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Volvo Heads Back To New Jersey; Belec To Marketing Post

Ford is moving the U.S. unit back of Volvo from Irvine, Calif., to northern New Jersey, where it was long located prior to Ford's purchase. It will be housed in the same campus it occupied before. Volvo recently has shared digs with Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin, but Aston Martin was sold last year and Land Rover and Jaguar are being acquired by Indian automaker TaTa.

As part of the shift, Volvo CEO Anne Belec is moving back to Dearborn to work for Ford's global chief marketer Jim Farley. She is being replaced by her No. 2, Doug Speck.

Volvo sales have been soft despite overall strength in the premium auto segments. That is leading Ford to reduce the number of Volvo dealers, especially in metro urban markets, to make dealers more profitable. It is also concentrating its marketing and future product development on higher-margin products, according to an internal Ford document.

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