Ford Australia Reports 2007 Financial Results

[russellw]

Ford Motor Company of Australia Limited* today reported a net after-tax loss of $87.2 million for its 2007 fiscal year.

Net sales revenue was $3.3 billion from sales of 108,071 vehicles. Overall market share was 10.3 per cent, down from 11.9 per cent in 2006, resulting from a year-on-year decline in sales of 6,894 units.

"Ford Australia experienced a challenging year in 2007, with the ongoing transition of our product mix contributing to lower sales volume and market share," said Ford Australia President, Bill Osborne.

Despite the challenges, the company continued to invest in and launch new vehicle programs such as the new Mondeo and the all-new FG Falcon range, which is now on sale. The company also announced it would begin producing the globally successful range of Focus small cars in Australia from 2011 onwards.

Significant investment in world-class research and development facilities in Geelong and at the company's Proving Ground in Lara also continued throughout the year.

"We continued to make significant investments in our facilities that will help secure the long-term future of Ford in Australia. These will further establish our business as a centre of automotive design and engineering excellence in the development of class-leading vehicles for Australia and overseas markets," said Mr Osborne.

While Falcon ran second in the large car vehicle segment for the 2007 calendar year, Territory maintained its position as the most popular Sport Utility Vehicle in the country. It again dominated the medium SUV segment with sales of 17,290 units, equating to a 23.2 per cent share of the segment.

There was also a surge of activity on the imported product front with the launch of five new models.

"The enhancement of the Ford portfolio through the arrival of Ranger, Fiesta XR4, Focus turbo-diesel, Mondeo and Focus Coupe-Cabriolet has created the most impressive Ford line-up in recent history," said Mr Osborne.

"Ford now offers a model to cater for almost every consumer preference, ranging from German-designed fuel efficient small cars, through to three different petrol alternatives (diesel, LPG and E10), safety-laden family vehicles and luxurious performance cars.

"The arrival of the all-new FG Falcon in May will further boost our showroom appeal. Combined with the strategic decisions we are implementing to produce small cars in Australia and access global engine technologies, our strong vehicle line-up sees Ford better positioned than ever before to maximise opportunities associated with changing consumer buying patterns."

* These financial results relate to Ford Motor Company of Australia Limited, Ford Sales Company of Australia Limited and Foral Service Proprietary Limited, and have been prepared in accordance with the Australian equivalent to the International Financial Reporting Standards (AIFRS)

[sleekism]

What happened to Tom Gorman talking about Ford Australia making a profit for 2007????????????

Gorman has to be the worst President in Ford Australias history :

[Fordman1]

That's bad :

I thought FoA would come close to breaking even, or posting a loss of up to 20 Million.

Things don't look good for the Australian Automotive Industry. GMH will post a loss too I think.

[DanielXR8]

Nothing surprising here. Ford product mix is on the up, but the company still has a lot to learn about build quality on local product and a company focus on customer service is almost non existent.

Top it off with the worst dealer network of any brand in Australia and you have a great recipe for a declining market share and slower sales. The petrol situation has just accelerated that decline.

Once FG is out of the way Bill Osbourne has a heck of a lot of work and quite a few years of neglect to fix.

At the risk of harping on about dealers, I have to say tearing up the existing franchises agreements and starting again with customer focused ones is well and truly overdue. Back in Polites time it was obvious the dealers were letting the cars down.

Failing that a new "Premium Ford Dealer Network" should be setup with much higher standards of training and customer service, in exchange for cheaper prices to the dealers from Ford and better factory warranty and technical support.

They should be under internal auditing and when customer complaints and satisfaction is not high enough, they either retrain and deliver or its game over. The market is now too competitive for the crap, dealers currently think they have a right to inflict on Ford customers.

While we are at it, Ford employees need an education that we are the customers and not the dealers. If we as consumers don't buy, then they are all out of a job.

The dealer network will destroy any real hope of Ford turning its image and sales around, unless they are pulled into line. Ford faithful might put up with the crap, the majority of people out there will not.

Dan

[4Vman]

Allot to consider here... there would be a significant amount of FG R+D costs absorbed into 07 figures... combined with slowing sales of BF.
Growing interest rates and a stagnent Australian auto market, to be honest its probably not a bad outcome. The FG payback should be realised over the next 2 financial years.

[ford man xf]

That's actually not a bad a loss as everyone may think, with Ford investing heavily in the FG Falcon, they were always going to operate at a loss that year, Toyota will probably be the only car maker in the black this year, Holden will probably post a loss as well.

[Bossxr8]

I love how they release that info late on a Friday afternoon so they can hide over the weekend. Holden did it last time too.

Should break even this year and make profit next year if it all goes to plan.