Ford was unprofitable in Europe from 2011 to 2014. During that time, the company lost USD3.1 billion in Europe alone.
But then Alan Mulally, the company’s former CEO, implemented an aggressive restructuring plan that included shuttering three manufacturing plants, slashing thousands of jobs and reinvigorating Ford’s product lineup with new and freshened vehicles, including performance and luxury variants.
And, whereas GM has tried selling a number of brands in Europe, Ford focused solely on the Blue Oval, even opting to keep its Lincoln luxury brand out of the region in favor of upscale Ford Vignale trims.
As a result, Ford turned a profit in Europe each of the past two years including a record USD1.2 billion pretax profit in 2016 and executives predict it will remain in the black in 2017, despite an expected USD600 million hit from the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.
