Ford Union

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The Ford Union (original spelling: Форд-Юніён) is a former joint venture of the Ford Motor Company, the Russian Lada importer Lada-OMC and the Belarusian government. It was located in Apčak near the city of Minsk in Belarus. Ford has invested a capital of US$10,000,000 for building this plant. So it was the most expensive plant of the Ford concern in Western Europe at this time. The company existed from 1997 up to 2000 when it was closed due to low sales.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Ford Union

Native name	Форд-Юніён
Industry	Automotive industry
Founded	July 1997
Defunct	July 2000; 24 years ago (2000-07)
Headquarters	Apčak , Belarus
Area served	Great Britain, Eastern Europe and CIS
Key people	Alan Batty (CEO)
Products	Automobiles
Owner	Ford Motor Company: 51% Belarusian government: 26% Lada-OMC: 23%

The Ford Union was not a manufacturer, it was only an assembler of SKD kits. The vehicles assembled by the Belarusian plant can be identified by the manufacturer code Y4F on the start on the VIN and an R on the eleventh position for the plant identification.^[4]^[5]

The plant become well known on 23 July 1997 as president Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko was invited to a press conference with five strategically selected foreign journalists to discuss a predicted failure which later proved true.

^ "Hell on wheels?". The Economist. 24 July 1997. Retrieved 8 June 2017.

^ "Ford To Halt Assembly in Belarus July Due To Low Demand". findarticles.com. 2 June 2000. Retrieved 27 July 2010.^{[dead link]}

^ Russel R. Miller (1998). Selling to newly emerging markets. p. 192. ISBN 1-56720-044-3. Retrieved 27 June 2024 – via Google Books.

^ "Ford Club Belarus • Просмотр темы – vin КОД" (in Russian). Forum.fordclub.org. Retrieved 29 July 2010.

^ "VIN: FORD (europe)" (in Russian). CARInfo. Retrieved 29 July 2010.

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