NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- James Farley, group vice president and general manager of Toyota's Lexus luxury division, is leaving the company to join Ford as head of that company's marketing efforts around the world.

Farley will be filling a newly created post at Ford. He will report directly to Ford chief executive Alan Mulally.

Before becoming head of Lexus, Farley had headed marketing for Toyota's main Toyota division. In that position, he was responsible for all Toyota marketing, advertising and sales promotion.

He had also headed Toyota's Scion division, overseeing the launch of the trendy, youth-oriented car brand. He had been with Toyota for 17 years.

"Jim Farley is well known for innovative marketing strategies that connect great products to today's and tomorrow's customers," said Mulally in a Ford announcement. "Ford's quality and vehicles are now on par with the best of the competition. We look forward to Jim's leadership to combine world-class marketing with our world-class products worldwide."

Toyota, now the second largest car company in the U.S. market, by sales, has seen at least three top-level defections to Detroit car companies in recent weeks.

In August, Deborah Wahl Meyer, who had headed marketing for Lexus, left Toyota to join Chrysler as that company's chief marketing officer.

In early September, James Press, head of all Toyota's North American operations, went to Chrysler. He now shares the titles of vice chairman and president with former Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda.

Ford recently announced the impending retirement of Francisco Codina, Ford's group vice president for North American marketing, sales and service. Codina had been with Ford for 30 years.

Ford, long the America's number two car company by sales, behind General Motors (Charts, Fortune 500) has recently ranked third behind Toyota. The company has struggled to lift retail sales as it cuts back on fleet sales.

In September, in the midst of an overall industry downturn, Ford sales were down 14 percent from the same month last year. Only General Motors saw its sales rise that month, however, even Toyota saw a nearly 3 percent decline from the year prior.

Tom Krisher

Associated Press

Nov 08, 2007

DEARBORN, Mich. – Ford Motor Co. posted a third-quarter loss of $380 million on Thursday, a vast improvement over its $5.2 billion loss a year earlier.

The second-biggest U.S-based automaker said it near a deal to sell its Jaguar and Land Rover units but its CEO said there are no plans to sell its Volvo business.

The latest results beat Wall Street expectations, and its shares rose almost 4 percent in morning trading.

But it was a worse performance than the $750 million profit Ford reported for its second quarter, its first profitable quarter in two years.

The overall net loss amounted to 19 cents per share for the July-September period in contrast to a loss of $2.79 per share in the third quarter of last year.

Much of the loss was attributed to $350 million in special items, including an offer to exchange preferred securities and personnel reduction costs in Europe and with its Premier Automotive Group, which includes Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo.

The struggling automaker also reported a $1 billion pretax loss on its home turf, North America, but that was an improvement over the $2.1 billion it lost in the year-ago period.

Revenue rose to $41.1 billion from $37.1 billion a year earlier.

Ford said it expects to sell its Jaguar and Land Rover units early next year.

But it has no plans to sell Volvo, President and Chief Executive Alan Mulally said during an interview Thursday morning on "The Paul W. Smith Show" on WJR-AM. The automaker said it would start disclosing Volvo results separately starting in 2008.

Without special items, the company lost $24 million, or 1 cent per share, for the quarter. That far surpassed Wall Street's expectations. Fifteen analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected the company to lose 46 cents per share excluding special items.

"We are on track to achieve our goal of profitability in 2009," Mulally said in a conference call with reporters and industry analysts.

Its shares rose 32 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $8.56 in morning trading Thursday.

Ford said it has shed 33,600 hourly workers and 10,600 salaried workers since the end of 2005 as part of its restructuring plan. The reductions include factories in a holding company awaiting sale or closure and came mainly from buyouts and early retirement offers. Excluding the holding company, Ford said it is ahead of its plan to reduce the size of its work force.

"Our third-quarter performance is very encouraging," Mulally said in a statement. "We can see our plan taking hold with significant improvement continuing in our core automotive operations.''

Ford's financial services arm and operations in South America and Europe reported strong performances, helping to offset losses in North America and in the Premier Automotive Group.

