Ford moves to sell its Australian manufacturing plants

[Express]

Ford moves to sell its Australian manufacturing plants



By Simon Johanson
20 September 2018


Ford Australia will sell its massive former manufacturing plants in Geelong and Broadmeadows, bringing to a close more than half a century of

Australian motoring history and local car production.

The last Australian-made Ford, a blue XR6, rolled off the Broadmeadows assembly line in October two years ago and 600 workers lost their jobs as Ford closed its factory doors.

The shutdown marked the end of the road, too, for an enduring motoring and cultural icon, the Ford Falcon.

A year later, workers at General Motors Holden witnessed the last Commodore, a red V8, being built at Holden’s Elizabeth plant in South Australia and Toyota closed the doors on its Altona factory in Melbourne where it produced the Camry.

Worth an estimated $75 million, Ford’s plants cover 85 hectares and have more than 265,000 square metres of factory floor and warehousing, equivalent to about 13 times the size of the MCG’s playing field.

Ford Australia chief executive Kay Hart said the company had undertaken a series of studies after it shut down manufacturing in 2016 to assess the best use of the sites.

“The move to seek expressions of interest for parts of our former manufacturing sites forms part of our broader business transformation plan,” Ms Hart said.

“We’re proud of our history, and as we continue to transform our business, we remain invested in and committed to the communities in which we live and work.”

The global car giant first announced it would end local manufacturing in 2013, a move that saw it shed 1300 jobs and, along with the closure of rival manufacturers, prompted the cascading shut down of multiple other local car part manufacturers and suppliers.

CBRE’s Dean Hunt, Chris O’Brien and Alex Moffatt will handle the transaction.

“The existing buildings could be repositioned to accommodate multiple tenancies, generate income and support numerous development initiatives,” Mr Hunt said.

The Broadmeadows factory - its official address is actually in neighbouring Campbellfield - is located in Melbourne’s northern industrial heartland, an area experiencing historic low vacancy rates for factory and warehouse occupiers.

Mr Hunt said the properties would be sold in one line or as individual assets, while the Campbellfield site could be separated into two super lots.

“These properties offer highway exposure and benefit from access to major arterials, public transport links and key infrastructure such as Melbourne International Airport, Avalon Airport, and the Port of Geelong,” he said.

In a mark of Ford’s local prominence, one of the first thing visitors saw when entering Geelong by road was the company’s striking blue logo outside its vast complex on the Princess Highway.

The Princess Highway plant is dominated by a series of heritage art deco factory buildings. Another site on Seabeach Parade is also on the market.

Ford, expecting interest from both local and offshore groups, hopes to have offloaded its plants by the end of October.

Holden sold its massive Fishermans Bend car plant to the Victorian government in 2016 in a $130 million deal that will see it transformed into an innovation and employment hub.

GM put the 37-hectare site in Port Melbourne on the market after it announcing it would end its 80-year history of building Australian motor vehicles.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/comp...20-p504vu.html

[FERG_51]

Bit sad really but that's life.

[Raptor]

Wonder what the Forums budget is

Could be our club-house & meeting place

Even room for a workshop or two

[xeeclipse]

Originally Posted by Raptor

Wonder what the Forums budget is

Could be our club-house & meeting place

Even room for a workshop or two

A ford relic rejuvenation centre where the assembly line would operate in the reverse.
Sign a quick waver with willy wonka and your a fully fledged Fomoco oompa loompa

[malazn mafia]

Are all the equipment and dies still in place ?

[Smoke Pursuit]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Are all the equipment and dies still in place ?

Nope.



I do believe parts were still being used to build prototype vehicles (not complete more flat pack type stuff).

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by Raptor

Wonder what the Forums budget is

Could be our club-house & meeting place

Even room for a workshop or two

See if we could get a hold of all the prototypes that used to be in the Discovery Centre and put them inside what would then become the AFFDC. Could even keep some of the old factory and tooling (if available) in place to make it look 'authentic'.

[GO FURTHER]

If they manage to sell the plants for the estimated $75million... That will give Ford Australia a healthy profit for this financial year.

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by GO FURTHER

If they manage to sell the plants for the estimated $75million... That will give Ford Australia a healthy profit for this financial year.

That money should be given back to Australia to repay the subsidies we gave them.

[CoupeKing]

Purchase everything and start-up the Phase IV project again just to troll the upcoming auction.

[Polyal]

Reinstate the Discovery Centre!

[simon varley]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

That money should be given back to Australia to repay the subsidies we gave them.

you mean the subsidies that generated four times the wealth for the country than was expended?

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by simon varley

you mean the subsidies that generated four times the wealth for the country than was expended?

And kept PD here with 2000 engineers developing global products ?

[Dr Smith]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

That money should be given back to Australia to repay the subsidies we gave them.

You do realize for every cent given all locals had to spend 3 times as much with their own money.

[Trendseeker]

Nitpicking, but the article says Princess Highway (twice), when it should be Princes Highway.
They ought to demolish the buildings, create a new suburb, call it Ford Fields, and name all the streets after Ford vehicles as a lasting monument to Australian made cars. I’m only half kidding. Is postcode 3518 available?

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by Trendseeker

Nitpicking, but the article says Princess Highway (twice), when it should be Princes Highway.
They ought to demolish the buildings, create a new suburb, call it Ford Fields, and name all the streets after Ford vehicles as a lasting monument to Australian made cars. I’m only half kidding. Is postcode 3518 available?

