Ford Motor Company on Friday announced what it has been denying for about a year: Lincoln-Mercury is relocating its world headquarters from Irvine, California back to Dearborn, Michigan in summer 2003.
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“As a part of Ford’s North American consumer business group, Lincoln-Mercury is now closely aligned with Ford division, sharing back-end functions and many dealers nationally,” said marketing head Jim O’Connor.
“For the long-term benefit of Lincoln-Mercury, it makes good business sense to co-locate with Ford division in Dearborn.”
Lincoln-Mercury president Darryl Hazel informed employees of the move during a “Town Hall” meeting on Friday. The first wave of employees is expected to move in July, after the conclusion of the school year, with the final move in August. About 90 Lincoln-Mercury employees currently work in Irvine, mostly in sales and marketing roles.
However, the Lincoln-Mercury design studio will remain in California, along with the North American headquarters of both the Premier Automotive Group and Mazda, plus the California regional sales office.
Lincoln-Mercury moved to California in July 1998 to try to benefit from the creative energy and relaxed lifestyle of the sunny state. In mid-2001 it joined other Ford operations in a brand-new, purpose-built building in Irvine, about an hour’s motorway drive south of Los Angeles.
Over the last year, Ford officials have repeatedly denied L-M would return to Michigan, saying that key marketing decisions would best be made by staff close to the strong California luxury vehicle market.
A report in Automotive News said that Ford’s announcement led to speculation that the British PAG brands Aston Martin, Land Rover and Jaguar also would leave Irvine to consolidate in Jaguar’s old headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey, which remains in use, while the other PAG brand, Volvo, still maintains an East Coast office.
According to Automotive News, about half of the 400 Aston Martin Jaguar Land Rover North America employees are still in Mahwah, with a quarter in the field and another quarter in Irvine. The same ratio applies to about 450 Volvo employees.
PAG spokesman Simon Sproule denied to Automotive News that any such move was planned but a Ford source told the newspaper that the giant car maker should at least consider the idea of undoing the Irvine PAG monolith, which cost more than $US50 million in building and moving costs.
The source told Automotive News that PAG executives must weigh the benefit of being in trendy California against the inefficiency of being nine time zones away from England and 10 from Sweden.
