ne hundred years ago nearly half
of the cars on British roads were
Fords. Henry Ford opened his f irst
dealership here in 1910. A year later
he chose Trafford Park, Manchester,
as the site of his first Model T factory outside the
US. He built the first British cars before 1911 and
b y 1914 he w a s m a k i n g c a r s t he r e on a mov i n g
production line.
O n t h at b e g i n n i n g Ford’s le a d i n g p o sit ion i n
the UK car market was founded, along with the
e ndu r i n g not ion t h at For d i s a Br it i sh c ompa ny.
A lt hou g h t he Blue O v a l no lon ge r m a k e s c a r s or
v a n s he r e , it do e s m a k e hu ge nu mb e r s of e n g i ne s
and employs 3000 engineers at its Dunton design
and engineering centre. But over the past decade
it h a s s t r u gg le d t o m a k e pr of it s i n Eu r op e a nd
has been through several bouts of ‘right-sizing’,
involving retrenchments and plant closures,
without much improvement of the bottom line.
Meanwhile, its all-American rival General Motors
has sold up and departed Europe for good.
Given all this, and the unprecedented challenges
c a r m a k e r s f a c e ov e r t he ne x t de c a de , w e t hou g ht
it right to visit Ford’s epicentre in Dearborn,
Michigan, to meet the company’s leaders and learn
their plans for the future, for Europe and for the
UK. The following pages reveal our findings. ◊
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Ford ’s recent fi nancial struggles are well documented, but the company is
poised to t u r n its for t u nes a rou nd t ha n k s to t he e ff orts of its leaders.
Steve Cropley head s to t he Blue Ova l ’s US a nd UK headqua r ters to meet t hem
PHOTOGR A PHY LUC LACEY
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