Ford of Britain's Dutch CEO Roelant de Waard, who started his career as an engineer with Daf Trucks in Eindhoven, wants to increase Transit's UK market dominance. In an exclusive interview with MT last week he set 54,000 units a year as an ideal sales figure for the latest Transit - which would represent around a 20% increase on 2005 levels.
He said small gaps in the outgoing range had now been filled, leaving those would-be buyers with specific requirements and fewer excuses to go elsewhere.
He cited the new availability of a mid-wheelbase, low-roof van package. It was also expected, said de Waard, that retail Transit sales would be boosted next year by Ford's dealer upgrade programme, under which incentives were being offered to van franchise holders to provide more and better vehicle display areas, though not necessarily showrooms.
Although Transit has been UK market leader for more than four decades, its market share has shrunk from a peak of close to 45% in the 1980s, to just 32% in 2005 - when 46,306 Transits were registered in Britain. The Transit now faces many more competitors - 12 different marques at the last count - all after a slice of the action, sometimes making wafer-thin margins. De Waard acknowledges this tougher competition, in particular Mercedes-Benz and VW.
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