New State Headquarters for Lincoln-Mercury

Anaheim already is home to one big Ford Motor operation--the Southern California regional office of the Ford Division and the headquarters of the new California Region of the Lincoln-Mercury Division.

The offices on State College Boulevard house 148 people who work for the two auto divisions plus Ford dealer development, Ford land company, Ford customer service and Ford Motor Credit Co. Additionally, the credit company has 90 employees at an operations center in Orange.

The new Lincoln-Mercury division is the first single-state region for Ford’s mid-range and luxury car division. Previously, Lincoln-Mercury offices in Anaheim and San Francisco were responsible for all of the division’s operations in California, Oregon, Arizona and Nevada.

In creating the California office, Lincoln-Mercury closed its San Francisco office and shifted responsibility for the other states to offices in Denver and Seattle.

Lincoln-Mercury says the California-only region was created because the state is an important one for the brand, which has been losing sales in recent years. “This new region will allow us to give our full attention to California,” regional manager Don Sparkman says.

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John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and manufacturing for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com