Braun's new owners tell Winamac they're in it for the long term

That’s what representatives of Swedish firm Investor AB and its new Patricia Industries division told Winamac community leaders and elected officials this week while on their third visit to BraunAbility. Investor AB bought a leading interest in BraunAbility last month in a move the company said was the start of developing a portfolio of wholly owned North American companies.

Borje Ekholm, CEO of Patricia Industries, told about 25 elected officials and business executives that BraunAbility’s strong growth, “great” product and excellent market position helped attract Patricia Industries’ interest, but “really what makes the difference is culture.”

“I think culture wins over strategy every day of the week,” he said.

He praised BraunAbility for a focus on solving customer problems. He explained his belief that long-term success is achieved not by focusing on the bottom line but by keeping the focus on customer needs.

“If you do that, the bottom line will follow,” he said. “Making money is of course important, but it’s a consequence of doing the right thing.”

In his pronounced Swedish accent, Ekholm told those gathered at the BraunAbility headquarters in Winamac that the new owners have no plans to lay off anyone in BraunAbility.

The local workforce is “very competent,” he said. “Not investing and not building on that strength would be foolish.”

Instead, the Swedish firm aims to expand BraunAbility’s reach, potentially entering “untapped” foreign markets where public transportation is dominant. BraunAbility CEO Nick Gutwein noted the company already leads the U.S. market for wheelchair lifts for buses.

BraunAbility already operates one manufacturing facility in Brazil and is a partner in a Swedish venture, AutoAdapt.

That Swedish venture was the link that ultimately brought Investor AB and BraunAbility together.

Investor AB has been run by Sweden’s Wallenberg family for five generations. It owns a leading interest in many European companies and a number of international publicly traded companies, including Nasdaq, Electrolux, Husqvarna and Saab, and funnels investment dividends into the Wallenberg Foundations supporting research in the sciences, medicine and social sciences. The firm distributed $300 million in research grants in 2014, according to a company brochure.

Investor AB’s board had recently decided to start investing in wholly owned private firms and in 2013 bought Permobil, a Swedish power and manual wheelchair manufacturer with North American headquarters in Tennessee.

Investor AB also acquired Molnlycke Health Care, a supplier of surgical and wound care products, as well as a Swedish hospital operator to add to its fledgling Patricia Industries division.

Then the AutoAdapt approach caught the investment firm’s attention through some collaboration with Permobil.

BraunAbility has been approached many times by parties interested in buying interests in the company, Gutwein said. “All the time we just said no, no.”

But Investor AB’s interest was different. The firm takes a “unique approach,” Gutwein said.

Its intent, Ekholm said, was to develop an American presence “that we can work on developing for the really long term” — meaning decades. That didn’t mean a slow start, though. It was only four to five months between Investor AB’s initially expressing interest and its division leaders addressing hundreds of employees at its new holdings on Thursday.

The firm intends to acquire three to five more companies over the next five years to expand its portfolio of wholly owned companies, according to Noah Walley, president of Patricia Industries.

Manufacturing will stay in Winamac, both leaders said. Some additional facilities may be built overseas to serve those foreign markets in long term.

But Ekholm said he had no plans to outsource production for the North American market. “I’m not a believer in that, to be honest” — too much is lost in flexibility and inventory to make it worthwhile, he explained.

That was music to Lawrence Loehmer’s ears. The Monterey hardware store owner is in his third year on the board of Pulaski County Economic Development and said he prefers Investor AB’s approach over typical profits-driven strategies.

“They have different value systems than I see a lot of companies [have],” Loehmer said. “It’s refreshing to hear somebody talk about something other than what they can get out of it. They’re talking about, what can we make out of it.”

Several other community leaders agreed. A new Winamac Town Council member with family members employed at BraunAbility said the owners’ outlook mirrored that of the Winamac company’s founder, Ralph Braun, who passed away in 2013.

“I think Ralph would be pleased,” Judy Heater said.