xcel
06-21-2006, 01:30 PM
The company might be in the most difficult stretch of the turnaround plan. (http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060621/BUSINESS01/606210342/1014)
Sarah A. Webster - Detroit Free Press - June 21, 2006
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Bill_Ford_on_Ford.jpg
Ford, Chairman and CEO, Ford Motor Company.
NEW PLANT: Going to Mexico? No decision coming anytime soon.
VEHICLES: More focus on cars after maker relied too much on trucks.
UAW: 2007 contract is crucial, but he has faith in Gettelfinger.
In a far-ranging interview Tuesday, Ford Motor Co. Chairman and CEO Bill Ford revealed to the Free Press that he has not decided where to build a low-cost assembly plant that company documents indicated would go in Mexico.
On a busy day, when he was dashing from yet another meeting up to the penthouse of world headquarters in Dearborn for the interview, Ford, 49, gave a progress report on the company's 5-month-old turnaround effort. His tone during the more than hour-long interview was serious and concerned, but jovial and confident at the same time.
And he was emphatic when he said no decision had been made about where to locate the new assembly plant that had been promised in January as part of the 6-year Way Forward turnaround plan for North America.
"I don't expect any decision to be coming soon on that," Ford said. "So the location, the product, and how it may or may not fit into our existing assembly capacity, is something that we are just not ready to make a decision on."
Many states and countries, especially those that have been losing manufacturing jobs, are hungry to secure the facility. A new plant typically employs several thousand workers and usually results in many more spin-off jobs and benefits. But as of yet, there are no winners - and no losers - for that new plant, Ford said.
While many workers at the 103-year-old automaker might prefer that Ford build the plant in the United States, especially as management trumpets its Driving American Innovation campaign, such a decision might ultimately be a hard-boiled business one based on costs and benefits in a competitive, global market.
In Bill Ford's discussion with the Free Press - one day before the automaker parades its 2007 lineup before automotive journalists - he said the company has set up a "war room" to defend its F-150 against new pickups by Chevrolet and Toyota, even as it refocuses on the car business to attack Toyota at its strength.
It quickly became clear in the interview that the great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford has substantially upped his involvement in day-to-day management of the company during the past few months, after Jim Padilla, Ford's president and chief operating officer, announced his intention to retire July 1.
After Ford Motor earned $2 billion in 2005, the news this year has not been great. The company posted a $1.2-billion loss in the first three months. Sales are down 3.5% this year, and Ford's share of the crucial U.S. market has dropped - albeit at a slower pace than in the past -- 0.6%, to 18.5%.
As Ford's stock hit $6.40 a share Tuesday - continuing a months-long slide into the lowest levels since Ford became chairman in 1998 - he acknowledged that the company might be in the most difficult stretch of the turnaround plan.
"This is what we planned for. And so, we're living with that," Ford said. "We're where we thought we would be - in the midst of a tough slog, with a lot of adjustments being made."
But he was optimistic that the Way Forward was working well and would continue to do so even if cars outsell trucks.
Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, has slowed market share losses in the United States and his team has constructed a plan that, Bill Ford boasted, represents the most original thinking he has seen at the company "in many years."
Ford said that plan is on track to restore North American operations to profitability in 2008.
"Obviously, a big watershed event is the '07 contract that our whole industry is going to face," Ford said of negotiations with the UAW.
In the short term, Ford is flying to Europe today to do some business. Then he'll try to squeeze in some R&R, such as driving trips and family time.
"Well, my 15-year-old thinks I'm stuck in glue," he said, "but my younger son - he's 11 - still looks up to me, thinks I've still got something to offer."
Sarah A. Webster - Detroit Free Press - June 21, 2006
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Bill_Ford_on_Ford.jpg
Ford, Chairman and CEO, Ford Motor Company.
NEW PLANT: Going to Mexico? No decision coming anytime soon.
VEHICLES: More focus on cars after maker relied too much on trucks.
UAW: 2007 contract is crucial, but he has faith in Gettelfinger.
In a far-ranging interview Tuesday, Ford Motor Co. Chairman and CEO Bill Ford revealed to the Free Press that he has not decided where to build a low-cost assembly plant that company documents indicated would go in Mexico.
On a busy day, when he was dashing from yet another meeting up to the penthouse of world headquarters in Dearborn for the interview, Ford, 49, gave a progress report on the company's 5-month-old turnaround effort. His tone during the more than hour-long interview was serious and concerned, but jovial and confident at the same time.
And he was emphatic when he said no decision had been made about where to locate the new assembly plant that had been promised in January as part of the 6-year Way Forward turnaround plan for North America.
"I don't expect any decision to be coming soon on that," Ford said. "So the location, the product, and how it may or may not fit into our existing assembly capacity, is something that we are just not ready to make a decision on."
Many states and countries, especially those that have been losing manufacturing jobs, are hungry to secure the facility. A new plant typically employs several thousand workers and usually results in many more spin-off jobs and benefits. But as of yet, there are no winners - and no losers - for that new plant, Ford said.
While many workers at the 103-year-old automaker might prefer that Ford build the plant in the United States, especially as management trumpets its Driving American Innovation campaign, such a decision might ultimately be a hard-boiled business one based on costs and benefits in a competitive, global market.
In Bill Ford's discussion with the Free Press - one day before the automaker parades its 2007 lineup before automotive journalists - he said the company has set up a "war room" to defend its F-150 against new pickups by Chevrolet and Toyota, even as it refocuses on the car business to attack Toyota at its strength.
It quickly became clear in the interview that the great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford has substantially upped his involvement in day-to-day management of the company during the past few months, after Jim Padilla, Ford's president and chief operating officer, announced his intention to retire July 1.
After Ford Motor earned $2 billion in 2005, the news this year has not been great. The company posted a $1.2-billion loss in the first three months. Sales are down 3.5% this year, and Ford's share of the crucial U.S. market has dropped - albeit at a slower pace than in the past -- 0.6%, to 18.5%.
As Ford's stock hit $6.40 a share Tuesday - continuing a months-long slide into the lowest levels since Ford became chairman in 1998 - he acknowledged that the company might be in the most difficult stretch of the turnaround plan.
"This is what we planned for. And so, we're living with that," Ford said. "We're where we thought we would be - in the midst of a tough slog, with a lot of adjustments being made."
But he was optimistic that the Way Forward was working well and would continue to do so even if cars outsell trucks.
Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, has slowed market share losses in the United States and his team has constructed a plan that, Bill Ford boasted, represents the most original thinking he has seen at the company "in many years."
Ford said that plan is on track to restore North American operations to profitability in 2008.
"Obviously, a big watershed event is the '07 contract that our whole industry is going to face," Ford said of negotiations with the UAW.
In the short term, Ford is flying to Europe today to do some business. Then he'll try to squeeze in some R&R, such as driving trips and family time.
"Well, my 15-year-old thinks I'm stuck in glue," he said, "but my younger son - he's 11 - still looks up to me, thinks I've still got something to offer."