Ford Motor Credit to cut more than half its jobs in Henderson

By Jeremy Twitchell

Fri, Jan 30, 2009 (12:45 p.m.)

Ford Motor Credit Co. announced Thursday that it will cut 300 of the 570 positions at its service center in Henderson.

The announcement came with the release of a dismal earnings report that showed Ford Motor Credit posting a $1.5 billion net loss in 2008, down $2.3 billion from the net income of $775 million it reported in 2007.

The Henderson cuts are part of 1,200 total positions that will be eliminated from Ford Motor Credit's workforce of 6,100 in the United States.

"What this will do is help us keep the costs of our company in line with the receivables — the contracts that we have," Ford Motor Credit spokeswoman Margaret Mellott said. "Those receivables have been decreasing partly because of declining auto sales."

Ford's decision to sell the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, while decreasing its stake in Mazda, has also caused a reduction in the number of accounts Ford Motor Credit holds, Mellott said.

"Whatever brands Ford owns, those are the brands we service," she said.

The 300 positions will be cut through a combination of layoffs and attrition, Mellott said, but the majority of the positions will be eliminated through layoffs. The company will offer severance packages, she said.

The Henderson facility will transition from a full service center to a specialty center that will only handle collections and account servicing, she said. Other tasks, like originating new contracts, will be redistributed to other centers.

The layoffs are expected to begin in mid-February and be complete by the end of July, Mellott said.

Jeremy Twitchell can be reached at 990-8928 or [email protected].