Ford of Europe edges back into profit

The Blue Oval's European division reports encouraging financial results compared with the first six months of last year

Ford’s ailing European division has edged back into profit according to the latest financial results from the carmaker.

The brand edged into pre-tax profit in the second quarter of 2014, making £8.2m between April and June this year. Although that’s a profit margin of just 0.2 per cent, it’s a big improvement on the same period in 2013, when Ford of Europe lost £180m.

Ford’s impressive turnaround is better illustrated by the first-half results. The Blue Oval's European division lost £105m between January and June this year, but in the same period in 2013, it lost £430m, although some of that figure was associated with the decision close the Ford factory in Genk, Belgium.

However, Ford said it does not expect to turn a profit in Europe until 2015, with losses in the second half of this year anticipated to be higher than the £105m in the first half. The company blames expected lower overall EU sales in the second half, as well as the costs of starting production of the new Mondeo.

Across Ford’s global operations, however, the company made a healthy pre-tax profit of £1.5bn in the second quarter of 2014. Ford says it expects to make a global pre-tax profit of as much as £4.7bn in 2014.

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