Ford India gets fifth managing director 14 years since inception

Mumbai: Ford India has appointed its fifth managing director, Michael Boneham, since it commenced business in India 14 years ago.

The appointment was announced by the company at a media conference at Chennai. Effective 1 June, Boneham will replace current managing director Arvind Mathew,  will relocate to Ford's headquarters at Michigan in the United States, and taken on responsibilities as a part of the global product development team.

Boneham will take command of Ford's Indian operations at a critical time when the company has planned an outlay of $500 million to expanding capacity and enhance its product portfolio, while endeavouring to establish  an engine manufacturing plant at its current plant located in Maraimali Nagar near Chennai.

Boneham moved to India in August 2007, as executive director for product engineering, purchasing, manufacturing and quality. He has over 20 years of experience within the Ford Group, including stints at Land Rover which was recently sold by Ford to Tata Motors, and at Mazda. Before moving to India, Boneham was the manufacturing director for Asia-Pacific and Africa region, based out of the Ford's regional headquarters at Bangkok, Thailand.

The fresh investment is expected to be complete by 2010, and that will bring the company's total investment in its Indian operations to about $850 million. Since commencing operations in India in 1994, Ford India has been looking to its US parent for funding its expansion plans; even now, almost 70 per cent of the fresh investment comes as equity bought by the parent company, while a smaller part of it comes in the form of debt raised from the domestic market.

That is in contrast to recent investments by competitors such as Hyundai Motor India and Maruti Suzuki, both of whom have funded their expansions through internal accruals from domestic operations. Though it was one of the first global car markers to enter a newly liberalised India, Ford India today commands a marginal market share of only 2 per cent in a passenger vehicle market that has mushroomed to over 1.5 million units.

Though Boneham ruled out changes to the current product portfolio for Ford India, he did say that the company will now start looking at the small car market in earnest. Small cars make up over 70 per cent of the Indian car market, and competitors such as Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Hyundai Motor India dominate the segment with their well differentiated offerings. About a year ago, fellow American auto maker General Motors India too entered the small car segment with its Chevrolet Spark, and the difference in the company's market share is evident at the presently estimated 4.5 per cent.