Ford confirms factory closure date
Last Australian-made Fords to roll off the line in Melbourne on October 7 next yearFord has confirmed it will cease manufacturing in Australia after more than 90 years on October 7, 2016 -- on the eve of next year's Bathurst 1000.
The Blue Oval confirmed the shutdown date for both the Broadmeadows assembly plant and its Geelong engine, casting and stamping factories at a production-planning meeting this morning (September 11).
The news, subsequently publicly confirmed, means the company will fulfil its 2013 commitment to build the Falcon and Territory SUV until October 2016 and not shut down earlier as had widely been speculated would happen.
Ford was the first of the big three to announce its exit from local manufacturing, with Holden and Toyota to follow suit in late 2017.
Appropriately, the shutdown coincides with next year's Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercars race which has played a crucial role in building’s the Falcon’s fame through its 55-year lifespan.
Although Ford pulls out of V8 Supercar racing season there are certain to be FG X Falcons racing at the 1000km classic. A victory would certainly add poignancy to the weekend.
Most of Ford’s 850 manufacturing employees will lose their jobs on October 7, while a few will stay on for a few weeks to wrap things up.
Then a global decommissioning team moves on to shutter and then prepare the sites for sell-off.
Ford has had a manufacturing presence at Broadmeadows since 1960, when the first Falcon rolled off the line, and started building cars in Geelong in 1925.
The Broadmeadows assembly line was opened by then prime minister, Sir Robert Menzies, since which time eight generations of Falcon have been produced.
While it will become a full-line importer from October next year, Ford will retain a strong design and engineering business in Australia and claims it will be the biggest single automotive employer in the country with about 1500 staff once all manufacturing ceases.
Ford's Asia Pacific Product Development campus is now based in Ford Australia's former head office at Campbellfield, while its sales and marketing team is now based in a leased building closer to the Melbourne CBD in Richmond.
Its research and development operations also include a product engineering office in Geelong and the You Yangs proving ground at Lara.
Despite the end being so close, Ford is still working on one final special-edition version of the Falcon -- a hotted up 310kW XR6 Turbo based on the old FPV F6 and perhaps an XR8, both likely to revive the Sprint name.
Ford currently builds the Falcon and Territory at Broadmeadows, but which cars will be built on the last day itself has yet to be determined.
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