It started as a holiday project and finished in a stock exchange flotation...
“It has gone well,” says Kurt Blomqvist modestly.
Asked if he could ever have dreamt of such success, he replies laconically:
“No, I’ve never even given that any thought.”
KABE’s founder is evidently a man who prefers to look forward rather than back. Nonetheless, the whole has a dreamlike nature – a real-life fairy story about a determined lad raised in a small enterprise environment in Sweden’s Småland region.
Started in the garage
In 1958, Kurt Blomqvist was deep into a holiday project in the garage. He was determined that the family would not be camping that year. A caravan was slowly growing before his eyes.
Three weeks before departure, it was ready. Kurt was proud of his creation and could not resist the temptation when he received an offer to buy it. However, after the sunshine comes rain. The family that had set its heart on holidaying in a proper caravan could not hide its disappointment. Kurt was forced back into the garage to build yet another.
Evenings, nights and weekends – Kurt, who was then head of the Swedish Air Force Board’s control station at Saab in Jönköping, was working more or less all day round. He almost completed on time. A lot of materials and tools had to be taken along when it was time to leave. While the rest of the family were enjoying freedom at various camping sites, Kurt worked on. The return home was with a complete caravan – which was sold immediately.
Caravan building in the garage continued over the autumn. By summer, another eight were ready. The first model, the KABE Komet 250, was 2.4 m long and 1.8 m wide. Its price was a modest SEK 3,800, barely half that of a New Volvo PV in those days.
Wanted to take it further
Production continued but, four years later, Kurt had grown tired of having two jobs. However, was resigning from a well-paid post to chance things as an entrepreneur too much of a gamble? The choice was not easy.
“I had started from scratch with developing Sweden’s guided missiles. We had then come to a point where the project felt finished. It was perhaps time to move on to something different.”
The rest is modern Swedish caravan history. From the garage in Jönköping, a straight line runs to the group that has a factory in Tenhult as its base. KABE’s reputation grew and sales picked up speed. Many would have rested on those laurels. Not Kurt Blomqvist. Over the past ten years, he has been behind all the innovations introduced by KABE: Ecoprim insulation (1987), the AGS water-borne floor heating system (patent pending 1988), plastic studs (patent pending 1989) and ventilating walls (1992).
“I’ve always liked the technology side of my work. I try to devote half my time to development and design. I regard administration mainly as a necessity.”
Development workshop
To be able to continue development relatively undisturbed, Kurt established a special workshop with staff directly under his supervision. He has felt more at home there than in the MD’s office.
“Quite clearly, being at the workshop has been the greatest fun.”
It is with joy rather than pride that he talks about the development work that has taken place. This is particularly true of the Flexline system. The ability to build caravans with so many different floor layouts, without making production more costly, is perhaps the key to KABE’s increasing success in recent years.
“As a matter of fact, the Flexline system made production less expensive. By building base modules, we can maintain a steadier production rate. To reduce warehousing costs, caravans should be built in the late winter and spring. However, it’s impossible to work like that. We have our staff the whole year round. Thus, we now prepare caravans to 60 percent and complete them for the customer when sales start to pick up.
“Our suppliers of, for example, refrigerators and boilers, have had to get used to making large deliveries to us in the spring. In a way, we have shifted our warehousing costs over to them,” explains Kurt Blomqvist, making it all sound so easy.
Keeping a grip
Kurt has retained a certain boyish ingenuity. To say that he is a spry 80 year old is almost an insult.
“It’s been said that I’ve long been doing overtime here. So, I’ve now given up my position as chairman of the board of directors, but have kept my seat as a member.” Kurt Blomqvist does not have any plans to withdraw any further…
Footnote: The name KABE is derived from Kurt Blomqvist’s name. In Swedish, the two initials (KB) sound like KÅBE. However, this name was taken. Thus, Kurt dropped the circle from the “å”. Because the new name was then too like that of another company (KABI), he cleverly hit upon “Karosseri AB Elit”. The natural abbreviation of this was KABE. Karosseri is Swedish for bodywork, AB signifies limited company and elit is elite! The company is now called KABE Husvagnar AB. In the end, it was the authorities who had to give way.
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“Leveransavdelningen” bakom den blomqvistska villan. Skärmtaket byggdes för att ge regnskydd vid slutmonteringen av vagn/chassi.
Smaragd från 1967, KABEs första modell med separat “koffert”, för gasolflaskorna, som tidigare hade stått helt öppet.
KABEs grundare, Kurt Blomqvist, 1960-tal.
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