Ford Motor, which has been struggling to bring itself back to profitability, announced significant changes to its business operations. The decisions, announced Jan. 11, include the closing of five facilities, laying off close to 20,000 employees and selling off non-core businesses.
In addition to closing a number of plants, Ford Motor also is looking to slow production at a number of other manufacturing facilities to reduce the number of automobiles produced by around 1 million a year, a 17.5 percent decline in automobile production.
Over the longer term, Ford announced that it would be closing its Ontario, Canada truck plant; its Edison, N.J. assembly plant; the St. Louis, Mo., assembly plant; Cleveland Aluminum, Cleveland; and the Vulcan Forge plant in Dearborn, Mich. Eleven other plants will undergo "major downsizing," and nine plants will see production slowed over the next few years. Many of these changes will come as the product life of the vehicles produced at the facilities runs its course, according to the company.
Along with the decision to close the plants, Ford Motor also announced plans to divest itself of some non-core assets.
The non-core businesses include the car rental agency Hertz, as well as GreenLeaf Acquisitions, an autombolie dismantling and auto parts rrecycling business.
A spokeswoman for GreenLeaf said that at the present time any announcements about Ford divesting of Greenleaf is "pure speculation."
GreenLeaf has 31 operations in 14 states. The company began the acquisition of automobile dismantling operations in 1999.