Good news from Ford! Well, the company is not yet making a single cent in the US, but worldwide the Blue Oval is doing well. Alan Mulally, the former-Boeing executive who is now running Ford and demanded (and got) $20 million in cash deposited in his bank account before his first day of work, isn't able to yet demonstrate that Ford's American new-vehicle sales arm can recover from the phenomenal bashing they (and GM and Chrysler) have been through the past 37 years. The improving (for Ford and their stockholders) facts below (and haven't we been telling you to BUYBUYBUY Ford stock? It's easy to find ... it's stock ticker symbol is easy to remember: "F"). (Photo Above --- Ford is predicting 100,000 sales annually for their all-new Flex CUV; you might remember it as the "Fairlane" concept car).
While Ford has some great products which they've developed for (and are building in) many other countries around the world, the company's main method of saving money is going to be through worker attrition, voluntarily or otherwise. Fewer workers using fewer platforms to make more models with much-fewer option packages is the secret to Ford's stabilization in this, their long-time home market. And a Ford connection with Nissan/Renault is not out of the question, though Chrysler seems hellbent on partnering with Nissan before the "Ford question" officially arises. (Photo --- Ford's association with Carroll Shelby has served both parties very, very well; Shelby is seen here with their latest collaboration, the Mustang Shelby GT500KR).
FoMoCo US definitely has some sales winners, but even their popular cars and trucks have greatly suffered the past decade --- and more. Mustang has always been a bright spot, and remains so, but a car which sells "only" 50,000-or-so units a year might not be able to keep a place in the factory line-ups of the future. Ford sold 14,737 Mustangs in the first three months of 2007; this year, 2008, January through March sales were way down, to a total of 10,180. In fact, Mustang sales alone for January through March of last year were almost exactly the same as the total number of all Lincoln-Mercury vehicles so far this year. But there's some nice news, too, when a week after its 44th anniversary on April 17th, Mustang production (not sales, yet) reached nine million units. That Mustang GT Convertible went to a dealership in Iowa, and we predict that car will be seen this coming January on some TV cable network's coverage of auto auctions. As Ford's longest running nameplate, the Mustang sold over 22,000 units on its first day and more than one million sold in the first two years. Those of you of a "certain age" will remember, as we do, that the Mustang was introduced at the 1964 New York World's Fair Ford Pavilion.
Automotive News also reports that Ford Motor Co. will spend more than $100 million to market the 
revamped 2009 F-150 pickup, the single best-selling vehicle in the US for more over 50 years. A Ford official told AN that the model-year launch budget is in the same ballpark as the spending allocated when the automaker introduced the current F-150 in 2003. When that redesigned 2004 model went on sale, Ford said they planned to spend more than $100 million on what they called the "biggest launch campaign in Ford's history". The same kind of emphasis is being planned for the re-engineered and restyled 2009 F-150, which goes on sale this fall. Ford's Focus is doing better than last year at this time; Fusion's numbers are tied with last year's, as are the Taurus/500's numbers. Ford's critical Edge started-out strong, but sales have either dropped or remain near-steady each month since mid-2007.
Now, that news which may portend further success for Ford in the US (paraphrasing from Automotive News):
Ford Motor Co. surprised Wall Street today with a first quarter earnings report full of black ink -- saying it posted net income of $100 million on total revenue of $43.5 billion. That's compared with a net loss of $282 million on revenue of $43.0 billion during the same period a year ago.
Ford stock skyrocketed on the news -- closing the day up 88 cents, or 11.7 percent, to $8.40 a share.
Click below to read more about Ford's positive overseas sales numbers and their ongoing attempts to close-the-gap in the USA ... and what they can expect!
"Our plan is working, and we continue to show significant progress," Ford CEO Alan Mulally told journalists in a morning conference call. In North America, the company said it posted a pre-tax loss of $45 million compared with a loss of $613 million a year ago. (Photo --- Alan Mulally).
