Ford sales slump sharpens job axe

Demand for traditional Aussie cars is down by another 25 per cent this year, hitting the Holden Commodore even harder than the Falcon last month, and that means the Broadmeadows brand is about to wind back its production.

It intends to cut the build rate at Broadmeadows from 209 to just 148 cars a day, with half of those expected to be the Territory SUV. The bad news from Ford comes in a dismal year for the three local carmakers, as Toyota and Holden have also reduced their workforces.

"It's a sad day for us," the president of Ford Australia, Bob Graziano, tells Carsguide. "But we also have to manage our business to be as efficient as possible going forward." 

The redundancies are the first at Ford since April of 2011, when daily production was cut from 260 cars. The losses will be shared across Ford's sites at Broadmeadows and Geelong, with almost all coming from the manufacturing areas of the company. They will be voluntary at first, although Graziano says there may be some forced redundancies to hit the target.

The downsizing will cut the company's workforce by 14.5 per cent, leaving it at 2574 people. Graziano refuses to discuss the latest move on the long-term future of the Falcon, which is only currently locked to the end of 2016 following a $133 million commitment earlier this year to a facelift in 2014.

We are committed to the Falcon to the end of 2016 and I stand by that," Graziano says. "This takes us to the end of 2016. And between now and then we'll continue to look at where the market is moving. I don't want to speculate on what vehicles we'll have in 2016 and beyond."