Ford Canada sees return to sales growth

By John McCrank
TORONTO (Reuters) - The head of Ford Motor Co of Canada (F.N) said on Thursday he anticipates May will be the first month of 2009 when the company will sees year-over-year growth in Canadian retail sales.
President David Mondragon told Reuters that Ford's Canadian market share has risen for six consecutive months and the company outsold Toyota Canada (7203.T) for five of those months.
Part of the reason the Ford brand has been strengthening has been its strong financial position, said Mondragon.
The company's Detroit-based peers, General Motors Corp (GM.N) and Chrysler, have had to rely on government financing to stay afloat during the brutal downturn in the auto industry. Even with government aid, Chrysler recently filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, while many analysts expect GM to soon follow suit.
"We are confident we can finance our way through these difficult times." Mondragon said. "We have no intention today of asking for government assistance."
Ford's financial position has allowed it launch a flurry of new products, with seven coming over the next six months, more than any other manufacturer in Canada.
So far in 2009, the company is the No. 2 autoseller in Canada, compared with its No. 4 position last year.
Ford's retail share is up 1.2 percentage points year over year, and its total share is ahead 1.1 percentage points.
A one-point share in Canada is worth about 15,000 units.
Despite the company's growing market share, there will still be pain in 2009, with Canadian auto sales set for further big declines, said Mondragon.
"We initially started the year thinking the industry would run down 7 percent," he said. "We have reassessed the industry, and we now see it down between 13 and 15 percent in the calendar year."
He said one thing that could force Ford Canada to change its forecast again, would be if the Canadian government were to introduce a "cash for clunkers" program like ones instituted in Europe and the one the United States is looking to implement.
"We're hoping a scrappage program could bring about 100,000 incremental sales in Canada and claw back really half of the decline on a year-over-year basis."
The U.S. plan would give consumers up to $4,500 for vehicles aged eight years or older, to put toward a new, more fuel efficient vehicle. Similar plans have spurred auto sales in Europe.
To cope with the dearth of sales in the current environment, GM recently announced it would cut over 300 of its dealerships to adjust for the lower demand, but Mondragon said Ford has already done its cutting. "Since 1999, we've downsized our dealers by 23 percent, so we've already made those hard decisions," he said.
Worldwide, the company has closed 17 plants and laid off over 60,000 employees over the past decade.