limited company industry automotive founded ford motor company ltd. note 1 1909 headquarters brentwood essex united kingdom key people joe greenwell cbe chairman mark ovenden managing director products automobiles services financial services owner ford motor company number of employees approximately 13 800 1 parent ford of europe website ford.co.uk ford of britain officially ford motor company limited note 1 is a british wholly owned subsidiary of ford of europe citation needed itself a subsidiary of ford motor company . its business started in 1909 and has its registered office in brentwood essex . 2 it adopted the name of ford of britain in 1960 . 3 ford of britain operates three major manufacturing sites in the uk in bridgend petrol engine production dagenham diesel engine production and halewood transmissions . 1 it also operates a large research and development facility in dunton essex which employs over 3 000 engineers . 1 4 ford has been the uk s biggest selling car and commercial vehicle brand for 34 and 45 consecutive years respectively . 5 contents 1 history 1.1 1903 1918 1.1.1 trafford park 1.1.2 cork 1.2 1918 1939 1.2.1 dagenham 1.2.2 1928 ford motor company limited 60 % owned by dearborn 1.2.2.1 all europe and the middle east but not the ussr 1.2.2.2 europe s largest car plant 1.2.2.3 the associated companies 1.2.2.4 independence 1.3 world war ii 1.4 1945 1967 1.4.1 1950 dearborn buys back ford europe 1.4.2 1961 dearborn buys out 46 % owned by british shareholders 1.4.3 halewood basildon swansea and cork 1.5 ford sewing machinists strike of 1968 1.6 commercial vehicles 1.7 2013 end of more than 100 year production scheme 1.8 chairmen 2 ford of europe 3 models 3.1 passenger cars 3.2 commercial vehicles 3.3 supercars 4 see also 5 notes 6 references 7 external links history edit 1903 1918 edit fordson tractor made at cork ireland the first ford cars three model as were imported into the uk in 1903 and the first dealership in southampton opened in 1910 . in 1909 citation needed the ford motor company england limited was established under the chairmanship of percival perry 6 opening an office at 55 shaftesbury avenue london on 8 march 1911 . 7 trafford park edit an assembly plant in an old tram factory in trafford park manchester was opened in 1911 employing 60 people to make the model t and the company was re registered as henry ford & son ltd. citation needed this was the first ford factory outside north america . at first the cars were assembled from imported chassis and mechanical parts with bodies sourced locally . six thousand cars were produced in 1913 and the model t became the country s biggest selling car with 30 % of the market . in 1914 britain s first moving assembly line for car production started with 21 cars an hour being built . after the first world war the trafford park plant was extended and in 1919 41 % of british registered cars were fords . cork edit in 1917 a plant opened in cork ireland initially for tractor manufacture but from 1921 cars were built as well . this factory was the first to be purpose built by ford in europe . the company of henry ford and son limited fordson was officially incorporated on april 17 1917 starting its life on the site of an old cork racecourse . its first registered office was at 36 south mall cork . 1918 1939 edit dagenham edit although the manchester plant was served by the manchester ship canal ford decided that access to a deep water port was required and in 1923 a new site was chosen by the river thames at dagenham east of london . 1928 ford motor company limited 60 % owned by dearborn edit all europe and the middle east but not the ussr edit in december 1928 ford since 1924 entirely owned by henry ford his wife and their son edsel announced in london that it had formed a new company ford motor company limited 8 with three us directors note 2 and four english directors note 3 including chairman sir percy perry with a capital of 7 million . this company had acquired all ford s european and middle eastern business note 4 in exchange for 60 % of its capital . the balance of 40 % of the capital of the new ford motor company limited 2.8 million shares of 1 each was now available for public subscription . these shares were heavily over subscribed . there was considerable investing interest from america as us investors had had no previous opportunity of investing in a henry ford business . the new chairman sir percival perry 1878 1956 had been and now was again central to the development of ford in europe . perry s association with henry ford dated from 1905 when perry became a shareholder of ford s first british agency but the very first link between them was earlier in 1903 . the two men first met in 1906 in detroit . from britain perry envisioned ford making vehicles outside usa and selling them across the british empire and europe . he raced the company s cars organized a chain of exclusive dealers and superintended the trafford park assembly plant . in 1919 henry ford chose to run operations from detroit perry was determined to run all european business himself . perry resigned in may 1919 . 