Milestones

"The entrepreneur of the century"

• Henry Ford set up his own workshop at the age of 12. At 15 he built his first steam engine and at 16 he began an apprenticeship as a machinist in Detroit. This was followed by casual work in Detroit's factories.
• In 1888 Ford married Clara Bryant, and in 1891 he became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit.
• >After his promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893, he had enough time and money to devote attention to his personal experiments on gasoline engines.
• In 1896 his dream of developing a self-propelled vehicle became reality with the "Quadricycle", which was basically the first Ford.
• In 1898 Henry Ford resigned at Edison and founded the Detroit Automobile Company which, however, went bankrupt. But Ford did not let that discourage him and began constructing racing cars, the legendary "Sweepstakes".
• In 1903 Ford founded the Ford Motor Company with eleven other investors and a $28,000 capital investment. The first car built here was sold on July 23, 1903.
  With the Model T, Henry Ford shortly thereafter realized his dream of building a reliable and efficient car at a reasonable price - and founded a new era in passenger transport.
• In 1919 Henry Ford and his son Edsel bought the shares of all small shareholders with a total value of $ 105,568,858 and became the sole owners of the company. Henry Ford handed the presidency to
  Edsel - up to his death in 1943.
• In 1945 Henry Ford resigned as President for the second time and handed the reins to his grandson Henry Ford II.
• In 1946 Henry Ford was honoured at the American Automotive Golden Jubilee for his contributions to the automotive industry. In addition, the American Petroleum Institute gave him the first gold medal of his life for his outstanding contributions to the benefit of mankind.
• On April 7, 1947 at 11:40pm Henry Ford died at his home in Fairlane / Dearborn. Due to a flood, Henry Ford died in a room lit by candles and oil lamps, not unlike the conditions under which he was born 83 years beforehand.

Ford has the parts you need, delivered when you need them. Our Daventry Parts Distribution Centre holds the most comprehensive stock of Ford Parts in the UK. So our dealers can quickly order the parts you want, for fast delivery to them and on to you.

Some convincing Ford Parts facts:

• 114,300 Stock Keeping Units (SKU’s) in stock
• 8.7 million lines shipped to dealers every year
• 496 staff available to service orders quickly and efficiently
  Immobilized Vehicle Order (IVO) delivery to your dealer as early as 10am next
  working day (subject to orders received by 6pm at the latest)
• Standard delivery to dealers in as little as 2 working days with a 95% reliability

-> serving satisfied customers in more than a 100 countries!

Ford is the biggest motor company in the UK, with seven locations and over 550 Dealerships.

We also have several large plants, where we manufacture vehicles, engines and transmissions, as well as parts and components.

In total, Ford of Britain and its dealers employ around 35,000 people in product development, manufacturing, sales and marketing, and service roles.

Sales

We’ve been Britain’s best-selling car brands for over 30 years, and our commercial vehicles have been market leaders since 1965.

We currently sell around 440,000 cars and commercial vehicles each year. And one of our biggest success stories has been the Ford Focus: it’s been the UK’s most popular car each year since its launch in 1998.

Product development

Our Research and Development Centre in Essex works on new engines, commercial vehicles and transmissions.

It’s home to over 3,000 engineers and extensive R&D facilities, including high speed and special surface tracks. There are also indoor laboratories including rolling roads, crash simulators and test cells that can house up to 15 vehicles and 100 engines.

All of this means we can really put prototype engines and vehicles through severe testing regimes. That way we can ensure they meet our stringent quality standards, long before they reach you.

Manufacturing

We have four major manufacturing sites around the UK, employing thousands of people.

At our Dagenham plant, we produce around a million diesel engines a year, from a 1.4 up to a high performance V8 unit.

Thanks to its strategic position on the Thames, plus excellent motorway and rail connections, Dagenham is also our UK transport hub: thousands of vehicles, engines and components pass in and out daily.

Our plant in Bridgend, Wales, is the centre of our petrol engine production, for everything from a 1.25 all the way up to a 4.4 litre V8 engine.

At Dagenham and Bridgend we make and supply engines to other car brands.

The historic port of Southampton is home to the iconic Ford Transit.

And finally, our Halewood plant is run jointly with transmission specialists Getrag. It’s situated on the same site where Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles are assembled. This specialist gearbox plant supplies Ford cars and commercial vehicles.