Market conditions not to affect Ford recast plans: CEO
Ford Motor’s stock slide is a reflection of the US economic uncertainty and will not change the company’s plans to roll out new models and shrink itself to match consumer demand, its chief executive said.
By Agencies |
DEARBORN: Ford Motor’s stock slide is a reflection of the US economic uncertainty and will not change the company’s plans to roll out new models and shrink itself to match consumer demand, its chief executive said.
Alan Mulally told reporters on Tuesday that Ford has financing in place to weather an economic downturn and its restructuring plan is flexible enough to adjust production to a declining market.
“Clearly, it makes it tougher,” Mr Mulally said. “We took the actions starting a year and a half ago to deal with this.” Ford’s stock slid to $6 per share last week, a 22-year low. The shares fell 6 cents on Tuesday to close at $6.10.
Despite deteriorating conditions of the US economy, Mr Mulally said the company still plans to return to profitability in 2009, and when it does, the stock market will reward it.
“There’s nothing about the current macroeconomic environment that would change the plan that we have,” he said. Despite the depressed stock price, Mr Mulally said he is not afraid of a takeover attempt. He also said the company has not seen any merger opportunities that would bring more benefits to Ford than it can get from integrating its units worldwide.
Mr Mulally also said his company is not bothered by being passed by Toyota Motor last year as the No. 2 seller of autos in the US. Ford, he said, knew its sales would drop as it moved from a focus on big sport utility vehicles and trucks to smaller vehicles. “We knew we were going to take a hit in market share in the near term,” he said.
He said that by 2010, a substantial number of the company’s models will be built on the same underpinnings worldwide as part of Mr Mulally’s ‘One Ford’ initiative. The savings of designing and engineering vehicles for global distribution is likely to save the company billions in development and manufacturing costs.
“We’re well positioned to do this,” said Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s head of global product development. “Between Europe and Asia-Pacific, we’ve been working this way for about five to seven years,” he said.
Mr Kuzak said the first global Ford vehicle will be based on the Verve subcompact, a long-awaited replacement for the Fiesta that’s scheduled to hit European showrooms in late 2008 and come to North America and Asia after that.
Mr Kuzak said that globalisation efforts will help Ford to speed up rolling out new models so it can better match the pace of its competitors. Seventy percent of the company’s models will be new or refreshed by the end of 2008, and 100% will be new by the end of the decade, he said.
Industry analysts have criticised Ford for having an old model portfolio and being too slow to bring out new products.
Alan Mulally told reporters on Tuesday that Ford has financing in place to weather an economic downturn and its restructuring plan is flexible enough to adjust production to a declining market.
“Clearly, it makes it tougher,” Mr Mulally said. “We took the actions starting a year and a half ago to deal with this.” Ford’s stock slid to $6 per share last week, a 22-year low. The shares fell 6 cents on Tuesday to close at $6.10.
Despite deteriorating conditions of the US economy, Mr Mulally said the company still plans to return to profitability in 2009, and when it does, the stock market will reward it.
“There’s nothing about the current macroeconomic environment that would change the plan that we have,” he said. Despite the depressed stock price, Mr Mulally said he is not afraid of a takeover attempt. He also said the company has not seen any merger opportunities that would bring more benefits to Ford than it can get from integrating its units worldwide.
Mr Mulally also said his company is not bothered by being passed by Toyota Motor last year as the No. 2 seller of autos in the US. Ford, he said, knew its sales would drop as it moved from a focus on big sport utility vehicles and trucks to smaller vehicles. “We knew we were going to take a hit in market share in the near term,” he said.
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He said that by 2010, a substantial number of the company’s models will be built on the same underpinnings worldwide as part of Mr Mulally’s ‘One Ford’ initiative. The savings of designing and engineering vehicles for global distribution is likely to save the company billions in development and manufacturing costs.
“We’re well positioned to do this,” said Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s head of global product development. “Between Europe and Asia-Pacific, we’ve been working this way for about five to seven years,” he said.
Mr Kuzak said the first global Ford vehicle will be based on the Verve subcompact, a long-awaited replacement for the Fiesta that’s scheduled to hit European showrooms in late 2008 and come to North America and Asia after that.
Mr Kuzak said that globalisation efforts will help Ford to speed up rolling out new models so it can better match the pace of its competitors. Seventy percent of the company’s models will be new or refreshed by the end of 2008, and 100% will be new by the end of the decade, he said.
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Industry analysts have criticised Ford for having an old model portfolio and being too slow to bring out new products.
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