In the last few months, you’ve probably read story after story about how Ford is laying off workers and trying to get them to retire early. This is done to match the demand for Ford vehicles with the number of workers making them. Luckily for Ford, though, several foreign markets are selling cars like hotcakes and creating a profit for the automaker.

The Russian market is one example of this. While many North American factories have downsized, the Ford Motor Company is adding workers to a factory in Russia to keep up with the demand for the product in the region. By doing this, Ford increases that country’s production of vehicles by 75 percent!

That’s an amazing feat for the automaker, too. That means the workers will be making 125,000 vehicles by next year.
The Vsevolozhsk plant in St. Petersburg is the facility getting these new workers. Employees there create the Ford Focus hatchback, which has become the most popular imported brand in the country since 2007. The factory will also begin production of the Mondeo, another popular export of the Ford Motor Company.

Russia’s great sales figures are one reason why Ford is looking to the eastern European region to increase sales globally. That particular market sold nearly two million units in 2007, which is about 72,000 more than it sold the year before.

Unfortunately, the North American market isn’t doing that well. But the figures do look promising. With any luck, maybe Ford’s domestic market will perform as well (or even better) than the ones overseas.