Ford Motor Company Limited is a subsidiary of Britain doing its business in Europe. The company began its journey to become one of the leading vehicle manufacturing firms in the world in 1909. Ford is the biggest commercial vehicle producing company in Britain with its registered office located in Brentwood, Essex. Britain houses three of the major manufacturing units of Ford. Petrol and diesel engine production are carried on in Bridgend and Dagenham respectively whereas, Halewood specializes in transmissions. One of the main objectives of the company is to design cars that the customers would want and value by using technological innovation. In May 2000, Ford had announced its intention of investing US$500 million in the expansion of a diesel engine factory located in Dagenham making it the largest diesel engine centre in the world and which has made it possible to create about 500 new jobs for British youth. The technological innovation brought in the manufacturing has empowered Ford in creating designs which can help the drivers with better driving experience. They have improved and also have added many new features in their cars making them more preferred by the customers all around the world.
This report presents the business side of the Ford Motor Company Limited. Since it is a multi-national company (MNC) and has established its business in many parts of the world, this report focuses on Ford’s business operations in the UK (United Kingdom). There are a number of factors that affects the business of a company which can be divided into external and internal analysis. Detailed analysis has been provided in the report to provide a better understanding to the reader.
Ford basically involves in manufacturing of automobiles. Some of the main competitors of Ford in Britain are Vauxhall, Volkswagen, Audi, BMV and Nissan. The competitors of Ford even produce cars in the similar ranges too. Ford not only offers cars but provide a very helpful after sales support system too. Though there are some strong competitors of Ford, still Ford acquired the largest share in the automobile market in 2015. It has 12.9% of the market share, followed by Vauxhall having 11.57% of the market share and Volkswagen having 8% of the market share (Statista, 2016). There are wide varieties of cars that are offered by Ford in Britain, some are family cars while some are commercial vehicles. Few examples of the cars offered are Ford Fiesta, Ford Ka plus and Ford Transit Courier. Ford is actually facing a lot of competition from the Japanese companies. The raw materials used are aluminum, steel, iron castings, precious metals like palladium, energy resources like natural gas and polypropylene. Ford has made an investment of £169 million in 2004 in its Dagenham plant so that the company can increase its production of diesel engines (Ford Motor Company, 2015). Since 2011, Ford has been continuing its emphasis in the core sector which has made it possible for the company to maintain a high profitability since then. Looking ahead for Ford competition in the region is intensifying with a number of manufacturers have been substantially increasing their capacity and also importing new products into the region in the hope of capturing a greater share of the market. Against this background, Ford is expected to continue to maintain high profitability as accomplished in 2012.
The product base of the company is very wide starting with automobiles, the company is engaged manufacturing of trucks, tractors, various parts of vehicles, buses, etc. However, the other two non-conventional products are leasing of cars mainly to its corporate clients and financial services as a subsidiary of the main business. This provides option to the customers and allows the company to serve a wide base of customers with a strong market approach.
The company faces highly competitive market with a number of foreign car manufacturers in working UK and the rest of Europe making its demand relatively elastic in the market of UK. Ford has been continuously working to strengthen their competitiveness in the region's changing environment; these actions include fully leveraging through their “One Ford” strategy by initiating the second phase of the plan, including the introduction of an all-new lineup of global products in future years to come (Forbes, 2015). In Britain, the external environment is uncertain and is likely to remain so for some time. Given the challenges experienced in Europe, the management of the company are reviewing and accelerating their actions to strengthen and improve their business in UK and rest of Europe.
Ford is associated with a number of brands like, Jaguar, Volvo, Lincoln, Land Rover, Ashton Martin, etc. which allows the company to cater a large customer base (Ford Motor Company, 2014). Besides, its performance in the production of commercial vehicles, Ford is engaged in financial services and leasing of vehicles which help the middle class people to enjoy a car within their limited budget. The company does a lot in its design to attract more customers of varied age groups. Ford believe in technological innovation to reach a large market share has been successful so far. Although Ford is a market leader, yet it is not able to play with its price. The company’s pricing strategy is dependent upon the market conditions and accordingly Ford fixes its price. For its luxury product line, they follow a premium pricing strategy while majority of the car owners fall in the class of middle income earner; hence, the highly elastic market forces the company to follow dual price strategy.