"We reduced our costs by $1.7 billion, with $1.2 billion of that coming from North America," Mulally said. Those reductions will keep Ford on track to achieve its goal of trimming costs in North America by $5 billion by the end of 2008, compared with 2005, Mulally said.
Ford's total revenue in North America in the quarter was $17.1 billion, down from $18.5 billion a year ago. (Photo --- Ford's 2008 Focus SST, a Euro-only product, makes many Americans wonder, "Where's our version of that cool car? We'd buy it!").
Mulally said 4,200 UAW hourly employees agreed to take the company's latest North American buyout
program. That is significantly less than the company's reported goal of about 8,000 reductions.
Mulally said involuntary reductions (also known as "lay-offs" and "firings") are possible, "but right now our plan is to not do that." He declined to speculate whether salaried reductions are possible.
Buyouts are likely to be offered to workers at plants facing production slowdowns or shift idlings. More capacity reductions of that nature are coming at plants where demand for its products have waned, Mulally said.
In Europe, Ford said it posted a pre-tax profit of $739 million on revenue of $10.2 billion. That's up from pre-tax profits of $219 million on revenue of $8.6 billion during the same period last year. The results do not include Jaguar and Land Rover, which Ford has agreed to sell to India's Tata Motors Ltd.
In South America, Ford said its operations there posted a pre-tax profit of $257 million, up from $113 million a year ago. First quarter revenue increased to $1.8 billion, up from $1.3 billion a year ago.
Ford also broke out its Volvo unit results in the report -- and they weren't good. (Photo --- No, it's not "yet another" SEMA Show special for the massive Ford display at that Las Vegas "convention" every year. Nope, think "Volvo". To celebrate the company's 80th anniversary, Volvo commissioned designer and hot rodder Leif Tufvesson to create a rod based on his impressions of the very first Volvo, the 1927 ÖV4 --affectionately known as the Jakob. The result, after two years of design and construction work, is the Hot Rod Jakob, unveiled at the Volvo Museum in Göteborg. The hand-built aluminum-bodied Hot Rod Jakob rides on a custom carbon-fiber chassis, and bears a clear resemblance to its inspiration at the right).
Volvo posted a pre-tax loss of $151 million, compared with a profit of $94 million a year ago. Ford said Volvo was hurt by lower sales and changes in currency exchange rates, partially offset by cost reductions. Volvo's first quarter revenue was $4.2 billion, compared with $4.6 billion a year ago, Ford said.
Ford expects the rest of 2008 to be challenging, cutting its full-year North American outlook for sales, but said it remains committed to its goal of returning North America and its whole auto business to profitability in 2009. (Ford --- Edge, the CUV on which Ford said their future rested, started fast out of the gate, yet has just remained steady or dropped in sales each month since mid-2007).
Ford, which posted losses of $2.7 billion in 2007 and $12.6 billion in 2006, has been cutting production 
capacity to match declining market share and meet the shift in demand for smaller more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Given that sales ran at about a 15.6 million seasonally adjusted annual rate in the first quarter, Ford is not banking on a significant sales rebound the rest of 2008. Medium and heavy duty trucks account for about 300,000 in annual sales.
That would make Ford's outlook roughly 15 million to 15.3 million for light vehicle sales in line with recent expectations from analysts and other automakers.
J.D. Power and Associates has cut its 2008 U.S. light vehicle sales forecast to 14.95 million vehicles, which would be the lowest since 1994.
JP Morgan & Co. cut its 2008 U.S. forecast to 15.2 million vehicles, from 15.5 million, and said Wednesday that U.S. auto industry sales ran at about a 15 million vehicle rate in April, down from the 15.1 million to 15.3 million rate in the first three months of the year. (Photo --- The names "Shelby" and "Mustang" will forever have powerful meanings to more than one generation of Ford buyers).
Ford also said its Ford Motor Credit Co. reported net income of $24 million in the first quarter, down from $193 million a year earlier, mainly reflecting a higher provision for credit losses, depreciation on leased vehicles and higher net losses related to market valuation adjustments from derivatives.
Comments