The facades are Heritage listed so no demolitions there.

[383hq]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

That money should be given back to Australia to repay the subsidies we gave them.

Only if we take the same money from the politicians - the playing field changed with the introduction of competition via lower tarriffs etc etc.

We could still have a car industry capable of producing 800 XF quality cars a day if not for the legislation changes !

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Raptor

Wonder what the Forums budget is

Could be our club-house & meeting place

Even room for a workshop or two

And a Dragstrip?

[cheap]

This could be a hard sell, there’d need to be thorough testing and decontamination of the site. After many years of manufacturing especially during the 60-70’s you’d need to think through the high risk of there being all sorts of nasty chemicals lurking about.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by cheap

This could be a hard sell, there’d need to be thorough testing and decontamination of the site. After many years of manufacturing especially during the 60-70’s you’d need to think through the high risk of there being all sorts of nasty chemicals lurking about.

It took some time but have you been to Rhodes (Sydney) lately.

[cheap]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

It took some time but have you been to Rhodes (Sydney) lately.

Yep, and it is a lovely looking technology centre and residential development along with it. But it is hugely valuable land being literally in the middle of Sydney adjacent to “the best Olympics ever”. There is a redeveloped prime waterfront site over at Hunters Hill which is no end of trouble with highly toxic chemicals in the ground soil. People built there and had found health issues.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by cheap

Yep, and it is a lovely looking technology centre and residential development along with it. But it is hugely valuable land being literally in the middle of Sydney adjacent to “the best Olympics ever”. There is a redeveloped prime waterfront site over at Hunters Hill which is no end of trouble with highly toxic chemicals in the ground soil. People built there and had found health issues.

Hunters Hill is far more valuable area,
I can remember ICI and Berger paints on that land that is Rhodes.
Rhodes started development long before the Olympics.
I don't know about a boggy, mangrove area which you couldn't moor a dinghy in as "prime waterfront." but they know how to sell the dream.

Sydney being an ex working port that could mean anywhere along the rivers.

Sorry, Back to topic.

[simon varley]

Originally Posted by Fordman1

The facades are Heritage listed so no demolitions there.

so was Sydney, and that was neglected for so long that it had to be demolished. Let's hope that's not the case here.

Originally Posted by cheap

This could be a hard sell, there’d need to be thorough testing and decontamination of the site. After many years of manufacturing especially during the 60-70’s you’d need to think through the high risk of there being all sorts of nasty chemicals lurking about.

true, but the old PEO site was cleaned up for Bunnings. that included some pretty severe fuel leakage from the old in ground tanks.

[Express]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Hunters Hill is far more valuable area,
I can remember ICI and Berger paints on that land that is Rhodes.
Rhodes started development long before the Olympics.
I don't know about a boggy, mangrove area which you couldn't moor a dinghy in as "prime waterfront." but they know how to sell the dream.

Sydney being an ex working port that could mean anywhere along the rivers.

Sorry, Back to topic.

And Union Carbine was a little further down from them.

I have a house across from that site and lived there for many years.

I don't know if it's an urban myth or not but I can remember reading in the local newspaper that the paint is metres thick on the riverbed alone there and the government was going to have it dredged but gave the idea up because of concerns it may stir up the lead and kill the whole river and contaminate the harbour.

Greenpeace had toxic waste warnings on shipping containers on that Rhodes site for 10 years or more but the government had a layer of fill put over the site and declared it safe and the high rise buildings went up.

When we lived there we often wondered if the two headed children were caused by the toxic waste or if they were just the locals from Ermo.

At one point a lot of those mangroves suddenly disappeared or were greatly pruned overnight to the glee of the residents that owned property along the river.




.

[Kieron]

Originally Posted by Fordman1

The facades are Heritage listed so no demolitions there.

Keep the buildings, convert them into apartments with larger parking areas and a workshop area for the residents, all you Vic based AFF members move in.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by GO FURTHER

If they manage to sell the plants for the estimated $75million... That will give Ford Australia a healthy profit for this financial year.

Not sure it will go to Ford Australia as it's owned by Ford Land I believe.

Originally Posted by GasOLane

And a Dragstrip?

Stamping plant is big enough for a strip. Great idea

Originally Posted by cheap

This could be a hard sell, there’d need to be thorough testing and decontamination of the site. After many years of manufacturing especially during the 60-70’s you’d need to think through the high risk of there being all sorts of nasty chemicals lurking about.

All the testing has been done. I'm pretty sure the adverts mentioned full reports were available for potential buyers? Not to mention there are legislation around the selling of potentially contaminated properties.

The stamping and engine plants date back to the 20's when there was no such thing as pollution laws. And they run deep pits underground. There are many coolant pits 4 or 5 stories deep.

[kmav23]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

That money should be given back to Australia to repay the subsidies we gave them.

Never should subsidies an industry for that long.

Just delaying the death of the companies.

[gossy]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Are all the equipment and dies still in place ?

Originally Posted by Smoke Pursuit

Nope.



I do believe parts were still being used to build prototype vehicles (not complete more flat pack type stuff).

Where did all the equipment and dies go, back to the USA?

Hopefully they went to Argentina and the mighty Barra will live on.

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by gossy

Where did all the equipment and dies go, back to the USA?

Hopefully they went to Argentina and the mighty Barra will live on.

Most is scrap

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by gossy

Hopefully they went to Argentina and the mighty Barra will live on.

I can just see it now, a new Barra powered F700 with GT Falcon adornments.