What will the impact be on Ford in Australia?
When the parent company of Ford Australia posts such a huge loss in just one quarter you have to wonder when the local company will begin to feel the impact. There is no doub that a big negative number was expected in the third quarter because Ford is in the middle of massive job cuts and asset write-downs but no one was expecting a number quite this big.
When all those expected negatives are removed from the equation Ford still took a $US1.2 billion hit to its bottom line thanks to slower than expected truck sales. Over the last year or so Ford has been relying on truck sales to keep the money flowing as American consumers turned their back on Ford cars but this quarter the American market began to drift away from Ford trucks too.
Just to give you some idea of what a major hit Ford has taken all you have to do is compare the loss this time last year – $US191 million – to that $US1.2 billion figure this year.
The new CEO of Ford was stating the obvious when he said: “These business results are clearly unacceptable”.
So the question remains, when will Ford Australia begin to feel the impact?