Dallas, Texas 09/30/2013 (Financialstrend) – Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) quarter on quarter sales has zoomed up to an impressive 14.7% for the just concluded quarter which ended on August 30. It is projected that the car makers earnings is expected to grow by 13.8% for the next five years driven by increased demand for its vehicles.
Demand for Ford revives
The projected demand surge is expected predominantly from its US market which has recorded the big spurt of 20% in automobile retail sales for the month of August. This is the highest growth rate in single month that the sector has notched up since 2008 when the global financial turmoil began.
Manufacturing plant make over
This underlying bullishness about the sustained growth in demand has prompted the company to expand its manufacturing facilities at Oakville plant in Canada by pouring in $700 million. The expansion project is expected to complete in the last quarter of 2014. The plant is being redesigned into a flexible assembly line which can respond to varying customer preference from across the globe in real time. Ford hopes to leverage this factory to manufacture new models which are fuel efficient and equipped with new technologies designed to help the company define “value for money” to its customers.
Livio acquisition
In context is Ford’s September 26 announcement of acquiring the technology company “Livio Radio”. This company started its operations in 2008. It creates “in car” application platforms which offer holistic “audio and music” services and syncs it with the head units of automobiles. The acquired company will operate as a subsidiary of Ford’s Global Technologies Group.
The full financial arrangement behind the acquisition of the start up by the car maker has not yet been disclosed. People in the know believe Ford has paid $10m for the in-vehicle app maker. Ford CTO Paul Mascarenas is quoted to have said that “this acquisition brings into Ford, the 11 member team behind Livio Radio along with their intellectual property”.
