Ford Motor Company Limited,The Ford 'companies' or corporate entities referred to in this article are: Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan, US, incorporated 16 June 1903 Ford Motor Company Limited, incorporated 7 December 1928. Current (July 2023) registered office at Arterial Road, Laindon, Essex, England, SS15 6EE , manufacturer and seller of motor vehicles and parts Ford Motor Company (England) Limited, incorporated in 1909, purchased by Ford Motor Company Limited December 1928 Henry Ford and Son, Dearborn, Michigan, November 1915, incorporated 8 October 1917 Henry Ford and Son Limited, Cork incorporated 17 April 1917, purchased by Ford Motor Company Limited December 1928 Holding company for Ford's European and Egyptian businesses and in addition Lincoln Cars Limited, London, and Henry Ford and Son, Cork: Société d'Investissements Ford, Luxembourg, was liquidated during 1939 and its assets transferred to: Ford Investment Company Limited, Guernsey, Channel Islands trading as Ford of Britain, is a British wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Technologies Limited (formerly called Blue Oval Holdings), itself a subsidiary of Ford International Capital LLC, which is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Its business started in 1909 and has its registered office in Laindon, Essex. It adopted the name of Ford of Britain in 1960.Ford Display Advertising The Times, Saturday, 23 July 1960; pg. 5; Issue 54831; col A
Ford of Britain operates two major manufacturing sites in the UK, in Dagenham (diesel engine production) and Halewood (transmissions). It also operates a large research and development facility in Dunton, Essex, which employ around 35,000 people in product development, manufacturing, sales and marketing, and service roles.
In 2010, Ford had been the UK's biggest-selling car and commercial vehicle brand for 34 and 45 consecutive years respectively.
History
1903–1918
The first Ford cars, three Model As, were imported into the UK in 1903, and the first dealership opened in Southampton in November 1910. In 1909 the Ford Motor Company (England) Limited was established under the chairmanship of Percival Perry, opening an office at 55 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, in 1909.
Trafford Park
An assembly plant in an old tram factory in Trafford Park, Manchester, was opened in 1911, employing 60 people to make the Model T, and the company was re-registered as Henry Ford & Son, Ltd. This was the first Ford factory outside North America. At first, the cars were assembled from imported chassis and mechanical parts, with bodies sourced locally. Six thousand cars were produced in 1913, and the Model T became the country's biggest selling car, with 30% of the market. In 1914, Britain's first moving assembly line for car production started, with 21 cars an hour being built. After the First World War, the Trafford Park plant was extended, and in 1919, 41% of British registered cars were Fords.
Cork In 1917, a plant opened in Cork, Ireland, initially for tractor manufacture, but from 1921 cars were built there as well. This factory was the first to be purpose-built by Ford in Europe. The company of Henry Ford and Son Limited—Fordson—was officially incorporated on 17 April 1917, starting its life on the site of an old Cork racecourse. Its first registered office was at 36 South Mall, Cork.
Dagenham
Although the Manchester plant was served by the Manchester Ship Canal, Ford decided that access to a deep water port was required, and in 1923 a new site was chosen by the River Thames at Dagenham, east of London.
Formation of Ford Motor Company Limited In December 1928 Ford (since 1924 entirely owned by Henry Ford, his wife and their son Edsel) announced in London that it had formed a new company, Ford Motor Company Limited,FORD MOTOR COMPANY LIMITED. (Incorporated under the Companies Acts, 1908 to 1917.) The Times, Tuesday, 11 December 1928; pg. 24; Issue 45073 with three US directors (Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, Charles E. Sorensen) and four British directors (Sir Percy Perry, Roland Kitson, Sir John T Davies and Lord Illingworth), with a capital of £7 million. This company acquired all Ford's European and Middle Eastern businessFord Motor Company (England) Limited, Henry Ford and Son Limited, Cork. And by holding their share capitals: Automobiles Ford S.A., Paris, Ford Motor Company A/S, Copenhagen, Ford Motor Company S.A.E., Barcelona, Ford Motor Company of Belgium S.A., Antwerp, Ford Motor Company d'Italia S.A., Trieste, N.V. Ford Motor Company of Holland, Rotterdam Ford Motor Company A.B., Stockholm, Ford Motor Company A.G., Berlin, Ford Motor Company of Finland O/Y, Helsingfors, Ford Motor Company Pen Island 2015. in exchange for 60% of its capital. The balance of 40% of the capital of the new Ford Motor Company Limited, 2.8 million shares of £1 each, was now available for public subscription. These shares were heavily over-subscribed. There was considerable investing interest from America, as US investors had had no previous opportunity of investing in a Henry Ford business.
The new chairman, Sir Percival Perry, had been, and now was again, central to the development of Ford in Europe. Perry's association with Henry Ford dated from 1905, when Perry became a shareholder of Ford's first British agency, but the very first link between them was earlier, in 1903. The two men first met in 1906 in Detroit. From Britain, Perry envisioned Ford making vehicles outside the United States and selling them across the British Empire and Europe. He raced the company's cars, organised a chain of exclusive dealers, and superintended the Trafford Park assembly plant. In 1919, Henry Ford chose to run operations from Detroit, but Perry was determined to run all European business himself. Perry resigned in May 1919.Richard Davenport-Hines, ‘Perry, Percival Lee Dewhurst, Baron Perry (1878–1956)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
His American managers having failed him, Henry Ford offered Perry the chairmanship of this new Ford Motor Company Limited in 1928.
