The 10-millionth car to be produced at Ford’s Saarlouis plant in Germany, a tonic-blue, 1.6 litre Ford Focus wagon, was driven off the assembly line in an anniversary ceremony marking the facility’s importance for Ford of Europe. Ford has been producing vehicles in the German state of Saarland for the last 35 years.

Fittingly, that vehicle was a Ford Focus, Ford’s top-selling product in Europe and one of the best-selling vehicles in the world. The Saarlouis plant is Ford of Europe’s lead facility for new Ford Focus production, which began in October 2004. Focus production first started at Saarlouis on a three-shift basis in August 1998.

Before the Focus, the Saarlouis plant produced over six and a half million Ford Escorts between 1970 and 1998. Alongside the Escort, the legendary Ford Capri, the Fiesta and Orion have at times been made at Saarlouis.

The Saarlouis plant is one of Ford’s most efficient in Europe, operating at 100 per cent capacity. Producing vehicles on three shifts at a rate of 1,810 a day, there were 370,801 vehicles made in Saarlouis last year alone – 143,365 of them Ford Focus C-MAX.

Of the Ford Focus and Ford Focus C-MAX vehicles produced at Saarlouis, 77 per cent are bound for export to more than 80 countries, among them Angola, Australia, Jamaica, Japan, Tahiti, Taiwan and New Zealand. The largest export markets are Great Britain, Italy and France.

The Saarlouis plant plays an important role in the southwestern German community where it is located. The facility employs 6,800 people directly. There are an additional 1,800 workers at suppliers in the adjacent industrial park, making the combined complex Saarland’s biggest employer. Skilled labour makes up more than 60 per cent of the Saarlouis workforce.

Because of its role as the lead Ford Focus plant, Saarlouis is also home to the vehicle’s launch team – a group of around 250 engineers and specialists responsible for planning and designing all aspects of production long before the first vehicles come off the line. In the Saarlouis pilot plant, responsible for pre-series production, all of Ford’s C-car models are readied for series manufacture.

Ford has invested approximately e3 billion to expand and modernize Saarlouis since 1966. The plant and related investments over the years have created an estimated 25,000 new jobs in the surrounding region in retail, trade and supplier sectors.

Between 2002 and 2004, in the lead-up to the launch of the new Ford Focus and Ford Focus C-MAX, Ford invested approximately e746 million in the Saarlouis facility.