Henry Ford & Son Ltd.

Pre-War Henry Ford founded the company in Cork in Ireland, then part of the U.K., on 17 April 1917. This was the first factory Ford had purposely built outside of America anywhere in the world. He decided to build his first factory abroad in Cork because Ballinascarty, County Cork, was home to the Ford family for more than two centuries, before their emigration to America in 1832. Work on building the plant took two years. The first tractor rolled off the production line on 3 July 1919. The factory was used to build tractors initially. In July 1919, it started production and turned its tractor brand into Fordson, and made 303 tractors in 1919. In 1920, there were 3,626 tractors built and the sum of £327,000 was also spent on a machine shop, foundry expansion, new wharves and equipment for the plant. The sale of the Fordsons was primarily in Ireland and Britain. Large numbers were also shipped to Bordeaux, Cadiz, Copenhagen, Romania and the near east. The original goal was to build 20,000 Fordson tractors a year. Edward Grace, managing director of Henry Ford & Son, realised it was uneconomical for Cork to rely solely on Fordson to survive, as it was more costly for distributors of Fordson tractors to buy stock in Cork than it would be if they were to buy in Dearborn Michigan. He also saw that Manchester needed extra production facilities for Model T cars. Cork had a machine shop and foundry that were not being used to their full capacity. In 1920, Since Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom at the time, there were no customs duties. This is how the production of parts for Ford of Britain started in the Cork plant, and by August 1920 Cork started producing all Manchester's cast-iron requirements for the Model-T, including the engine. but by the end of 1920, tractor output from Cork fell to 1,433. In February 1922, Cork Corporation ordered the company to comply with the terms of the lease or face expulsion (The 1918 Corporation lease of the land had specified that Fords provide work for 2,000 Cork workers.) The directors of Henry Ford & Son opposed the rationale claiming that the economic and political climate had changed radically within three years of the company setting up in Cork. Cork Corporation backed down from their requests. During the rest of 1922, the Cork company narrowed its tractor operation by clearing its stocks and building another 2,233 Fordsons. The IR£2m was spent on re-building, re-equipping and modernising the assembly plant, which became not only the largest factory of its kind but also the most modern. 500,000 pounds was invested in an ultra-modern body-finishing department, with Europe's largest 'slipper-dip' immersion under-coating tank guaranteeing a high-quality base for final paint coatings. The remainder of the assembly plant was completely re-organised, re-equipped and re-housed in new light-alloy, unitary construction buildings covering an area of over 117,000 square feet. This meant two separate final-assembly lines, one for heavy commercial vehicles and the second and major unit for passenger and light commercial vehicles. Incorporated in the new facilities was a parts-and-accessories building holding millions of parts, representing a stock of over 23,000 separate items. The factory extensions virtually reversed the plant orientation since the previous wharf-side entrance was closed and all traffic now entered by Centre Park Road - known locally as Ford's Road. The official opening ceremony of the new buildings took place on 11 October 1967. The Taoiseach Jack Lynch headed the 350 guests at the Marina Plant in the morning and there he cut a tape to symbolise the opening of the modern plant. The plant was blessed by Bishop Lucey. Jack Lynch made a speech while opening the plant in which he said: "For 50 years, the Ford Company has been part of the industrial life of this city but of course, Ford's links with Cork go back much further. The story of Henry Ford, whose father emigrated from Ballinascarty 120 weary years ago, is so well-known that much of it is already folklore. Indeed, the record of his life and achievements looms large in the history of the development of modern industrial methods, many of which he devised and brought to perfection" Ford, however, stayed for the time being due to the heritage and connection to Cork. But clouds were looming on the horizon for the plant, as most cars made at the Marina plant from then would have been exported to western Europe, and by the 1980s, the plant had losses of IR£10m each year. The plant was finishing 400 cars a week, compared to Ford's Genk plant in Belgium churning out over 6,000 cars a week. The closure of the Dunlop tyre factory beside the Ford Plant, with the loss of 800 jobs, was the start of closures in the Marina. Despite IR£10,000,000 being spent on upgrading the plant in 1982 to assemble the Sierra to try and save it, on 17 January 1984, Ford of Europe announced that the plant in Cork would close the plant on the basis that size and location made it no longer financially viable. and on the 13 July 1984, after nearly 70 years in operation in the Marina in Cork, the first purpose-built Ford Motor Company Plant outside of America closed for the final time, bringing with it the loss of 800 jobs. Henry Ford & Sons later became the sales division for Ford Ireland. ==Henry Ford & Son Ltd. today and the Legacy of Ford in Ireland==