The company said it would start disclosing Volvo results separately starting in 2008, but it would not say if the unit still was for sale.

In South America, Ford made a pretax profit of $386 million, while it made $293 million in Europe.

Ford Motor Credit Co. earned $546 million pretax in the quarter, which was down from $730 million in the year-ago period. Ford Motor Credit focuses on auto and dealer loans and does not issue mortgages, so it is unaffected by troubles in the mortgage industry.

The Premier Automotive group's performance improved over the third quarter of last year, but it still posted a $97 million pretax loss for the quarter. That compares with a $508 million loss for the same time last year.

Volvo lost money for the quarter, partially offset by a small profit at Jaguar and Land Rover, the company said. It currently does not disclose results for individual units.

Ford predicted it would have a small loss or break even for the full year excluding special items, with substantial year-over-year improvement in its fourth quarter results. But it still expects to lose money in the final quarter of the year on a pretax basis, mainly in North America.

The company posted a net loss of $12.6 billion for the full year in 2006 and a $3.15 billion loss for the year excluding special items.

The report from Ford came a day after General Motors Corp. posted a $39 billion loss for the third quarter, one of the biggest quarterly losses ever in the U.S., as a charge involving unused tax credits ended a string of three profitable quarters for the nation's largest automaker.

DEE-ANN DURBIN

Associated press

Nov 08, 2007

DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it won't sell its Volvo unit for now and instead will focus on improving the brand's financial performance.

"Our plan now is to not sell it and to focus on improving, especially, the cost structure and the position of the brand itself reflecting their new terrific lineup of cars and trucks," Ford President and Chief Executive Alan Mulally said during a conference call with Wall Street analysts and reporters to discuss Ford's third-quarter financial results.

Mulally said Ford will continue to review the brand periodically.

Ford also will disclose Volvo's financial performance starting next year. Volvo's earnings now are combined with results from Jaguar and Land Rover as part of Ford's Premier Automotive Group, but Ford is planning to sell Jaguar and Land Rover early next year.

Ford lost more than $12 billion in 2006 and has been struggling to cut costs and return to profitability. When it announced it was planning to sell its luxury Aston Martin brand in August 2006, it said the sale of Volvo was possible. In July, Mulally confirmed that Ford was conducting a strategic review of Volvo and likely would make a decision by the end of this year.

Mulally said Thursday that Ford wants to enhance Volvo's position as a premium brand. The company said it plans to work closely with Volvo in areas such as product development and purchasing.

"They are really moving to a more premium brand, improving cost structure. They're going to be fine, I think," Mulally said.

Ford's Premier Automotive Group reported a pre-tax loss of $97 million for the third quarter, a substantial improvement from last year's pre-tax loss of $508 million in the same period. Ford said Volvo lost money but it didn't break out the unit's results. Ford said PAG reduced costs and saw higher sales volumes, but those gains were offset by the weak U.S. dollar. Third quarter revenues for the brands were $7.4 billion, compared with $6.5 billion a year ago.

Ford acquired Volvo from Sweden's Volvo AB in 1999 for $6.45 billion. The company has relied heavily on Volvo as it tries to globalize its engineering, design and manufacturing systems. Ford's newly redesigned 2008 Taurus is built on a Volvo platform.

Ford shares rose 12 cents, or nearly 2 percent, to $8.37 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Nov 14, 2007 01:56 PM
TOM KRISHER
Associated Press
United Auto Workers members have ratified a historic four-year contract with Ford Motor Co. that sets lower pay for some newly hired workers and puts the company’s huge retiree health care debt into a UAW-run trust.
The UAW, which represents about 54,000 workers at Ford, said today that 79 per cent of those voting favoured the pact.

Workers at General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM) and Chrysler LLC already have ratified similar deals, with the contract winning at Chrysler by only a small margin. Unlike the other two automakers, there was no strike at Ford (NYSE:F).

