It has been a turbulent few years for the Blue Oval, but the brand is finally profitable in the UK
Lisa Brankin took the top job at Ford of Britain in late 2020 just as the brand was about to execute plans to willingly give up a market-leading volume position for its car business in pursuit of the profitability that had always eluded it.
While Brankin’s observation that “timing is everything, and I think probably my timing isn’t as good as it could have been…” was said largely in relation to the industry-wide challenges faced at that time (Covid, the chips shortage), it’s just as apt for how difficult a job she was handed compared to her predecessors for Ford no longer being “obsessed over market leadership”.
That road to “managing a profitable business overall” has led to a series of outwardly quite unpopular decisions, not just for Brankin being the bearer of bad news with the demise of the likes of the Fiesta, but in reducing the dealer network from above 300 to under 170 as a result of this shift away from such mass volume, a process that’s still ongoing.
She doesn’t “feel like I’ve been apologising so much” in her stint in the top job, but even so is determined to shift the narrative and says “things have changed” already in dealers and in the brand’s line-up.
“You’ve heard a little bit of bad news from Ford: no more Fiesta, no more Mondeo, no more S-Max etc. But we’re at a pivotal point now where we’re turning a corner. We’ve got the newest passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle line-up that we’ve ever had. We’re thinking about the future and not so much about the past.”
While two new electric crossovers, the Explorer and Capri, are getting the headlines, the transformation is already well underway at Ford with the success of the Puma and Kuga crossovers. While Ford sales are down overall, the Puma is now Britain’s best selling car, and the brand is finally profitable in the UK. Perhaps volume and profitability can mix.
Brankin has not gone electric yet herself, her previous Mustang company car is followed by a run-out edition of the Focus ST. Her ultimate boss, Ford CEO Jim Farley, would love to hear that as an enthusiast himself. As for the level of Brankin’s interactions with Farley and Ford’s Dearbon HQ, she says with a smile that it “all depends how well we’re doing”.
Much of the discussion at the moment will be on Brankin’s immediate priority of complying with the government’s ZEV mandate and its compulsion of a car maker having to have 22% of its new car registrations this year as EVs, immaterial of demand.
