Ford chief executive Alan Mulally has expressed his concern over the slowing US economy following continued poor sales in 2007.
The company’s US sales dropped by almost 3 per cent to 16.14 million units last year, following previous marked losses in 2006, which had prompted a restructuring programme to be introduced. This programme continues to be enforced and aims to return North American operations to profitability by 2009.
“For us, any slowdown in the economy – the housing industry, financing of vehicles, tightening credit, housing starts – puts a lot of pressure on consumer confidence to big-ticket items,” said Mulally. “Clearly, it makes it tougher. We took the actions starting a year and a half ago to deal with this.”
