NEWLY appointed Ford Asean President Matt Bradley and Ford Phils.President Randy Krieger last week led the ground-breaking ceremony for the new site of Ford’s dealership in Alabang and the opening of the relocated and freshly built Ford Pampanga.

The move comes alongside Ford Phils.’ plan to establish 12 new dealerships across the country, the first of which—Ford Cainta—formally opened in October. Two new dealerships in Butuan and Naga have also started operating earlier this month. Scheduled to open in December are those in Makati, Isabela, Tarlac and Bohol, while Ford facilities in Manila Bay, General Santos, Laoag, Zamboanga and Baguio are planned to launch next year.

“The continued expansion of our Ford dealer network will help further drive our momentum in the Philippines, as well as help support our overall, aggressive growth plans for Asean,” said Bradley. “In addition to the introduction of segment-leading One Ford vehicles, we are absolutely committed to further improving our customer experience, which includes customer convenience from an even wider network of nationwide coverage.”

Krieger added that “Ford is committed to an aggressive growth plan in the Philippines.”

The planned 12 new dealerships will bring to 35 Ford’s sales and service facilities in the country.

The new Ford Alabang dealership will be one of the largest in Asean. Scheduled to begin operations in 2014, it sits on a 4,000-square-meter lot on Alabang-Zapote Road, and will have a showroom that can display 25 vehicles, as well as the capacity to service 80 vehicles.

“We are thrilled to start construction on the new Ford Alabang facility, which promises to be one of the largest facilities in the Philippines,” said Paolo Borromeo, dealer principal of Ford Alabang.

For its part, Ford Pampanga, under dealer principal Levy Laus, is the second of Ford’s sales and service outlet that’s built according to the carmaker’s Brand@Retail II new global design standard. Ford explained that the standard translates its “brand pillars of quality, green, safe and smart to the physical space of Ford dealerships” while also delivering a new look and feel that are “comforting and customer-friendly.”

Ford Cainta was the first in the country to sport the new standard.

“We look forward to bringing even more class-leading Ford vehicles and quality service to our expanding base of loyal Ford customers,” said Laus. FAST TIMES