Ford boss: We are sticking with Britain

One of Ford’s top bosses insisted yesterday that the car giant was ‘sticking with Britain’ through Brexit.

American Jim Farley, executive vice president of global markets for Ford, said the UK was a ‘fundamental part’ of its operations as well as being its biggest market in europe.

He said he felt ‘ positive’ about the direction of the Brexit negotiations including for the transition period after Britain officially leaves the eU next March.

‘We’re very encouraged by the provisional transitional agreement between the eU and the UK government,’ he said. ‘It is a very positive sign. I think the agreement is a significant step forward.’

Speaking at the global launch in London of the new fourth generation Ford Focus, Mr Farley, who is one of the firm’s top four bosses in the world, said there were ‘many reasons’ for choosing the UK to unveil the family hatchback in the UK.

‘We’re number one in Britain. Our Fiesta has been the market leader for a long time. We employ thousands of people here. We have a large employee base and a lot of people working in research and development.’

Asked directly if Ford was sticking with Britain through Brexit, Mr Farley, who until recently was head of Ford of europe, said emphatically: ‘Yes, of course. This is such a fundamental part of our company globally.’

Mr Farley, who is now based in Detroit, had earlier met around 300 of Ford’s 13,500 UK employees, mainly at Dunton and Dagenham in essex and the Bridgend engine plant in Wales. Last year Ford sold 70,000 Ford Focus cars in the UK, making it the UK’s thirdbest-selling car after the Ford Fiesta and the Volkswagen Golf.

But the figure represents a third of the 210,000 Focuses sold across the whole of europe.

Mr Farley said Ford wanted to see ‘frictionless trade’ continue between the UK and eU after Brexit and was hopeful this could be achieved.

Uncertainty surrounding Brexit had cost Ford around £420million in terms of currency fluctuations and lost business, he said. ‘Brexit has had a big impact on the business, but we’re number one in Britain so it’s a very important market,’ Mr Farley added.