Ford Reorganizing in Europe and Brazil

Ford Motor Co. shook up its European and Brazilian management teams in an effort to turn around lagging performances in its most troubled markets. Ford promoted former Jaguar Cars chief Nick Scheele to succeed Jim Donaldson as Ford of Europe president and hired former Nissan Motor Co. executive Earl Hesterberg as the region’s vice president of marketing and sales. In Brazil, turnaround specialist Antonio Maciel, 41, was brought in to replace Ivan Fonseca e Silva as Ford Brazil president. Ford has relied on U.S. sales and profit to compensate for lackluster results overseas. Ford lost $65 pretax on every car it sold in Europe last quarter, while its market share fell by more than a point to 11.4% this year. In Brazil, where high interest rates have damped demand, Ford sales fell about 45% in the last 20 months, almost twice the industry average. Ford broke even in the first quarter in Europe, compared with profit of $230 million in the year-earlier period. Ford’s losses in South America almost quadrupled to $165 million. Ford shares fell 63 cents to close at $54.38 on the NYSE.