Ford has announced that it will add a shift and move to a three shift production pattern to expand capacity at its Russian manufacturing plant, effective immediately.
Some 500 new employees were recruited and trained at Ford’s plant at Vsevolozhsk, St. Petersburg, to fully staff all three shifts.
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“The shift to a three shift production pattern is further evidence of the recovery in the Russian economy and increasing demand for both Focus and Mondeo,” said Gray Greenway, Ford Motor Company ZAO General Director.
Ford’s St. Petersburg plant makes the Focus and Mondeo models.
The Ford Focus has been Russia’s best-selling car manufactured in the country by a non-domestic manufacturer for the past seven years.
The Ford Focus currently being produced in Russia is the previous version to the all-new model which is just now being rolled out in Europe and North America. That all-new Ford Focus starts production in Russia later this year.
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By GlobalDataThe Russian plant is the only Ford manufacturing facility which produces the Ford Focus in all three body styles: five-door, four-door and wagon.
Ford was the first foreign manufacturer to start vehicle production in Russia. Under 2-shift operation more than 2,700 employees worked at the Vsevolozhsk plant. Daily output was 300 cars under two shifts, which will now rise to at least 400.
See also: ANALYSIS: Russia to lead European production growth – report
