Suppliers ready to welcome Antonov as part owner of Saab
A couple of days ago the spokesman of the suppliers was rather harsh when he criticised Saab's strategy and behavior the last days. Today he is much more positive. From Dagens Industri web edition:
Sveåke Berglie puts his hope on Antonov
Even Saab’s suppliers are hoping for a rescue by Vladimir Antonov. "That could be what saves the situation," the head of the suppliers association Svenåke Berglie says, but he does not rule out that Saab has other solutions up the sleeve.
The production at Saab is stopped for an unknown period of time. During Wednesday information manager Eric Geers said that the automaker "is working hard to come up with a solution", but that they want to fix the stop-and-start that has characterized the production of late.
The head of the suppliers’ association, Svenåke Berglie, thinks the decision is well thought through and hopes that the problem will be solved as soon as possible. He also reports that the suppliers' association currently has a good dialogue with Saab.
On Tuesday the tune was quite different, then Berglie dismissed Saab’s explanations for the problems with supplies as "pure bullshit". Now, the relations have obviously improved.
- What we can not understand is why it has to take so much time for the government to decide whether these actions that Saab has presented, like the EIB loans or future owners like Antonov, he says, adding that it should be obvious to policy makers that there is little time.
How urgent do you think it is?
- I think it is very urgent."
He says that it’s difficult to say whether Saab will solve the problems in time or not, but he says he sincerely hopes that the automaker can resolve the situation. He has no objections against Vladimir Antonov as a part owner. On the contrary, he welcomes the solution that the Russian businessman steps in as an owner.
- Now we are not particularly familiar with this, but as far as I can understand, this is a good businessman and I do not really understand why one should get a reputation just because you happen to have a particular nationality, says Svenåke Berglie and continues:
- We think this could be what resolves the situation. But it is possible that Saab has something else up the sleeve, I do not know.
