Ford Union

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Ford Union

Native name	Форд-Юніён
Industry	Automotive industry
Founded	July 1997
Defunct	July 2000; 24 years ago (2000-07)
Headquarters	Apčak , Belarus
Area served	Great Britain, Eastern Europe and CIS
Key people	Alan Batty (CEO)
Products	Automobiles
Owner	Ford Motor Company: 51% Belarusian government: 26% Lada-OMC: 23%

The Ford Union (original spelling: Форд-Юніён) is a former joint venture of the Ford Motor Company, the Russian Lada importer Lada-OMC and the Belarusian government. It was located in Apčak near the city of Minsk in Belarus. Ford invested a capital of US$10,000,000 for building the plant. The company existed from 1997 up to 2000 when it was closed due to low sales.^[1][2][3]

The Ford Union was not a manufacturer, it was only an assembler of SKD kits. The vehicles assembled by the Belarusian plant can be identified by the manufacturer code Y4F on the start on the VIN and an R on the eleventh position for the plant identification.^[4][5]

The plant become well known on 23 July 1997 as president Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko was invited to a press conference with five strategically selected foreign journalists to discuss a predicted failure which later proved true.