Genk Body & Assembly

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Genk Body & Assembly was a Ford automobile factory in Genk, Belgium, just over an hour to the west of the company's European head office in Cologne, Germany. The site spanned 6,135,630 square feet (140.9 acres). The plant employed approximately 4,300 workers when it closed in 2014. [1]

Contents

The plant opened in 1964. The first mainstream car built there was Ford's first front-wheel drive volume model, the Ford Taunus P4. Later on, the plant focused on producing mid-sized family cars including the company's Sierra and Mondeo models.

Models built

ImageModelYearsNumberImageModelYearsNumber
Ford Taunus P4 12m BW 1.JPG Ford Taunus P4/12M 1963-1966314,270 2000 Ford Mondeo (HE) Ghia hatchback 01.jpg Ford Mondeo II1996-20001,200,069
Ford Taunus P5 17m BW 1.JPG Ford Taunus P5/17M 1965-196613,765 Ford Transit front 20071231.jpg Ford Transit VI2000-2004384,238
Ford Transit Van.jpg Ford Transit II/III/IV/V1965-20001,857,635 Ford Mondeo front 20071114.jpg Ford Mondeo III2000-20071,418,515
Ford Taunus 15M P6 Neustadt 01.JPG Ford Taunus P6 12M/15M1966-1970518,602 Ford S-Max front 20090920.jpg Ford S-MAX I2006-2010235,890
Ford Escort I in Antwerpen.jpg Ford Escort 1968-1970258,205 Ford Galaxy front 20080625.jpg Ford Galaxy III2006-2010120,192
Ford Taunus 20M P7 front 20070924.jpg Ford Taunus P7/20M 1969-197019,534 Ford Mondeo Ghia 2.0 FlexiFuel Chill.JPG Ford Mondeo IV2007-2010567,582
Ford Taunus 5.JPG Ford Taunus1970-19822,695,796 Autosalon Brno 2011 (043).jpg Ford Mondeo IVb2010-2014
Sierra 3 door - an early one.jpg Ford Sierra I1982-19922,741,713 Ford S-Max Facelift.JPG Ford S-MAX Ib2010-2014
Ford Mondeo Si MkI.jpg Ford Mondeo I1992-19961,362,538 Ford Galaxy Facelift.JPG Ford Galaxy IIIb2010-2014

Closure

Ford announced in October 2012 that it was planning to close its Genk plant at the end of 2014 in response to longstanding over-capacity problems in Europe, [2] [3] as part of a larger closure plan that will see the manufacturer's European capacity decreased by 20%, with further capacity cuts planned should the company not succeed in returning to higher European sales volumes. [4] The next generation of the Ford Mondeo was assembled, for the European market, at the Valencia plant.

Reports in March 2013 indicated that agreement with the workers' representatives would see Ford paying out an average of €144,000 (at the time equivalent to US$187,500) for each of the 4,000 workers to be laid off. It was noted that this was significantly below the US$202,700 per worker that had been the price reportedly paid by General Motors at the closure in 2010 of their Antwerp facility. [4]

At the end of 2016 it was estimated that the decontamination of the site would cost €11.4 million. [5]

See also

References

  1. "Belgium:Genk Body and Assembly". origin-corporate.ford.com. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  2. "Ford Plans to Restructure European Manufacturing Operations". Newspress. 24 October 2012. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016.
  3. "Ford confirms plans to close Belgian factory". BBC News . 24 October 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  4. 1 2 "187.500 pro Arbeiter: Ford erkauft sich Werksschließung in Genk". Handelsblatt (in German). 20 March 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  5. "Sanering sterk vervuilde zones Ford Genk zal 11,4 miljoen euro kosten". Het Belang van Limburg (in Dutch). 31 December 2016. Retrieved 15 June 2017.

50°55′18″N5°30′26″E / 50.9217°N 5.5072°E / 50.9217; 5.5072