Having stepped into the business world in Dearborn, Michigan, on 16 June 1903, Ford Motor Company carries out car production and distribution activities in 200 markets in six continents. Ford Motor Company has approximately 224,000 employees and 110 plants worldwide. Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Volvo are either the master or subsidiary automotive brands of the company, while Ford Motor Credit Company is its automotive-related services enterprise.
In addition to the production of commercial vehicles, Ford Otomotiv A.S., a public company in which Ford Motor Company and Koc Holding have equal shares, carries out the import activities of the Ford cars to our country and offers sales and post-sales services related to these cars. Ford Otomotiv A.S., which is the exports and domestic market leader of the Turkish automotive industry, has more than 8,000 employees in its Kocaeli and Inonu plants, its Replacement Distribution Center in Kartal, Istanbul, as well as its Technology Center in Technopark, Gebze.
Being the biggest commercial vehicle manufacturer and exporter of Turkey, Ford Otosan had a 56% share in the commercial vehicle revenues of Turkey and 21% in the total automotive export revenues in 2008. Besides, the company continued to be the leader of the domestic market in its seventh consecutive year. In 2008, a total number of 268,800 cars were produced, 220,000 of which were directed towards exportation.
Ford Otosan, which was founded in 1959 as the first automobile company of Turkey, produced Anadol, which is the first Turkish automobile, in 1969 and established the first auto manufacturing plant in 1983, and is the first company to export to the American Continent in 2000, and it is also the first company to export to five continents, becoming the national automobile industry leader..
The company has a total capacity of 330,000 commercial vehicles and 65,000 engines, including Transit and Transit Connect produced in the plant in Kocaeli and Cargo truck, engine and transfer organs produced in the plant in Inonu. Thanks to this level of production, since 2002, Ford Otosan Kocaeli Plant has been rewarded by the inspectors as “one of the best Ford cars production plants of the world” among the Ford plants located in Europe which are subjected to evaluation.
Kartal Replacement Distribution Center is the largest automotive replacement center of Turkey covering a closed area of 25, 000 m², having a replacement stock of 55,000 types on the average and distributing replacements to 190 different points in Turkey and 30 countries in the world.
The Technology Center which is located in Gebze Technopark and which was opened by TÜBİTAK in September 2007 has been founded primarily in order to perpetuate and further increase Ford Otosan’s success in domestic and foreign markets by developing the latest products and cutting-edge technologies so as to gain competitive advantage on a global scale.
Ford Otosan enjoys many logistical advantages including an annual production capacity of a total of 330,000 vehicles in its production facilities, as well as Kocaeli plant’s geographical proximity to sub-industry production areas and the fact that it has its own harbor structure. These logistical advantages accompanied by a low-cost and flexible productive enables the implementation of a large-scale export program.
The objective of Ford Otomotiv A.S. is to maintain its leadership both in the domestic market and exports sector in Turkey’s automotive industry, as well as its powerful position in the fields of production capacity, human resources, R&D, distribution and logistics with its customer-oriented and innovative products and services, and to continue to create value for its shareholders, customers, partners and employees.