Ford’s turnaround gains momentum

[rickaren]

Ford’s turnaround gains momentum

Posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 2:51 PM EST. (Employee News)

After more than $16.8 billion in losses since 2005, Ford Motor Co.’s North American division has been gaining momentum and recently posted a quarterly profit—early evidence of a successful turnaround, according to Mark Fields, Ford executive vice president and president of the Americas, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“We are not done with the turnaround,” Fields told the Free Press on Wednesday. However, he noted the automaker is positioning itself to be a world-class competitor, adding: “There is no finish line for that.” The division, which earned nearly $10 billion in 2000, has lost money every year since 2005, the paper said. But on Nov. 2, Ford reported a pretax profit of $357 million for the division, the Free Press said.

The North American division is emerging from survival mode for the first time since 2005 and sees a brighter future on the horizon, the paper noted. That journey started in January 2006, when Ford launched a multiyear plan called the Way Forward to reduce costs and transform the automaker’s lineup from one focused on trucks, like the company’s best-selling F-Series, to a more balanced one including more cars and crossovers, the publication said.

The cost-cutting included painful reductions of employees and factories, the paper said. But after years of cutbacks, and an effort to improve quality, safety and style, especially of cars, the division has gained critical momentum, the story said. (Detroit Free Press)