APRIL 23, 2002

More Ford restructuring

THE Ford Motor Company has announced more restructuring with the emphasis this time being on European operations. It is expected that there will be a new head of Ford Europe to replace David Thursfield, who will move up to a new role as head of international operations. Thursfield is being groomed as a replacement for the company chief operating officer Sir Nick Scheele, who is 57.

It is reported in THE FINANCIAL TIMES that the Premier Automotive Group is to be a victim of the current cost-cutting campaign in Detroit and will have to give up its exclusive Mayfair headquarters and move to the rather less glamorous offices at Land Rover's engineering headquarters at Gaydon, near Coventry.

Jaguar Racing public relations people continue to insist that the restructuring is all good news for the team and that the future is bright, despite the poor results achieved on the race tracks this year. There are arguments in favor of this as there is no doubt that Jaguar's image has been substantially altered by the involvement in F1. In essence therefore it is a useful tool although the question of how to finance the F1 operations is an issue at a time when Ford is cutting back across the world. The team seems to be moving in the right direction (albeit slowly) and there will be expectations of better results later in the season as the team's new windtunnel begins to produce its first results.