subject: Ford Emerges Stronger Than Before; Makes Substantial Gains In March [print this page] The success of Ford Motor Company in the recent years has become more of a case study for the automotive industry. While the bigger brands like General Motors had to look towards the US Government for a bailout, Alan Mullally's vision seems to have inspired Ford to achieve greater success in the last few years.
If you evaluate the progress made by Ford in the past couple of years, there are different milestones that come across.
Before proceeding ahead, let us have a look at Ford's success in the month of March from across the world. It has consolidated Europe gains and has grown by 16% in 19 European countries. It has increased sales by more than 21% in China and its growth in emerging market of India is in the range of 35%. In UK it has emerged as the strongest or best brand and ended being a market leader in UK. In Canada it topped the automotive chart for the first time in 50 years.
The biggest achievement for Ford has been that it avoided a complete or partial bailout from the US Government while analysts talked about the impact of deep recession on other brands. While its competitors like GM and Toyota have had more than one reason to worry and also to retain their respective present positions, Ford has strengthened its presence in Europe and in the UK it has emerged as one of the most trustworthy brands with Ford Fiesta being front-runner for the car of the year awards.
Latest analyst reports suggest that Ford has actually increased its market share in Europe and now controls about 10.4% of European market. One needs to understand that Europe is predominantly dominated by BMW and Volkswagen and given that specific backdrop, Ford has done extremely well in the last 2 years.
The fact that Ford Fiesta has increased its sales in the month of March by 29% over the same period last year signifies that Ford is currently on a momentum. It is true that it has been helped on the way by General Motors and the recent recalls of Toyota. However, Ford has been doing things consistently well over the past 2 years. From improving the product line-up to ensuring that its operating margins and revenues remain steady, it has been able to retain customer confidence.
Toyota' recalls have definitely given a good thrust to both Volkswagen and Ford Motors and they have even wrested advantage from other Japanese manufacturing brands like Honda.
