By Kathy Bergen |
The demise of the 72-year-old Mercury brand may lead to the closing of
some dealerships in major markets but will not alter Ford Motor Co.’s
expectation for solid profitability this year and next, Alan Mulally,
Ford’s chief executive, said in Chicago  Tuesday.

“We have a few too many dealers in the larger metro areas,” Mulally told
reporters immediately after his keynote address at the Chicagoland
Chamber of Commerce annual meeting, which drew 1,400 business people.

Asked  whether the Mercury phase-out, announced last week, would result in a charge against profits, Mulally said he had no specific guidance on that but could reaffirm that Ford “will be solidly profitable in 2010 and will improve on that in 2011.”

“That guidance is absolutely intact and everything we are doing is captured in that guidance,” he said.

And as the mid-range brand isdiscontinued, Mulally promised that Ford would inject new life into the luxury Lincoln brand.

“We are going to take Lincoln flying now,” he said in his address. “We’re just going to make your eyes water with real premium brands made by a U.S. manufacturer … and we’ll start bringing those vehicles out over the next year.”

Mulally also reiterated the company’s commitment to its Chicago assembly and suburban stamping plants, which will produce the next generation of the Ford Explorer SUV. Its $400 million investment in those plants, announced early this year, will create about 1,200  jobs.