Putting a focus on Ford
Officials and dealers highlight automaker’s impact on region
Despite turbulent times in the auto industry, Ford Motor Co. officials say they are confident about the Buffalo area as a place for making parts and selling the finished products.
Ford and UAW representatives and elected officials gathered Monday at the Hamburg stamping plant to mark a new banner celebrating the local role in building the Ford Edge and the donation of vans by a Ford dealers group.
In the background, both literally and figuratively, was the 800-job stamping plant that is a key element of the region’s auto manufacturing sector and has an annual payroll of more than $100 million.
Unlike General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, Ford has avoided bankruptcy, but it has endured the same poor sales climate afflicting other automakers. The Hamburg site feels the effects when the auto assembly plants it feeds parts to, including in Ontario, scale back production.
David Buzo, the plant manager, said the Hamburg site has proven its worth to the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker. It makes a variety of products, including doors, quarter panels, hoods, fenders and floor pans.
“The plant last year was one of the best stamping plants in the Ford system,” he said. “We’re performing very well. A lot of our key objectives we’re making or beating, so we’re right on track to deliver everything we need to deliver for the company this year.”
About 65 hourly workers, represented by United Auto Workers Local 897, are on temporary layoff due to reduced volumes.
The site produces parts used by the Ford Edge, Flex, Ranger and F-250, as well as the Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis, and the Lincoln MKT, which is coming out this year. The plant is also preparing for a refresh of the Edge and MKX next year.
The plant has continued to win work on new vehicles Ford rolls out, and has implemented parts production on time and on budget, Buzo said. “I would say the company feels pretty good about what we’re able to do.”
To drive home the plant’s local ties, the Western New York Ford Dealers group sponsored a new 80-foot-by-40-foot banner on the plant overlooking Route 5. It features an image of the Edge next to the words, “Born Here. Driven Everywhere.” The banner replaced one hung there two years ago.
U. S. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, said a Ford executive told him last year that the Hamburg stamping plant was “unique,” in that it operates as a standalone operation. The industry trend is to place stamping and assembly work side by side.
“This plant survives because of its efficiency,” Higgins said. “This plant survives because of the quality product they put out every single day.”
County Executive Chris Collins said good management-labor relations help keep the plant viable. “They understand they either work together or they die.”
Charles Gangarossa, president and chairman of UAW Local 897, said the plant’s work force has an impact beyond the factory and urged people to “buy American” to support the local economy.
“This is not just about Ford Motor Co. today, it is also about the community,” Gangarossa said. “The people that work in the building are the taxpayers. We are the tax base. We are the ones that pay the taxes and maintain the communities, all the businesses around here. The existence of the Buffalo Stamping Plant is very important.”
Aside from manufacturing, the Buffalo area is a strong source of sales of new Ford products, said John Schuldt, a regional sales manager for Ford based in Pittsburgh.
Schuldt oversees a territory consisting of 215 dealers in five states, including the metro areas of Cleveland, Buffalo and Pittsburgh. The Buffalo-Rochester area accounts for about a third of Ford’s sales in Schuldt’s territory; of that third, the Buffalo area contributes about 75 percent of the sales.
“The dealers that we have here are some of the best in the country, both Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealers, so this is a very important market for us,” Schuldt said.
Also Monday, the Western New York Ford Dealers presented keys to the two latest recipients of vans donated through its Ford Friendship Express program: Computers for Children and the Niagara Falls Boys & Girls Club.
Since the program was launched in 1996, the dealers group, made up of dealers from 15 counties in New York state and Northern Pennsylvania, has donated vans valued at more than $1 million to 53 organizations.
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