Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd., preparing a $1-billion redevelopment of its Oakville, Ont., operations, has appointed Joe Hinrichs, a key manufacturing executive from parent Ford Motor Co., to replace Alain Batty as president.
Mr. Batty will depart on Jan. 1 to be replaced by Mr. Hinrichs, director of manufacturing, vehicle operations, for Ford in Dearborn, Mich.
Mr. Hinrichs, 37, joined Ford in 2000 after 10 years at General Motors Corp. and a stint as a partner and senior vice-president at Ryan Enterprises Group, where he headed an auto parts maker.
He becomes president of a company that posted sales of $20.8-billion last year and employs about 16,000 people at its head office in Oakville, two assembly plants, engine manufacturing plants and regional offices throughout the country.
Mr. Batty, who became president of Ford Canada in April, 2001, has been appointed director of European sales staffs.
He came to Ford Canada after serving as president of Ford of Russia.
In his current job, Mr. Hinrichs is responsible for manufacturing, launch and quality of some key Ford vehicles, including the Explorer and Escape sport utility vehicles.
His appointment comes as Ford Canada pins its hopes on crucial new vehicles to regain market share that has evaporated over the past several years, including a slide to 13.9 per cent this year, from 16.6 per cent when Mr. Batty arrived in 2001.
Among those products are the Ford Freestyle crossover utility vehicle, the Ford 500 sedan and the Mustang sports car.
"The new products are very important," Mr. Hinrichs said yesterday, adding that the company is concerned about its market share losses and reversing that trend is a high priority.
Dealers said yesterday that the key job for Mr. Hinrichs will be to strengthen Ford Canada's marketing and sales operations so those new products sell well.
"I want somebody who is very strong in marketing," one dealer said yesterday.
"A strong promotional leader to get our product back into the minds of people and restore some of that lost share."
Dealers praised Mr. Batty yesterday for patching up their relationship with Ford Canada, which suffered under his predecessor Bobbie Gaunt, whose moves to restructure the auto maker's sales operations and selling practices angered dealers.
"He came here because he had a job to do and he did it. He mended the fences," said Bob Bentley, who owns Freedom Ford Sales Ltd. in Edmonton.
Mr. Batty said yesterday that restoring harmony with the dealers represents the highlight of his years here.
But maintaining Ford as the leading brand in customer satisfaction among the major companies was another key achievement, he said.
Mr. Bentley's praise came despite a decline in sales to 242,170 last year from 251,359 in 2001. As of the end of November, Ford's sales had fallen another 18 per cent from 2003 levels.
Vehicle sales per dealer, a key measure of dealer health and profitability, are expected to fall to about 460 this year from 495 last year.
The number of Ford dealers has fallen to 464 from 489.
"The market share is not what the [dealer] infrastructure can accommodate," said one dealer. "Either the infrastructure gets changed or we adjust to the market share," he said.
Mr. Batty came in to repair the relationship between dealers and the head office and he did just that, agreed industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. of Richmond Hill, Ont.
