strong brands
The Volvo brand, which has been built up over decades, is one of the
world’s best known and respected brand names within trucks, buses,
construction equipment, marine engines, industrial engines and in the
aviation industry.
Mack is one of the most well known truck brands in North America
while Renault Trucks holds a special position in Southern Europe. In
February 2010, Nissan Diesel changed its name to UD Trucks Corpora-
tion. The UD brand is one of the biggest on the Japanese truck market.
Prevost sells coaches and Nova Bus city buses in North America.
The Volvo Group also sells construction equipment under the brand
SDLG mainly in China, and through joint-venture companies, trucks and
buses under the brand Eicher mainly in India and buses under the brands
Sunwin and Silver in China.
A customer offering at the forefront
The Volvo Group offers customers complete, efcient transport solutions.
Products with reliability, durability, good driveability, favorable fuel ef-
ciency and high environmental performance are combined with services
such as nancing, insurance, various service contracts, accessories and
spare parts that support the core products. The Volvo Group’s increasingly
broad offering of these services and aftermarket products is intended to
provide for improved competitiveness.
Continuous product renewal
In order to strengthen the Group’s position, products and services must
continuously be developed and improved, which in turn demands
considerable investments in research and development. By
taking customer needs into account early in the devel-
opment process and utilizing the Group’s collec-
tive technological competence, the product
program has been renewed and
strengthened in recent years. During
2009, the Volvo Group invested SEK
13 billion in product and development.
Strong market positions
The Volvo Group has leading positions globally in each of its business
areas. The Volvo Group is Europe’s largest and one of the world’s largest
manufacturers of heavy-duty trucks and one of the largest manufacturers
of buses in Europe and North America. Within construction equipment,
the Volvo Group is the world’s largest manufacturer of articulated haulers
and wheel loaders as well as one of the world’s largest manufacturers of
excavation equipment and road development machines. All in all, the
Volvo Group in 2008 was the world's second largest producer of heavy-
duty diesel engines.
Strengthened presence in Asia and South America
In recent years, the Volvo Group has strengthened its position in important
growth markets in Asia and South America through a combination of
organic growth and acquisitions. Among the acquired companies were UD
Trucks in Japan, Lingong (85% ownership) in China, VE Commercial
Vehicles (50% direct and indirect ownership) with its brand
Eicher in India and Ingersoll Rand’s road development
division. During 2009, SEK 30.5 billion, equal
to 14%, of Group sales were generated in
the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia,
India and China).
Share of Group’s net sales
10