No regrets about Aussie Focus

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http://theage.drive.com.au/motor-new...802-1i8rh.html

No regrets about Aussie Focus: Ford

Jez Spinks
August 2, 2011 - 2:45PM

Small car sales still strong, large cars falling ... but Ford stands by decision to abandon plan to produce its Mazda3 rival in Australia.

Ford says it has no regrets about backtracking on a plan to build the Focus small car in Australia but has refused to rule out changing its mind again.

The local car maker this week launched the third-generation Focus hatchback and sedan in Australia, a model that is initially being imported from Belgium before production moves to the cheaper source of Thailand in mid 2012.

Ford Australia announced in 2007 it would build 40,000 Focus models a year at its Broadmeadows, Victoria, plant owing to the increasingly popularity of small cars, but it abandoned the plan two years ago to instead concentrate investment and government funds on a a diesel Territory and upcoming four-cylinder Falcon.
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Company president Bob Graziano, who took the helm in late 2010, is confident the company has made the right move despite small cars currently outselling large cars such as its Falcon by three to one. Rival Holden has also started local production of its Cruze small car this year bringing a more expansive range.

"I wasn't obviously here [at the time of the Focus decision], so I don't' have the same retrospective view of it that you may have," says Graziano.

"But as I look our strategy from our One Ford [global product] standpoint, and I look at where we have the capacity and where we are building those products now, the opportunity to build a fairly large number of those [Focuses] in those sites [such as Europe and Thailand] ... I think that's beneficial for us because you want as much scale [of product] as you can get.

"I can't comment on whether they were right decisions [taken by previous management]. But I believe they were the right decisions when they were taken and they remain the right decisions today."

Falcon sales slumped 37 per cent between June 2009 and June 2011, while Focus sales have risen – albeit by a small margin of 6.3 per cent. However, the Focus continues to be comprehensively outsold by key rivals such as the Toyota Corolla, Mazda3, Hyundai i30 and Holden Cruze. Even the premium priced Volkswagen Golf has outsold the Focus this year.

Graziano wouldn't be drawn on whether the company could change its mind again down the track on whether the Focus would be produced in Australia, stressing the company was focused on its current local product. He says he is optimistic sales of its Falcon sedan and ute, and the Falcon-based Territory soft-roader will start to flourish now that Ford has completed its $232 million investment in more fuel efficient engines for its locally built models.

"We're just in the process of rolling out all that technology," he says. "So we're really looking forward to getting Falcon LPI, freshening of Falcon and [the] Ecoboost [four-cylinder engine] out there and see what happens with those vehicles. We think that's what customers are looking for in the large car segment."

Ford Australia was due to begin production of the Focus in 2011 before the about-turn, and the decision looks set to cost it sales for about a year as the company admits supply of Focuses from Europe will be constrained.

Once supply comes from the free-trade-agreement territory of Thailand – meaning it dodges the 5 per cent import tariff - the company says it is confident the new Focus will perform better against class sales leaders such as the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla than its predecessors.

"Yes, this Focus will outsell the previous Focus ... easily double digit improvement," Beth Donovan, Ford Australia's vice-president of marketing, sales and service.

"We are absolutely focused on the fact that we should be able to do what other products like a Mazda3 have been able to do [in terms of sales volume]."