9 his american managers having failed him henry ford offered perry the chairmanship of this new ford motor company limited in 1928 . at the first meeting of shareholders in london on 6 march 1929 10 perry reported during the first three months of our first year we and our associated companies in europe have delivered upwards of 50 000 model a vehicles into the hands of satisfied owners . the improved fordson tractor is not yet in production but it is hoped to deliver the first tractors completely manufactured at our cork works within the next month . europe s largest car plant edit dagenham 1973 the largest neon sign in europe construction started at dagenham in 1929 and in october 1931 britain s and europe s largest car plant opened producing the model aa truck and model a car . this was at the height of the depression and the model a was too expensive to tax and run in britain and very few were sold only five in the first three months . a smaller car was urgently needed and this came in 1932 with the 933 cc model y 11 a car much more suited to the market and becoming in 1935 britain s first 100 car currently adjusted by inflation 6260 adjusted by using average earnings for 2012 16 300.00 12 . this was ford s first car specifically designed for sale outside north america . between 1932 and 1937 over 157 000 were made at dagenham and cork and at its peak it captured 41 % of its market sector . in 1938 ford s cork factory hit an important milestone producing its 25 000th vehicle since becoming an assembly plant in 1932 . in all 73 000 cars trucks and tractors had been built at cork up to that time . the associated companies edit the original 1928 plan was for canada having the benefit of imperial preference tariffs to manufacture components for ford assembly plants in the british empire . dagenham was to do and did the same for assembly plants in europe but in 1932 mired in the financial depression both france and germany announced their intention to impose heavy new tariffs on imported components . in france urgent arrangements were made with mathis for their plant to be leased by a joint venture to be known as matford and devoted to the full manufacture of ford or matford products . in germany ... more capital was required . there were consequential exchanges in shareholdings between dagenham and dearborn and other shareholders . independence edit as an indication of the british and irish company s sense of independence in 1938 henry ford and harry ferguson came to a handshake agreement whereby ford would manufacture tractors designed by ferguson using the ferguson system . production commenced in usa in june 1939 and the product was outstandingly successful but henry ford was unable to persuade ford motor company limited to manufacture the ford ferguson though they did merchandise the us made tractors . in 1945 ferguson arranged production with standard motor company . harry ferguson sued us ford for illegal use of his patents asking for compensation of 90 million 13 14 settled out of court in 1952 . 15 charles e. sorensen s autobiography he was a director of this company described ferguson so unfavourably his uk publishers were obliged to scrap all copies and pay costs and sorensen made a public apology . 16 january 1940 1953 ford anglia e494a august 1947 1950 ford v8 pilot october 1950 1954 ford zephyr six september 1953 1960 ford anglia 100e september 1959 ford anglia 105e in wales september 1962 1966 ford cortina mk i in gt trim with lotus cortina like side stripe world war ii edit during the second world war the dagenham plant turned out 360 000 vehicles and a new factory in trafford park manchester made 34 000 rolls royce merlin engines . 1945 1967 edit after world war ii civilian production resumed and dagenham made 115 000 vehicles in 1946 and factories in walthamstow in essex later london and langley in buckinghamshire later berkshire were acquired . the millionth vehicle made since the dagenham factory started production in october 1931 rolled from the assembly line on 27 august 1946 a cream ford 10 saloon . 17 1950 dearborn buys back ford europe edit henry ford resigned in 1945 in favour of grandson henry ford ii and died in april 1947 . perry founder chairman of ford motor company limited and each of the ford group s european subsidiaries retired in 1948 . 18 in 1950 ford s controlling interests in the european businesses were sold to ford dearborn . 19 in 1953 following the death of its detroit founder briggs motor bodies whose parent provided bodies to ford america was purchased giving the company more control of its supplies and so acquiring plants at doncaster southampton croydon and romford . by 1953 ford of britain directly employed 40 000 people . 1961 dearborn buys out 46 % owned by british shareholders edit until 1960 ford motor company limited remained a publicly quoted company its shares freely listed on british exchanges with more than 10 000 stockholders . the ford motor company of dearborn michigan then held just 54 % of its shares . 20 that year after eighteen months of rumour and denial the us company offered to buy out the other shareholders . the offer was accepted and ford completed payment for the other 46 % of ford motor company limited at the end of january 1961 . 21 ford of britain properly ford motor company limited then became a wholly owned ford subsidiary . 22 halewood basildon swansea and cork edit in 1962 ford opened a factory at halewood near liverpool to make the anglia . this ceased to be a ford plant although remained under ford ownership when the last escort came off the production line in 2000 and was then converted to make the jaguar x type in 2001 and latterly the land rover freelander . halewood was included in the sale of jaguar and land rover to tata motors in 2008 although ford retained ownership of its transmission works . another new factory opened at basildon in 1964 to make tractors and in 1965 a further plant was acquired at crymlyn burrows swansea to make chassis components and axles . the cork factory celebrated the 50 year anniversary in