Ford Sollers is celebrating its one-year anniversary. The equal-parts joint venture, owned by Ford and Sollers, officially marked the start of operations at an even in Moscow on 1 October 2011.
The partnership uses Ford’s production facilities in Vsevolozhsk (Leningrad Region) and two Sollers manufacturing plants in Naberezhniye Celny and Elabuga (Tatarstan). It has also set up a Ford Sollers head office in Khimki (Moscow Region). Its first model, the Ford Transit, entered production in Elabuga in January 2012.
“This is a very important day for our team of experienced and talented employees at Ford Sollers. We’ve achieved a great deal in such a short space of time. Just three months after the business was founded, we built our very first Transit in Elabuga, meeting all of Ford’s stringent global quality processes and procedures. By September, we had already built 10,000 Transits in Tatarstan,” said Adil Shirinov Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Ford Sollers.
The venture now builds a total of seven models: the Ford Kuga, Ford S-Max, Ford Galaxy, Ford Explorer and Ford Transit in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, and the Ford Focus and Ford Mondeo in Vsevolozhsk.
“Because of Ford’s global One Ford strategy, Ford Sollers is able to offer Russian customers a larger choice of high quality and stylish vehicles. We strengthened significantly our SUV line-up thanks to the launch of Explorer and Kuga production – and we plan to go even further!” said Ted Cannis, President and Сhief Executive of Ford Sollers.
In July this year, Ford Sollers started hiring new workers for its Elabuga Plant to help boost output. The venture is looking to take on more than 1,000 employees for technical, engineering and production vacancies. Over the next four years, Ford Sollers expects to hire more than 4,000 additional employees.
Although the European automotive market has been weakening over the past few months, Russia has proved the exception. Its light vehicle sales set a new August record last month, up 15% from the same month last year. In comparison, light vehicles sales across the EU were down 8.9% in August. Autumn is a traditionally strong season for the Russian industry, and further growth is expected in the coming months. The market is currently led by AvtoVAZ/Renault-Nissan, GM and VW.
