Ford Keeps an Eye on Inventory

Having the number one best selling model under the Car Allowance Rebate System, the Focus, American manufacturer Ford has decided to carefully watch its inventories for any sign of distress and is even considering a boost in production. However, the company says it will not make any decision on the matter until September.

"We are going to continue to manage our production to keep our inventory in control," Ford CFO Lewis Booth was quoted as saying by Autonews. The decision will be made after the sales figures for August will be posted.

At the end of July, Ford had a 50-day supply of inventory. The trick in deciding whether to boost production or not is seeing how many of this month's Ford buyers choose the Blue Oval due to CARS and otherwise would not consider buying a Ford.

"Over time, things will settle and we will continue to make sure we are managing our inventories to keep them under control," Booth said.

As we said, the Ford Focus is the best selling vehicle since CARS debuted last week, but most Ford models experienced sales increases in July: Ford Fusion up 66 percent, Mercury Milan up 60 percent, Ford Escape up 94 percent, Mercury Mariner up 71 percent, Ford Focus up 44 percent and Ford Ranger up 65 percent; Ford hybrid sales up 323 percent.

“Our products, our dealers and our advance preparation enabled us to leverage the program and drive traffic and sales to another level," Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, said. “In addition, we achieved a sales increase even though we decreased incentive spending in an increasingly competitive environment.”