Co-ordinated bus business opens new opportunities

“The restructuring of our bus and coach operations has turned out very well. Today Scania’s bus expertise and resources has been integrated with truck operations in product development, production, purchasing, sales and service. And as with trucks, today we are investing in improving our selection of service-related products, even to bus and coach customers who do not drive a Scania,” said Leif Östling, Scania’s President and CEO, at today’s press launch of the company’s new bus and coach range.

Five years ago, Scania initiated a restructuring of its bus and coach operations. The objective was to take advantage of the similarities between bus and truck chassis and benefit from synergies. The first steps were to move bus chassis assembly in Katrineholm, Sweden to nearby Södertälje and co-ordinate it with truck chassis assembly, as well as integrate bus and coach product development and purchasing with truck operations. “In our bus chassis production, productivity has risen by 50 percent as a result of this co-ordination,” Mr Östling explained. As one element of the restructuring, labour-intensive bodybuilding of city buses was moved from Sweden to Poland. Today Scania exports body-built city and intercity buses from its production unit in St Petersburg to markets outside Russia. “Transferring of bodybuilding has yielded good results,” Mr Östling said. In commercial operations, Scania’s previously independent bus and coach marketing companies have been integrated into the existing truck sales and service companies in Europe, which also means that Scania’s bus and coach customers have access to the best parts supply in the market. “So now that we are introducing the broadest bus and coach range in the market, we also have an organisation that is ready for new challenges,” Mr Östling concluded. For further information, please contact Hans-Åke Danielsson, Press Manager, Corporate Communications, telephone +46 8 553 856 62.