The landmark deals have been praised by the companies and union for protecting jobs while at the same time cutting labor costs to make the struggling automakers more competitive with their Japanese rivals.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union negotiated a contract with Ford that protects wages, benefits and seniority rights and provides income and secure health care for retirees.

“We stood our ground in the face of some rather big asks by the company and came away with a creative agreement that addresses the concerns of our members and also gives the company the opportunity to move forward,” he said in a statement.

“Now it’s up to Ford to successfully bring to market the top-quality vehicles our members are building in UAW Ford factories.”

The UAW said production workers voted 81 per cent in favour of the deal, while skilled trades workers were 71 per cent in favor.

“This agreement is proof that by working together with our UAW partners, it is possible to find solutions that collectively benefit our employees, retirees and the company,” Ford President and Chief Executive Alan Mulally said in a statement.

“This contract will provide significant opportunities for the company’s long-term competitiveness, and that is good for all of us.”

In addition to the active workers, the deal covers more than 94,000 Ford retirees and 28,000 surviving spouses. It will run until Sept. 14, 2011.

The Ford deal was reached in the early morning hours of Nov. 3 after a nearly two-day bargaining session at the company’s Dearborn headquarters.

In exchange for the wage cuts and other concessions, Ford promised not to close any U.S. plants beyond some it already has identified. It also promised future products to six U.S. assembly plants and agreed to make hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of improvements to factories.

Industry analysts say the pact should help the ailing automaker by lowering wages for thousands of new workers and moving its roughly $22 billion in hourly retiree health care obligations to a union-run trust.

Despite ratification, Ford stock dropped 3 cents per share to $7.97 in midday trading today.

Jim Stoufer, president of Local 249, which represents 4,300 workers at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant in suburban Claycomo, Mo., said the contract should be a turning point for Ford.

The company lost $12.6 billion last year, but earned $88 million in the first nine months of this year. Still, Ford is losing money on its home turf of North America.

“I think the UAW and Ford got together and decided that we’re in this together and we’re going to turn this around,” said Stoufer, whose plant makes the F-150 pickup truck and the Escape and Mercury Mariner small sport utility vehicles.

Workers, he said, had expected wage and benefit cuts, but realized they did pretty well to preserve wages and get job security pledges.

“I think this gives Ford what it needs to turn around, and at the same time, it protects the membership,” Stoufer said. “I don’t think you can ask for anything more.”

In Canada, the Canadian Auto Workers union will begin bargaining new contracts for unionized workers of the Big Three automakers’ Canadian subsidiaries next summer.

FORD Motor Company president Alan Mulally was so impressed with the new Falcon G6E Turbo that he will drive one in the US.

Any plans to export the new car to America might have fallen over, but the man who calls the shots at the US car giant plans to import one of the new sports-luxury Falcons.

Ford Australia product development vice-president Trevor Worthington told GoAuto about what happened when the ex-Boeing boss called in to check on some FG prototypes at the You Yangs test centre last year, including the new G6E Turbo.

430 layoffs ordered at V8 engine plant, but some workers land jobs at Ford's busy Oakville complex
Tony Van Alphen and Kerry Gillespie

Staff Reporters

May 23, 2008

Ford says it will trim as many as 430 jobs at its Windsor engine plant in the fallout from major new production cuts by the struggling automaker.

The company confirmed yesterday it sent out layoff notices to affected workers at the operation during the past week as a consequence of lower production at North American assembly operations for the remainder of the year.

Ford is reacting to falling demand for gasoline-guzzling pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles that use the Windsor plant's V8 engines.

Mark Truby, a spokesperson for Ford, said there could be fewer layoffs by the time they take effect in mid-July.

"We haven't worked out the full impact," he said.

Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers, said Ford told him it will cut about 300 jobs.

"We'll be losing the shift very soon, but one would hope it's not permanent and fuel prices go down," Hargrove said.

Ford announced earlier in the day it will reduce its overall North American production by 15 per cent in the second quarter from the same period last year.

The company, which reported a surprise first-quarter profit, intends to also shave output by 15 to 20 per cent in the third quarter and another 8 per cent in the last three months of the year.

