Ford Sollers celebrates its first anniversary

MOSCOW, Russia, October 1, 2012 – Ford Sollers, the joint venture business equally-owned by Ford and Sollers, is celebrating its first anniversary.

Last year on October 1, 2011, Alan Mulally, President and CEO, Ford Motor Company, and Vadim Shvetsov, general director of Sollers, announced the start of operations for the joint venture at a special event in Moscow. The new business was based around Ford’s existing production facilities in Vsevolozhsk (Leningrad Region), with two Sollers manufacturing plants in Naberezhniye Celny, Elabuga (Tatarstan), and also established a Ford Sollers head office in Khimki (Moscow Region).

The first production milestone for the new business was the production of a new vehicle in Elabuga, the Ford Transit. Transit sales in Russia during August 2012 exceeded 1,000 units – the best-ever sales month for Transit in the country. For the first eight months of the year, Transit was the best-selling nameplate in the commercial vehicle segment among the foreign brands.

“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 built in Tatarstan,” said Adil Shirinov Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Ford Sollers.

By mid-year 2012, the Ford Kuga, Ford S-MAX, Ford Galaxy and the iconic Ford Explorer had all joined the Ford Transit on the Ford Sollers assembly lines in the “Alabuga” Special Economic Zone. Together with the class-leading Ford Focus and Ford Mondeo made in Vsevolozhsk Ford Sollers is currently producing seven different Ford vehicles in Russia. The share of locally-built Ford models now exceeds 95 per cent of all Ford vehicles sold in Russia. By providing Russian customers with Tatarstan-made Ford Kuga and Ford Explorer vehicles, Ford Sollers is better able to meet the demand in the SUV segment – the fastest-growing market segment in Russia – for these tried and tested Ford models. In fact, during the first nine months of the year, sales of Ford SUVs increased 64 per cent compared to a year ago.

“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 СЕО Ford Sollers.
From the end of July 2012, Ford Sollers started to hire additional employees at its Elabuga Plant to help with the expansion in production. Currently, the plant has more than 1,000 vacancies for technical, engineering and production employees. Over the next four years, Ford Sollers expects to hire more than 4,000 additional employees.

The milestones of the first year of Ford Sollers JV:
October 1, 2011 – Ford Motor Company and Sollers OJSC announced the start of operations of their 50-50 joint venture in Russia.
January 2012 – The start of Ford Transit production at the Ford Sollers plant in Elabuga.
January 17, 2012 – The 500,000th vehicle rolled off the production line at the Ford Sollers plant in Vsevolozhsk (St. Petersburg region).
March 2012 – Ford Focus III was named the best car in its class at the annual “Car of the Year in Russia” awards ceremony and the best in its segment according to the results of the Runet vote at mail.ru portal.
April 24, 2012 – The 500,000th Ford Focus rolled off the production line at the Ford Sollers plant in Vsevolozhsk
July 4, 2012 – The 5,000th Ford Transit was produced at the Ford Sollers plant in Elabuga.
July 9, 2012 – The Ford Sollers plant in Vsevolozhsk, producing Ford vehicles in St. Petersburg region since 2002, celebrates its 10 years anniversary.
July 24, 2012 – Ford Sollers announced the extension of the model range produced at the Ford Sollers plant in Elabuga. Such models as Kuga, S-MAX, Galaxy and Explorer appeared on the assembly line of the plant on the territory of the special economic zone «ALABUGA».
September 2, 2012 – Ford Transit demonstrates record sales results in the history of the model on the Russian market. 1037 Ford Transit vehicles were purchased by Russian customers in August 2012.
September 20, 2012 – The 10,000th vehicle was produced at the Ford Sollers plant in Elabuga. The anniversary vehicle was a black Ford Explorer.

Celebrating the start of FordSollers in October last year (from left to right), Stephen Odell, Chairman and CEO, Ford of Europe; Alan Mullaly, President and CEO, Ford Motor Company; Vadim Shvetsov, General Director of Sollers

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About Ford Sollers

Ford Sollers joint venture is responsible for the production, import and distribution of all Ford brand products, including vehicles, parts and accessories, in Russia. Ford Sollers joint venture includes production facilities in Vsevolozhsk (St. Petersburg region), Naberezhnye Chelny and Elabuga (The Republic of Tatarstan) and headquarters located in Khimki (Moscow Region).

Ford Sollers Holding Limited Liability Company, Leningradskaya Street,
Estate 39, Bldg. 5, Khimki, Moscow Region, 141400, Russia,
Telephone + 7 495 777 85 38, Facsimile + 7 495 745 97 00,
www.fordsollers.com