After months of bad news, Ford announced an end to 21 months of losses with a recorded profit of £370m/€549m/$750m for the second quarter of 2007. Even the troubled PAG division, which includes Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo, recorded a small profit of £69m/€102m/$140m.
While the announcement astonished the financial community, Ford CEO Allan Mulally avoided triumphalism. He declared that he did not expect the company to record further profit before the end of 2009. He expects simply to reduce the forecasted loss of £8.4bn/€12.4bn/$17bn.
It seems like the restructuring is showing signs of success, but the pill was bitter to swallow. Ford sold Aston Martin, closed 16 plants and axed 45,000 jobs to avoid bankruptcy.
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