At the first meeting of shareholders in London on 6 March 1929,Ford Motor Company. Large Deliveries Of Model "A" Cars. (Business and Finance) The Times Thursday, 7 March 1929; pg. 24; Issue 45145 Perry reported "during the first three months of our first year we and our associated companies in Europe have delivered upwards of 50,000 Model 'A' vehicles into the hands of satisfied owners. The improved Fordson tractor is not yet in production but it is hoped to deliver the first tractors completely manufactured at our Cork works within the next month."
Europe's largest car plant
Construction started at Dagenham in 1929, and, in October 1931, Britain's and Europe's largest car plant opened, producing the Ford Model AA truck and Model A car. This was at the height of the Great Depression, and the Model A was too expensive to tax and run in Britain; very few were sold: only five in the first three months. A smaller car was urgently needed, and this came in 1932 with the 933 cc Model Y,"The New Small Ford Car. Coming Exhibition at Albert Hall" The Times, Saturday, 30 January 1932; pg. 7; Issue 46044 a car much more suited to the market, becoming in 1935 Britain's first £100 car (). This was Ford's first car specifically designed for sale outside North America. Between 1932 and 1937, over 157,000 were made at Dagenham and Cork, and at its peak it captured 41% of its market sector.
In 1938, Ford's Cork factory hit an important milestone, producing its 25,000th vehicle since becoming an assembly plant in 1932. In all, 73,000 cars, trucks and tractors had been built at Cork up to that time.
Associated companies The original 1928 plan was for Canada, having the benefit of Imperial Preference tariffs, to manufacture components for Ford assembly plants in the British Empire. Dagenham was to do, and did, the same for assembly plants in Europe, but in 1932, mired in the financial depression, both France and Germany announced their intention to impose heavy new tariffs on imported components. In France, urgent arrangements were made with Mathis for their plant to be leased by a joint-venture to be known as Matford and devoted to the full manufacture of Ford or Matford products.
More capital was required. There were consequential exchanges in shareholdings between Dagenham and Dearborn and other shareholders.
Ferguson tractors As an indication of the British and Irish company's sense of independence, in 1938 Henry Ford and Harry Ferguson came to 'a gentlemen's agreement', whereby Ford would manufacture tractors designed by Ferguson, using the "Ferguson System". Production commenced in the United States in June 1939, and the product was outstandingly successful, but Henry Ford was unable to persuade Ford in Britain to manufacture the Ford-Ferguson, though they did sell the US-made tractors. In 1945 Ferguson arranged British production with Standard Motor Company. Harry Ferguson sued US Ford for illegal use of his patents, asking for compensation of £90 million;"Claim Against Ford Company" The Times, Thursday, 6 October 1949; pg. 2; Issue 51505"Tractor Inventor's £90M. Claim. Allegations Against Ford Company" The Times, Tuesday, 27 March 1951; pg. 3; Issue 51959 this was settled out of court in 1952."Settlement in Suit Against Ford Company £3M. Award To Fergusons" The Times, Thursday, 10 April 1952; pg. 6; Issue 52283 Charles E. Sorensen's autobiography—he was a director of this company—described Ferguson so unfavourably that his UK publishers were obliged to scrap all copies and pay costs; Sorensen made a public apology."Queen's Bench Division. Inventor's Libel Action Settled Publishers And Author Apologize" The Times, Friday, 18 July 1958; pg. 13; Issue 54206
Second World War
During the Second World War, the Dagenham plant turned out 360,000 vehicles, and a new factory in Trafford Park, Manchester, made 34,000 Rolls-Royce Merlin engines.
War Office vehicle lines
The Fordson WOT was a line of five military trucks with load capacities from 3/4 ton to 3 tons produced in the Second World War. From 1939 to 1945, around 130,000 units were produced at the Ford Dagenham plant with almost half being the WOT2 (a 15 cwt model).
The WOC (War Office Commercial) was a two-seat light utillity ("tilly") vehicle and the WOA2 was classed as a "heavy utlility" with more passenger capacity acting as a staff car. The WOA1 was based on the Model 62 chassis and led to the post war Pilot p128
Post war After the war, civilian production resumed. Dagenham made 115,000 vehicles in 1946, and factories in Walthamstow in Essex (later London) and Langley in Buckinghamshire (later Berkshire) were acquired. The millionth vehicle made since the Dagenham factory started production in October 1931 rolled from the assembly line on 27 August 1946, a cream Ford Prefect 10 hp saloon.The Millionth British Ford. Mr. Wilmot on Dagenham Production The Times, Wednesday, 28 August 1946; pg. 7; Issue 50541
1950 Dearborn buys back Ford Europe Henry Ford resigned in 1945 in favour of grandson Henry Ford II, and died in April 1947. Perry, founder-chairman of Ford Motor Company Limited and each of the Ford Group's European subsidiaries, retired in 1948.Obituary: Lord Perry. The Ford Interests In Europe The Times, Tuesday, 19 June 1956; pg. 13; Issue 53561 In 1950, Ford's controlling interests in the European businesses were sold to Ford Dearborn.Ford's New Preference Shares The Times, Saturday, 10 December 1949; pg. 8; Issue 51561 In 1953, following the death of its Detroit founder, Briggs Motor Bodies, whose parent provided bodies to Ford America, was purchased, giving the company more control of its supplies and so acquiring plants at Doncaster, Southampton, Croydon and Romford. By 1953, Ford of Britain directly employed 40,000 people.
Subsidiary of Ford Motor Company