Ford 2004 Annual Report Download - page 6

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 6 of the 2004 Ford annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 100

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100

F O R W A R D
Ford Motor Company is moving forward fast.
We’ve made substantial financial and operational
progress over the past three years. During that
period, we accelerated our flow of new products to
the market, created ongoing efficiencies in our cost
structure and business processes, and improved
our cash flow. Our pre-tax profit, excluding special
items, improved by more than $7 billion.*
We are determined to build on the progress
we’ve made. In the short term, that means meeting
the challenges of a difficult operating environment.
Longer term, it means leveraging our unique
strengths to differentiate ourselves in a
fiercely competitive global industry.
Our efforts to move forward will
benefit from our achievements
in 2004. Those included:
• A pre-tax profit,
excluding special items,
of $5.8 billion, compared
to $3.4 billion in 2003.**
• Cost reductions of almost
$900 million. In total, we improved
our automotive cost performance by more
than $4 billion over the last two years.***
• Improved per-unit revenue of $745 in North
America, along with improved residual values.
• Market share increases in Europe,
South America and Asia.
The Year Ahead
Even with the positive momentum these accomplishments
have given us, meeting our targets for 2005 will be a
challenge. Our quality continued to improve last year,
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN
4
Bill Ford, Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer