Ford Motor Company announced this morning that it had its best annual performance in more than a decade. Ford earned $6.6 billion last year as sales jumped by 20 percent. Revenues rose 3 percent to almost $121 billion.
UPDATED: 11:40 a.m. Ford CEO Alan Mulally says salaried and hourly workers will share in the good news in the form of profit-sharing checks. Hourly workers will get average payments of $5,000.
"To be able to share the wonderful work, the wonderful success of this, with everybody's that's worked on quality, on fuel efficiency, on safety -- it's a tremendous day for all of us," says Mulally.
Ford made $7.2 billion dollars in 1999, but it sold nearly twice the number of vehicles to get that result compared to 2010. Mulally says the company is benefiting from what he calls a "home improvement loan" of $23-billion, taken out in 2006, that financed the company's effort to slash operating costs and improve quality.
"You think about back then (1999) and now, this is a complete transformation of Ford," he says.
Mulally says the biggest challenge this year is not specifically a Ford problem. He says the U.S. needs to exercise sound fiscal policy so the economy continues to recover.
Ford Motor Company is forecasting higher profits in 2011 than 2010.
The company's stock dropped Friday morning, however, as investors reacted to Ford's fourth quarter results. The company's profits were lower than expected because of costs associated with restructuring some debt.
Mulally says the company has made swift progress in paying off that "home improvement loan." Debt was reduced 43% in 2010.
