FORD CANADA ACQUIRES MAJORITY STAKE IN YOUNG DRIVERS
By Adnews Staff
Ford Motor Company of Canada Ltd. of Oakville, Ontario has announced it will acquire a majority interest in Young Drivers, a driver education company that operates in Canada, the United States and Finland. Young Drivers, whose motto is "Your licence to survive", provides safe-driving instructions to thousands of students each year. The driver education company will soon be expanding into the United Arab Emirates. Ford of Canada's acquisition of Young Drivers will include: Young Drivers of Canada, based in Hamilton, Ontario, with 158 franchised driver education centres in seven provinces, as well as Young Drivers of America, based in Delaware with 25 franchised driver education centres in four states of the United States. The Finnish operation is not part of the deal. Financial details of the deal were not released. Young Drivers president Peter Christianson will remain with the company after the acquisition. "We intend to grow this business - and the revenues from it - by expanding it into select markets where the Young Drivers brand will be associated with our dealerships. This strengthens the competitive position of both companies and our dealers. Second, as 90 per cent of Young Drivers students are under the age of 30, we will have an opportunity to reach and satisfy an entirely new set of customers for Ford vehicles," Ford's director of retail growth and business development Dean Tesser said. Ford of Canada had three vehicle assembly plant, five manufacturing plants and 577 dealerships located in all provinces.