Ford To Pull Out of Indonesia and Japan Due To Lackluster Sales

Ford will be pulling out of the Indonesian and Japanese markets as they cannot make any headway in terms of market share.

Reuters got their hands on an email from Ford's Asia Pacific President Dave Schoch who told employees today that the company would exit all areas of the car business, including dealerships and the importing of Ford and Lincoln vehicles.

"Unfortunately, this also means that our team members based in Japan and Indonesia will no longer work for Ford Japan or Ford Indonesia following the closures," Schoch said in the email.

Ford began selling vehicles in Japan in 1974 and has 52 dealers in the country. Sales last year totaled around 5,000 vehicles, making up 1.5 percent of the import new car market. Ford has had a tough go in Japan as many buyers tend to go with the domestic brands. Not helping is the combination of a population getting older and younger people foregoing cars.

Ford Indonesia was set up in 2002 and has a network of 44 dealers. Last year, the blue oval sold about 6,000 vehicles, making up a poor 0.6 percent of the market. Intense competition from Japanese automakers, a market struggling due to a slowdown, and the expense of importing vehicles to the country spelled doom for the automaker.

"In Indonesia, without local manufacturing ... there's just really no way that automakers can compete in that market, and we do not have local manufacturing," said a Ford spokeswoman in Japan.

Source: Reuters