Industry braces for Ford's "Black Monday"
Coming just a couple of
months after GM's downsizing plan, Ford is expected to trot out its own cuts tomorrow. Just four years after Bill Ford announced a turnaround plan that ended with 20,000 lost jobs, the Way Forward plan looks to slice another 25,000 blue-collar jobs and at least 4,000 white-collar positions in the process of closing up to 10 assembly plants and streamlining Ford's operations. GM's woes have received the majority of attention for its woes and Ford actually turned a profit in '05, but more than a few industry insiders believe that the Dearborn-based manufacturer is actually in worse shape, and much of that has to do with Ford's floundering SUV sales.
Once this plan is executed in full, Ford will have cut approximately 42% of its assembly workforce since Bill Ford took charge of the company in 2001, which corresponds to the eight points of market share that the company has lost in the past decade.
Ford's Wixom plant now appears to be on the chopping block, despite what I wrote last week. We'll know about this - and much more - when the plan is unveiled at 10:30 tomorrow morning. Autoblog will be liveblogging the press conference, starting at 9:30 a.m. (ET), so don't forget to reserve a browser window for us on Monday!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
far jr 7:29PM (1/22/2006)
Sell Land Rover, Astin Martin, Volvo, and Jaguar. Abolish the Mercury brand. Make ford brand to compete with Toyota, Honda, GM, Nissan. Make Lincoln to compete with Lexus, Acura, BMW, Infiniti. Mazda? I think Ford has recieved some beneficial engineering from Mazda. Keep them but let them concentrate on cars, vans, CUV's... no trucks or SUV's. Oh yeah, and cut enough capacity to withstand another 5% drop in market share in the US to be ahead of the curve rather than behind it. Just my $.02.
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Dark Leth 9:58PM (1/22/2006)
Sell Volvo and Land Rover? Pshh... Those are high-quality, high margin brands. Aston and Jaguar can go, I agree, but selling those two would be borderline idiotic.
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LM dealer 10:27PM (1/22/2006)
I'm sure Bill Ford will come here looking for your advice before he makes his anouncement tomorrow. LOL!
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Scott 10:39PM (1/22/2006)
Aston Martin is profitable, so selling it would be pointless. Jaguar just needs new cars that look NEW, instead of being all new but looking about the same as they have for 20 years. LR is doing much better since it got new product (which is how everything seems to work) and Volvo has been very profitable for Ford. Mercury is minimally profitable, but their volume keeps Lincoln-Mercury dealers afloat. So, I don't think any of your suggestions make good sense. It's the product that counts, not how many brands you have or don't have.
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iQuack 11:21PM (1/22/2006)
Major challenge is to downsize Ford (GM has same problem) to meet lower, long-run demand for its vehicles.
So, job cuts and plant closings will be the big news.
If any division should be sold, perhaps Jaguar would be the best candidate because that brand might find a buyer and it's currently a loser for Ford.
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Andman 12:24AM (1/23/2006)
Jaguar has designed the cars that sell badly itself...but don't forget that the main force behind ALL strategic moves has been from Detroit. Ford insisted on jaguar going higher volume and the X type being on a Mondeo platform..No jaguar engineer worth his salt wanted that..but got it.
The cars image was forced by the Ford hierachy (Jac the Knife nasser et al) to fit into a percieved brand line up that would not compete with Aston, Volvo, LR etc and retain the quaint English heritage thing that all Americans seem to pine for. Bill Ford, Jac Nasser, Jim Padilla have been much more influential in the current mess than they will ever care to admit but the latest move to focus on small volume high margin vehicles with sportier interiors (using carbon fibre and brushed aluminium at last instead of grandads walnut!) is the right move for the brand.The X type must be culled and be replaced by a niche jaguar sports coupe (Boxster type) if replaced at all. The deisel sales are pushing the brand back towards parity even with poor design appeal of the current range.
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Justin 5:18AM (1/23/2006)
Thats funny, Bill Ford's job is not getting cut. Why is that? Maybe someone competent should run this company. Bill Ford's reign has been a total disaster. Short of the Mustang Ford has ZERO attractive high volume models for the US market right now. They didn't even include a manumatic on the 500 or the Fusion. How backwards is this company? Even the Hyundai Sonata has this standard.
Sell jaguar and aston to Renault, kill mercury, kill the expedition and the explorer before sales completely collapse this summer, kill the minivan and the Panther platform. Bring to the US the new Focus, Fiesta, C-max, Mondeo sedan and wagon, Transit and the Australian Falcon and Territory. Save a bundle on new model development. And for God's sake redesign the ranger. Ford's flawed strategy of treating the US as a unique market has failed miserably. GM is in the same boat. I I would hate to see ford go the way of Rover and GM.
To the employees, I'm very sorry that despite your loyal support ford management and the UAW have failed you.
This is just further proof that nepotism is a recipe for disaster whether its CEOs or presidents.
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jamie 12:07PM (1/23/2006)
I don't know what is the matter with today's CEOs. They have absolutely no concept on how to turn around a failing company.
GM needs to produce and sell 6 million vehicles a year in NA to break even. So why does rickshaw-ready Rick Wagoner propose to reduce production to 4 million vehicles by closing factories and laying off staff? That is nothing short of cutting your own throat!
The same problem and dumb solution is now echoed by Bill Ford.
Why does Toyota continue to build factories and hire staff? Am I missing something here?
The problem is obvious. Management is inept.
I can turn around Ford and/or GM in 90 days!!! If the current management team cannot muster the balls to do likewise, then they should be replaced immediately.
I will increase production and sales as well as hire additional staff. Profits will role in unabated if a different tack is taken.
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