‘Patience Running Out for Saab Abroad’: Suppliers

Disgruntled foreign suppliers could prove the stumbling block for disaster-riddled cash strapped Swedish automaker Saab, according to a European association for suppliers.
“I think that the patience has more or less run out,” said Lars Holmqvist CEO of Clepa, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, to news agency TT.

Ten weeks have passed since the factory in Trollhättan closed and with the exception of occasional days, production lines have been at a standstill ever since.

The problems with suppliers who haven’t been paid remains and according to Lars Holmqvist it is probably going to be the suppliers based abroad who will be the first to give up on Saab.

“They probably have less feeling for Saab than many Swedish companies which have grown up with Saab in a different way. Many also have a personal connection to Saab because they might have driven one at some point in their life. But the foreign suppliers are tougher,” Holmqvist told TT.

And according to him, their patience is running out.

“This is partly due to a lot of empty promises that have turned to nothing and partly due to lack of information. No consideration has been taken of these suppliers, they feel duped and therefore Saab is now standing there with a factory at a standstill,” Holmqvist said.

Holmqvist doesn’t want to speculate into how long Saab can hold out.

“But I am surprised that they have managed this far. I don’t think Saab will make it,” he told TT.

The Saab board is currently working to find a solution but on Wednesday they were no closer in being able to say when production can begin again.

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