The initial plan was to build the factory in the biggest Dutch port of Rotterdam. The authorities offered Ford a site which did not fully meet the requirements. But because there was no other site available on short notice, the deal was closed and the construction of the plant was started. But finally the plant would not start in Rotterdam but in Amsterdam. In 1930 Henry ford made a trip to Europe to visit all his factories. He went first to Cologne in Germany to put the first stone for the construction of the new factory because the former factory in Berlin became to small.

                Preparation of the site in Rotterdam                                                The Rotterdam "plant" became dealership

He went there via the United Kingdom and France and placed the first stone on Oktober 2 nd 1930. For Saterday Oktober 3 th, the same ceremony was planned for Rotterdam. Having arrived a the site in Rotterdam, during inspecting the fundaments of the factory, Henry asked the director of Ford Netherlands: "Where is the water?" The Director answered that the water was only 800 meters away. "No water, no factory", and with this statement Henry cancelled the ceremony. It was Ford's policy that all Ford factories should be located next to water.

        Dockview Ford Netherlands around 1932                                  Frontview                                     Passengercar assembly 1964

The city of Amsterdam took the oppertunity and offerd Ford a better suitable site directly next to the North Sea Canal. Ford bought the 16 ha site near to the Hembridge. The authorities prepared the site in a record time and also created a dock (the Ford dock). At the moment that Ford bought the site, they also got an option for future extensions. It happened to be a profetical view, as the site was extended several times. In 1932 the production started and the official opening took place on May 15 th 1933. In the pre-war years mainly US trucks and passengercars were assembled. In the years after the 2 nd worldwar a variaty of US, UK and German models were assembled.During the sixties, the assembly of different models was reduced. Ford had other plans in preparation for their Dutch subsidiary. The intension was that Ford Amsterdam would stop the passenger car assembly in favour of becoming the centre of Ford's heavy truck assembly in Europe. For this purpose the site was again extended with 10 ha in 1971. At the same time the central parts warehouse of Ford's truckorganisation was moved to Amsterdam, and big investments in new production facilities were made in the next 3 years. From 1971 to 1973 the Amsterdam plant assembled 20 D-Series Trucks a day. Because of the oilcrises the production of the D-series was ended early 1974 and only the N-series (D serie only for the german market) was built until late 1975. In 1978 the passenger car assembly (Escort MK2 and Taunus MK2) was ended for good and shorttime for all the assembly workers became necessary for a time.

 
                       Personal Quality department                                                         H-series together with Escort MK2

At the same time in the first half of the seventies, Ford of UK was developing a new heavy truck which would exclusively be manufactured in Amsterdam  and that we now know under the name Transcontinental. After completing an extensive test program, the pre-production of press vehicles started in the first months of 1975. In April 1975 the Transcontinental was launched in Amsterdam and the official production started. The sales in the first year were promising, already in May 1976 the 1000 th Transcontinental was made and the 2500 th came of the line early December of that year. At that time, Ford Netherlands had about 1750 people employed of which 1000 were working on the assembly lines. Because of the oil crises, the transportword came into recession and also Ford was experiencing the negative effects, as sales went down. Finally Ford Amsterdam only assembled 50 Transits and 6 Transcontinentals a day. An internal report stated that Ford lost 10.000 Euro on every Transcontinental and 750 Euro for each Transit. The plant was only producing at 40% of the available capacity. On august 28, the workers council was informed about the difficult financial situation. From September 1980 rumors about a closure of the plant started again, and only a new credit from Ford US kept the factory going.

     Main office Ford Netherlands                             Early H-series                             Ford Netherlands site around 1976

The management presented in April 1981 the following plan: Stop the production of the Transit and Transcontinental for September 1981 and reduce the workingforce with 1325 people. Continuation of the marketing and sales departments, selling of the factory and moving to a sales office. Only 2 days later, the factory was occupied by the unions. Negotiations about the future of the factory started and a comprise was found. The closure of the plant was postponed. But very short after the unions again occupied the factory again as Ford could not keep their promises.

               Protest against closure of the plant                                                  Transcontinental HT4435 for Red Cross Tanzania

The management went to court to ask the judge to forbid the occupation by the unions. The unions stated that they had proove of bad management practises. In July 1981 the court decided that Ford had to stop all discontinuation plans and that the unions had to stop the occupation immediately. Ford had to find alternatives for their Amsterdam plant, but the occupation resulted in even higher losses and with this reason the Ford management appealed to the court and got permission to close the factory. Read the true story in the tab FE/HAMMOND.

 
                              Unsold? stock around 1981                                                      Empty Transit assembly line begin December 1981

From February 1975 until December 1981 a total of 8231 Transcontinentals were built in Amsterdam. On December 6 th 1981 the last Ford assembled in Amsterdam drove down the Amsterdam assembly line. Ford Netherlands moved to an office on the Amsteldijk on November 3 th 1982 from were until today they still operate as Importer for the European Ford's. Only the parts warehouse and the service department remained operational on the factorysite for 2 more years. With the closure of the Amsterdam plant it was also Ford's intention to stop the Transcontinental production. But apparently there were stil unbuilt orders and Ford found an agreement with Sandbach Engineering (Foden Trucks) to continue the Transcontinental assembly in Sandbach (Cheshire Uk). Production of UK built Transcontinentals started from March 1982. Until late 1983 another 504 Transcontinentals were assembled. This brings the total to only 8735 produced Transcontinentals of which only a few have survived.