Ford will bounce back: Graziano

The president and CEO of Ford Australia, Robert Graziano, says his company will recover from its weak start to 2011.

Although Ford's January and February sales amounted to a 1 per cent increase compared with the same period last year (compared to a 1.7 per cent dip across the market) locally-made Fords were hit hard. Falcon sales were down by 43.5 per cent, Falcon ute sales were down 13.8 per cent and Territory sales were down by 5.7 per cent. Every imported model in Ford's line-up posted significant sales gains, effectively picking up the slack.

As a result of weak sales of the locally-made vehicles, the Broadmeadows-based carmaker cut production to three days a week for the month of March – but will return to five-day shifts from next month as it ramps up for the arrival of the new Territory.

"I anticipate we'll be back [five days a week] by the end of the month. We had to slow down the factory to match demand," Graziano told the Carsales Network.

"We didn't want to be in a position where we were building cars simply for the purpose of [offering dealer discounts]," he stated.

"We were in runout for the Territory, and Falcon was affected by the typically weak fleet and government sales at this time of year.

"We will bounce back, though. I'm very optimistic about the rest of the year. We are about to launch the new Territory and we have some activity on Falcon later in the year, in particular with EcoBoost (four-cylinder) and LPI (liquid injected LPG)."

Graziano said it was premature to link the future of the Falcon's local production based on "two months of results".

The future of the Falcon beyond 2015 has been under a cloud since the global boss of Ford Alan Mulally said there would be "no more one-off cars for one-off countries". Sales of the Falcon have been falling for the better part of the past decade.

Last year, fewer than 30,000 Falcons were sold in Australia – the weakest result in the 51-year history of the nameplate. Just 10 years ago, large cars such as the Falcon and Commodore accounted for 25 per cent of all new-vehicle sales. Last year they accounted for 10 per cent.

The facelifted Ford Territory is due in showrooms in April. Ford has already built 290 vehicles in two batches (90 and 200) and has corralled them ready for shipping to dealers.

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