Ford Europe unveils strategy to halt sales slide

Oct 26, 2012 | 05:01 PM | Corinna Petry

Tags  Ford Europe, recession, plant closure, Belgium, United Kingdom, megaplant, Spain, Germany Turkey

CHICAGO — Ford Motor Co. has outlined a restructuring plan for manufacturing capacity as the lengthy recession in Europe has cut vehicle sales in the automaker’s No. 2 sales region by 20 percent.

Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford will also increase its targeted spending in order to grow market share within three years as demand slowly recovers.

Ford will close its Genk, Belgium, assembly plant by the end of 2014, and shutter its Southampton assembly plant and Dagenham tooling and stamping plant in the United Kingdom next year (amm.com, Oct. 25), affecting 6,200 jobs, or 13 percent of Ford Europe’s work force. Genk has had the lowest capacity utilization rate of Ford’s European assembly plants, Ford Europe chairman Stephen Odell told analysts on a conference call Thursday.....





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