Inside Ford’s Turkish goldmine: home of the Transit

For a long time, the words Ford, Europe and profits were strangers as its car business failed to translate popularity into income. Even its money-making van business couldn’t staunch the red ink in the region. Now, however, after Ford dramatically slimmed down the car business and poured investment into vans, the company’s profitable joint-venture partnership that builds Ford Transits in Turkey is turning into a goldmine for its partners as its annual production capacity approaches almost a million vehicles. Last year Ford Otosan – a 50/50 partnership between Ford and Turkey’s Koc Holdings – made a profit the equivalent of £1.1 billion on revenues of £10.1 billion, both a record. Related articles The resulting 10.7%