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MarineNews recently had the opportunity to chat with Per Backteman, president of Scania USA, a marine diesel engine company that has made big waves in a relatively short time in the U.S. market. Please tell us about your background. I have been working with the marine market since 2002, when I started with Scania as Sales Director. As Sales Director, I had the responsibility for the industrial and marine engine sales and service globally, except for the Latin American Markets. In 2007, I joined Scania USA Inc. as President and with responsibility for the North American markets. Scania USA Inc. will begin to market industrial all speed engines for off road applications in January this year. Scania has made tremendous strides in the U.S. Can you tell us what you see as the strength of your engines and organization? We have an excellent product with many advantages, including weight to power ratio, fuel consumption, a modular system that saves costs for parts and training, and a one- man service concept that makes it easy to service or even rebuild our engines in an engine room. Our engines are made with a very high quality and are well known for excellent uptime. The service intervals for a Scania are normally longer than others. Organizationally, Scania has increased within North America by more than 50% dur- ing 2010. This is due to a successful sales development and market response, and will enable us to introduce the industrial all speed off road engines in the market as of 2011. During this past year, we have built up an extensive service network for the industrial platform. Scania USA has a very flexible organization and that is something we know our customers appreciate. Since you have entered the U.S. market in 2007, what have you found to be the most pleasant sur- prise in doing business here? I am pleasantly surprised by how well the customers over here have responded to the possibility of working with Scania. Today, we have client references in all type of applications such as passenger vessels, pilot boats, crew boats, supply boats, fishing boats and even the U.S. Navy and a number of other commercial applications. What are the challenges in doing business here? Of course it is a challenge to sell a foreign brand in a mar- ket with very strong domestic manufacturing and well- known engine manufacturers. This was something I wor- ried about in 2007, but today we know we can compete with the best. You seem to have ridden out the economic storm well. Yes, we absolutely did. On the marine side we did an all INSIGHTS President, Scania USA Inc Per Backteman 8 MN May 2011 Photo: Scania
