Ford Motor Company's automotive business will become profitable again by 2008, the executive in charge of the company's turnaround effort reiterated last night.
Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas and head of the company's turnaround effort, told reporters that Ford was focusing on making its automotive business profitable again.
'Our commitment for a posting a profit for automotive business in 2008 is very, very serious,' he said as he introduced rollouts changes to the company's vehicles for the upcoming model year.
With the company's stock trading near a two-decade low, Fields also stressed that he planned to tune out the criticism from Wall Street.
Fields admitted that progress has been uneven since the turnaround plan was announced in January with a sweeping restructuring that calls for eliminating up to 30,000 jobs and shutting 14 manufacturing plants between now and 2010.
Since the plan was announced, Ford has managed to slow its loss of market share and increase sales of its Lincoln brand. In addition, the company's transaction price at the point of sale has begun to improve, Field said.
Fields also again declined to discuss whether the company was preparing to build a brand new assembly plant in Mexico.
He said the company is looking at ways of building a new, more efficient assembly in North America but has not made any kind of decision yet on the where to locate the plant, Fields said, repeating a theme Ford officials have sounded since it was disclosed that the company was prepared to build the new plant in Mexico as part of a $9.2 billion investment.
