Blue Failure: How Ford’s St. Petersburg Plant Slid from Focus to Stool
- February 3, 2023
- 0
The mass exodus of Ford from Europe in general and from Russia in particular led to the shutdown of the famous Blue Oval plant in the Leningrad region.
The mass exodus of Ford from Europe in general and from Russia in particular led to the shutdown of the famous Blue Oval plant in the Leningrad region. In 2019, the conveyor in Vsevolozhsk was closed, and in 2021 it was sold to Koreans from Sungwoo Hitech Rus, who planned to start the production of auto parts. Then it was February 2022 and a year later another news came. Impressive.
Ford started fleeing Russia for internal business reasons and long before it went “mainstream”. Years of “effective management” – both at headquarters and in branches around the world – led to the “Blue Oval” crumbling, demonstrating monstrous losses on the same main balance.
The Americans embarked on a long, complex and bloody process to reformat the company. Projects with decades of history were closed – such as Taurus, Mondeo, S-Max, Galaxy and many others. At the same time, assembly lines and representative offices were folded. The company needed to save money while focusing on new areas of consumer interest: crossovers and electric vehicles. And there the pandemic came in time and stopped the entire car trade in the world.
The exodus from Russia, where, as we remember, Ford first came at the beginning of the last century, as a partner of the Gorky Automobile Plant, was painful, but unfortunately expected. There was no trace left of the wealth of the 2000s, when the Focus stood in line for six months: the Koreans filled the niche, and the Blue Oval was finally left with the not-so-impressive Explorer and Kuga crossovers, and commercial vehicles from Yelabuga. This was enough to “support the pants”, but the company, which owns three plants in Russia, objectively needed more. The result is goodbye.
One of the first factories of foreign brands in our country – Vsevolozhsky – was looking for a new owner for a long time. There were rumors about the ubiquitous Korean brands, and about the Chinese, and even about the return of Ford itself. However, time passed, the once abundant areas were idle, and the buyer was not found. As a result, the company was sold to a manufacturer of auto body parts from the country of morning freshness – Sungwoo Hitech Rus, which already owned a plant in Russia. This happened in December 2021. Further description makes no sense, because it exactly repeats the fate of dozens of other factories of foreign brands.
As a result, in 2022 part of the space was rented by a woodworking company. This is how the fate of one of the first and largest conveyors of imported brands in Russia changed sadly and pessimistically: from a beautiful car and the dream of millions, a Ford Focus sedan, to a stool in twenty years.
Photo: chicagokoreatimes.com
Ford started fleeing Russia for internal business reasons and long before it went “mainstream”. Years of “effective management” – both at headquarters and in branches around the world – led to the “Blue Oval” crumbling, demonstrating monstrous losses on the same main balance.
The Americans embarked on a long, complex and bloody process to reformat the company. Projects with decades of history were closed – such as Taurus, Mondeo, S-Max, Galaxy and many others. At the same time, assembly lines and representative offices were folded. The company needed to save money while focusing on new areas of consumer interest: crossovers and electric vehicles. And there the pandemic came in time and stopped the entire car trade in the world.
The exodus from Russia, where, as we remember, Ford first came at the beginning of the last century, as a partner of the Gorky Automobile Plant, was painful, but unfortunately expected. There was no trace of the wealth of the 2000s, when the Focus was lined up for half a year: the Koreans filled the niche, and the Blue Oval was finally left with not the most impressive Explorer and Kuga crossovers and Yelabuga commercial vehicles. This was enough to “support the pants”, but the company, which owns three plants in Russia, objectively needed more. The result is goodbye.
One of the first factories of foreign brands in our country – Vsevolozhsky – was looking for a new owner for a long time. There were rumors about the ubiquitous Korean brands, and about the Chinese, and even about the return of Ford itself. However, time passed, the once abundant areas were idle, and the buyer was not found. As a result, the company was sold to a manufacturer of auto body parts from the country of morning freshness – Sungwoo Hitech Rus, which already owned a plant in Russia. This happened in December 2021. Further description makes no sense, because it exactly repeats the fate of dozens of other factories of foreign brands.
As a result, in 2022 part of the space was rented by a woodworking company. This is how the fate of one of the first and largest conveyors of imported brands in Russia changed sadly and pessimistically: from a beautiful car and the dream of millions, a Ford Focus sedan, to a stool in twenty years.
Source: Avto Vzglyad
Donald Salinas is an experienced automobile journalist and writer for Div Bracket. He brings his readers the latest news and developments from the world of automobiles, offering a unique and knowledgeable perspective on the latest trends and innovations in the automotive industry.