Soaring gasoline prices and a slowing U.S. economy are reducing vehicle demand significantly south of the border, particularly among bigger models.

While reducing truck and big SUV production, the company said it expects to increase output of the strong-selling Ford Focus compact, Edge and Lincoln MKX crossover models, Fusion mid-size car and Escape small sport ute.

Ford builds the Edge and Lincoln crossover models at its Oakville complex, which is currently running flat out. The company will also soon start using Oakville to build the Flex cross-over model, which is the replacement for the defunct Freestar minivan.

Some laid off workers from Windsor are taking new jobs in Oakville to meet increasing demand. The Oakville operation is currently hiring 500 workers.

Hargrove said about 1,200 Ford workers are already on layoff in Windsor, a city that has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country primarily because of layoffs in the auto-parts sector.

Last week, General Motors announced it will close its transmission plant in Windsor and trim 1,400 jobs in the middle of 2010.

Hargrove, who recently negotiated new pacts at Ford, GM and Chrysler, said Ford workers who face layoffs may not be able to get much financial help to cushion the impact because of earlier buyout and early-retirement incentives.

Meanwhile, NDP Leader Howard Hampton said the Ontario government should give plane tickets to laid-off Windsor auto workers so they can commute to jobs in Western Canada.

"Far better to have someone commuting somewhere else until they're able to retire or find a job in their own community," Hampton said in an interview.

"The other option is that you sell (your house) and move and that's not good, or you end up on Ontario Works, which no one can survive on."

The mayor of Windsor has raised the idea of helping laid-off workers commute and Hampton said it's an idea the province should support with some money.

"We'd like to keep (skilled workers) in the community. If it means flying them out to Saskatchewan or Alberta to work and flying them home every two weeks ... that may be the best workable strategy."

Hampton added the government must also stop handing out taxpayer dollars to auto makers without getting job protection guarantees.

"The evidence grows every day that the McGuinty government made a $100 million investment in Ford (since 2004) and didn't get any job guarantees," Hampton said.

Economic development minister Sandra Pupatello, who is a Windsor MPP, said she's hopeful the final layoff numbers won't be as severe as current estimates.

"We do anticipate that sales in the U.S. will pick up," Pupatello said in an interview.

She rejected Hampton's suggestion that Ontario pay for plane tickets so laid off workers could commute to jobs out west.

"That would not be a priority for us. Our priority is bringing jobs to Ontario and maintaining the jobs we have," Pupatello said.

She also defended the money the province has given manufacturers like Ford.

"If we didn't have this, we would have five major (auto assemblers) who would not have made a $7.5 billion investment in Ontario just in the last couple years."

Just as other Detroit carmakers are clamoring for more federal loans, Ford has managed to reduce its debt by almost $10 billion. The news resulted in the stock price of Ford spiking by over 15% - a rare occurrence for U.S. carmakers considering the state of the market.

Ford's debt reduction amounted to $9.9 billion, a figure that was slightly less than a predicted $10.4 billion saving. Nevertheless, the Blue Oval described its debt reduction efforts as successful, claiming that the move will now allow the company to take "another step toward creating an exciting, viable enterprise".

Ford and its subsidiaries used a total of $2.44 billion in reducing the debt, around $200 million more than was originally anticipated. By convincing debt holders to take Ford equity in lieu of cash repayments, Ford's total debt has been decreased by over one-third. Additionally, its interest expenses have also been massively reduced, saving Ford around half-a-billion dollars every year.

Despite the rise in stock price and the reduction of debt, Ford is still expected to make "sizable losses" this year, reports Automotive News. Times may become especially tough at Ford if suppliers are forced to shut due to trouble at GM and Chrysler, and if this is the case then Ford may have to turn to the government for loans as well.

Ford's success in swapping its debt for stock has been an easier proposition for the Blue Oval when compared to companies such as Chrysler and GM. Ford's equity remains relatively steady, and its operations are in much better shape than its Detroit siblings, giving debt holders much greater confidence to swap their debt for equity in the future as well.