If you like the car, will you love the company?
When it comes to Ford Motor Co. (F), a
Canadian car dealer bet a month’s sales on that premise.
Rose City Ford dealership owner John Chisholm offered 100 shares
of Ford stock to anyone who bought a new or used vehicle from the dealership
during the month of November, the
Windsor Star newspaper reported. Chisholm, the
president and general manager of Rose City, said he got the idea from a General
Motors Co. (GM) dealership in Texas that offered GM shares for each vehicle
sold. So Chisholm opted to try it in Windsor, the Ontario, Canada city where
Ford has both a long history and deep community roots.
“What a great way to show our confidence in the company,” Chisholm, who
employs 80 at a dealership that his father founded nearly 30 years ago, said in
an interview late last week. “We believe the company is going to be around for a
long, long time.”
Chisholm was planning to actually buy the shares Monday for customers who
bought a vehicle last month. He expects to extend the promotion, should its
popularity continue.
“We want as many people with ownership in the company as we can,” said
Chisholm, who owns Ford shares himself. “They’ll be going up. This is an
incentive that is going to grow.”
Just how big a payoff the incentive deal provides the dealership’s customers
will depend on whether Ford is able to turn itself around in the coming months.
Thanks to the ongoing global financial crisis – and stung by the worst sales
slump in 25 years – Ford lost $3 billion in the third quarter and now the
Dearborn, Mich.-based company and its two other “Big Three” cohorts are pressing
both U.S. and Canadian lawmakers for emergency aid. All three
are to submit turnaround plans to Congress this week – a requirement if General
Motors, Ford and Chrysler Corp., are to receive $25 billion in U.S.
government bailout loans.
Some details began to emerge yesterday (Tuesday), according to a report that runs elsewhere in today’s
(Wednesday’s) issue of Money Morning.
