ABB opens Collaboration Centre

Luleå ABB has opened its new office and a Collaboration Centre in Luleå. The investment is part of the company's strategy to grow in northern Sweden. In Norrbotten, the plan is to increase the number of employees by 10 per cent during 2024.

The inauguration in Luleå was attended by some of the company's customers, LKAB and SSAB, Luleå University of Technology, County Governor Lotta Finstorp and ABB's CEO Björn Rosengren.

"I am incredibly happy to be here and inaugurate the office in a place where so much is happening. Last year, Asea and ABB celebrated 140 years as a company and here in Luleå we have been around for about 100 years. Globally, ABB is present in over 100 markets with our great expertise in automation and electrification. But we are also very local - we are where our customers are," said ABB's CEO Björn Rosengren at the inauguration.

The Collaboration Centre is intended to be a place where ABB, customers and academia can come together to collaborate, be innovative and strengthen industry expertise in the region. It will be a place where training programmes can be held and students can develop their interests in automation and electrification, while seeing the opportunities that exist in the region.

"For ABB, northern Sweden is an incredibly important area with many exciting establishments and projects underway, not least in Norrbotten. It's not just about Norrland's coastal towns, but also about the mining industry in Kiruna and Gällivare. Therefore, we are convinced that it is right that we invest in a Collaboration Centre and hook arms with the industry and academia and implement the sustainable transition that everyone is talking about," says Terése Edholm, Head of Technology at ABB in Luleå.

In April 2022, ABB opened new premises in Gällivare. Since then, the company has invested in new premises and more new hires in several locations: Skellefteå, Umeå, Sundsvall, Kiruna. And now in Luleå where they have moved into completely renovated premises.

For the whole of northern Sweden, ABB needs to recruit new employees and aims to double the number of employees - from 350 to 700 over the next few years. In Norrbotten (Luleå, Kiruna and Gällivare), the company expects to grow by around 10 per cent in 2024.

Lennart Håkansson

editor@northswedenbusiness.com