Ford, which on Friday announced it would eliminate 1,500 jobs from its Dagenham plant in the UK, is spurning the strategy followed by General Motors Corp, whose Adam Opel AG is slicing profit margins to snare a bigger chunk of the market. ``We don't want to boost market share for its own sake,'' says Nick Scheele, the chairman of Ford's European arm. ``We have to have profitable market-share gains.''

The emphasis on the bottom line is the cornerstone of its European restructuring efforts. But some industry analysts question how quickly Ford can turn around with the strategy. New models, even if they are big hits, won't make a significant impact on sales figures for at least a year or two.

Ford is looking for ways to slash its European costs and capacity. Scheele says the company hopes to decide on a sweeping restructuring of its European operations within two to three months, and that it may well have to close some of its plants and overhaul its distribution network. Scheele also says Ford will first launch its new Fiesta model at its German factory in Cologne, which will be the lead plant for the car.

Once a dominant player in Europe, Ford has been struggling for years. A high-cost base that is overly dependent on the UK suppliers hasn't helped, but the company has fallen behind the competition by failing to bring out fresh models. The Fiesta, for example, hasn't been completely renewed in a decade, at least three years longer than the industry standard.

By some estimates, Ford now is running at only about 75 per cent of its European capacity, making about 1.7 million cars.

According to JD Power-LMC, a market-research firm in Oxford, England, Ford's west European market share stood at 9.5 per cent last year and is likely to slip to 8.7 per cent this year. That compares with an 11.5 per cent corner of the market back in 1995. Most recently, the company has faced a withering battle in Europe. With the overall industry groaning from overcapacity, car makers have resorted to stealing business from each other. Facing problems similar to Ford, Opel last year said it was willing to lose money in the short term in order to boost market share.

Ford, which last year earned only $28 million in Europe on sales of $30 billion, isn't willing to make those kinds of sacrifices.

(The Wall Street Journal)