Reuters reports that Ford will take an aggressive approach to cost controls under a restructuring plan expected to be announced later this year.
Go deeper with GlobalData
“We have to be very aggressive in terms of controlling costs,” Chief Operating Officer Jim Padilla told reporters at the Frankfurt auto show, Reuters reported.
“We will be aggressive. We will address costs. We will address our footprint as a business. We will address capacity.”
Ford is yet to announce a turnaround plan for the North American region and has said it was working on more restructuring moves to halt deep losses in its North American operations.
Ford has also not ruled out deeper job cuts in its salaried workforce or a closure of manufacturing plants, Reuters noted.
Padilla declined to be drawn on the company’s talks with the United Auto Workers union, but said Ford was closely watching the situation between the union and its U.S. rival General Motors over the future of troubled parts supplier Delphi Corp.
“The Delphi situation has the shortest fuse. We have been watching the dialogue with GM,” he reportedly said.
But Mark Fields, executive vice president of Ford in Europe, said he could not put a date on when the automaker’s UK-based luxury brand Jaguar would start making a profit, Reuters reported.
Ford has said previously it expected Jaguar to break even in 2007. “We are not going to put a date on when Jaguar will return to profitability,” Fields said, according to Reuters.
