Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) hopes to complete negotiations with its dealers by the end of the year to shut-down its Mercury brand and shift its focus on its Ford and Lincoln brands, CEO Alan Mulally said on Tuesday.
Mulally did not discuss the expected cost for the company to phase out its Mercury brand, part of a larger restructuring effort which will include additional investment in the company’s Lincoln brands. Ford expects to halt production of Mercury vehicles during the fourth quarter.
“We don’t have a time frame per se, but we are hoping to help everybody through the rest of this year, that is the general time frame,” Mulally said while appearing at a meeting for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
Mulally said that internal company data showed that the Ford brand vehicle line-up would more than meet the needs of Mercury customers when the company announced it would phase out its Mercury brand last week. Mercury currently has no stand-alone dealerships in the United States and 1,436 of its 1,712 dealerships are connected to the Ford brand which has been expanding. 276 Mercury-Lincoln dealerships may become solely Lincoln dealerships after the phase-out plan is completed.
“We have the vehicles that people really do want to cover the needs of the customers who were looking at Mercury before,” he said. “The entire Ford product line has moved up.”
