Holden and Ford in the black

Ford Australia has returned to profit for the first time since 2010 in its first year as a full-line importer, while GM Holden increased its profit in its final year as a manufacturer.

Late last week GM Holden announced a $156.8 million after-tax profit for 2017 – up $4m on its 2016 operating profit.

Meantime, Ford Australia’s after-tax profit of $27m was a big improvement over its $23.7m loss in 2016 and its huge $267m loss in 2013, when it announced it would close its factory doors in 2016.

While Ford closed its Broadmeadows and Geelong manufacturing plants in October 2016, Holden shut its Port Melbourne engine factory the same year and its Elizabeth assembly facility in October 2017.

Holden’s improved profitability in 2017 came on the back of 90,306 sales (down 4.2 per cent), which placed it fourth on the sales chart with a smaller 7.6 per cent market share.

Over at Ford, 78,161 Australian sales in 2017 (down 3.8 per cent) ranked it sixth with a reduced share of 6.6 per cent.

For 2017, Holden reported consolidated revenue of $1.8 billion -- down from $2.3b in 2016.

The same year saw Ford post revenue of $3.5b, more than $500m of which came from Ford Australia’s engineering operations, which were responsible for developing the Ranger and Everest models for markets worldwide.

Last year Ford received $1.6m as part of the federal government’s Automotive Transformation Scheme (ATS), but invested $471.5m in R&D and spent $4.9m on staff redundancies.

It spent a further $14 million on its Broadmeadows design studio and You Yangs proving ground, and an unspecified amount on decommissioning its manufacturing facilities.

“Our 2017 financials reflect a significant growth in our core business as we move towards sustainable profitability,” said Ford in a statement.

“This is tempered by ongoing decommissioning costs. Ford continues to focus on refreshing our product line-up to offer more innovative products for consumers and to drive profitable growth.

“Ford continues to invest in the future with nearly $3 billion in R&D in Australia the past seven years, and more than $475 million confirmed for 2018 to bring more vehicles to market for consumers all over the world.

“We are now Australia’s largest auto employer with over 2000 highly skilled professionals, including the team that leads the design and engineering of the Ranger, Ranger Raptor and Everest for Australia and the world.”

Meantime, Holden earned $35.6m from the sale of property, plant and equipment last year, when it also received $36.6m via the ATS.

Holden said it invested $70.7m in R&D last year – slightly more than in 2016 – but it’s unclear how much money it made from design and engineering work on global GM models.

In its 2017 financial report, Holden said it paid a total of $22m in combined taxes last year (down from $80m in 2016), and $8.2m in remuneration for its top executives – up from $6.7m in 2016.