Ford Collects Australian State Aid, Then Fires 15 Percent Of Workforce

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Australians are unhappy with Ford. In January, Ford received more than A$34 million ($35 million) from Australian state and federal governments to guarantee local production until 2016. Today, Reuters reports that Ford will cut 440 jobs, or about 15 percent of its Australian workforce.

According to the wire service, Australian car manufacturers had solid sales over the past year, but Ford’s sales have lagged. Ford is cutting production by almost 30 percent in response to the launch of its new Falcon, which landed with a thud.

Australia also is moving away from big bore sedans and towards smaller displacement units.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Ron B. Ron B. on Jul 17, 2012

    The falcon is crappy old pile which barely sold at all. The First AU designs in the late 90's were so ugly the only buyers were fleet and government departments who now buy Prius etc etc . But the real kicker is that Ford has simply robbed the tax payer yet again thank to incompetant governments. GM and Mitsubishi have done exactly the same thing many times before in OZ. Gone cap in hand,cringing to the government, got a few million on some pretext or other and run off chuckling. The real reason these companies need this money is because of Australia's carbon tax . Introduced in July to slow consumption (yes, that right!) and thus save the planet it will increase every year for the next few years. Imagine running a manufacturing plant when you know you power costs will rise annually through taxation and your product demand is dropping? "Time to pull out" is the first thought that would come to your mind isn't it?

  • RobertRyan RobertRyan on Jul 17, 2012

    Far from "Crappy" , the Falcon suffers from the current preoccupation with SUV's and Pickups in Australia. The best selling"car" is the Toyota Hilux If Ford US had more foresight, the Falcon and its extended wheelbase variant, could have become the basis of Lincoln a brand that is probably on "deathwatch" in the US.

  • Outback_ute Outback_ute on Jul 19, 2012

    One factor is years of speculation on the possible death of the Falcon is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, sales drop followed by negative media, followed by buyers avoiding the car because they don't want an orphan. Something else that isn't often noted is the poor resale value as a result of decades of high fleet sales. The car is currently set to run through to 2016, but its future beyond that time is uncertain - 4 years out they surely have made the decision of which road to take, and no news is not good news on that front. The 1998 AU model Falcon was the local equivalent of the oval 3rd gen Taurus, something that should not have gotten all the way through the development process. Ford need to put another product into the factory as Holden has done, as having the associated production line is a key attribute for the design department, which is doing increasingly more work for other markets.

  • Robert Gordon Robert Gordon on Jul 19, 2012

    "Australia also is moving away from big bore sedans and towards smaller displacement units." At 92.26 mm the Ford Falcon's bore is not especially large. Nor is the Commodore's at 89mm. Perhaps it is worth noting for your future articles that 'bore' and 'displacement' are not synonymous.

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