The company, founded on Sven Wingquist’s 1907 patent of the self-aligning ball bearing was successful from the outset. By 1910, the company had 325 employees and a subsidiary in the United Kingdom. Manufacturing operations were later established in multiple countries.
By 1912, SKF was represented in 32 countries and by 1930, a staff of over 21,000 were employed in 12 manufacturing facilities worldwide. Assar Gabrielsson, an SKF sales manager, was one of the two founders of Volvo. SKF funded the production run of the first thousand cars, built at Lundby, near Gothenburg, beginning in 1927. SKF also allowed the partners to use one of the company’s trademarked names: AB Volvo, which derives from the Latin “I roll”, with its obvious connotations of bearings in action.
