SOUTHAMPTON'S 1,440 strong Transit van workforce has helped prop up the results of Ford Europe as the auto giant went back into the black for the first time since 1997.

The state-of-the-art assembly plant at Swaythling, Ford's only remaining UK production facility, was described as "very, very important" to the company's future.

The "White Van Man" culture - Britain's business army of tradesmen and suppliers - drove to the rescue of Ford's main European subsidiary by snapping up new models of the Transit. The popular Focus C-Max also boosted results.

Ford Group's pre-tax profits jumped 70 per cent to £3.2 billion on sales, which were two per cent down. Ford Europe turned a £550m loss last year into £61m profit.

Don Leclair, Ford's chief financial officer, said: "It has been a while but we are in the black and we are very happy with it."

Although dwarfed by Ford's other European Transit plant at Kocaeli in Turkey, Swaythling made a major contribution to the firm's commercial vehicle sales.

Transit sales were up in Europe from 202,400 in 2003 to 230,300 last year.

Swaythling contributed 70,674 of those, a huge rise on its previous total of 55,000.

A Ford spokesman explained the firm's European plants were now running at near 100 per cent capacity and it was starting to benefit from the controversial decision to close its Dagenham facility in 2002.

He said: "Transit is an outstanding success story for both Ford's commercial vehicle sales in Europe and Ford Britain's Southampton assembly plant in Swaythling.

"Ford's 1,440 employees at the Transit plant saw their daily production rise through 2004 to meet demand in the UK and on the continent.

"The iconic Transit has been number one medium van for 39 consecutive years and later this year celebrates its 40th birthday."

Ford says the model is key to its continued turnaround in Europe - as demonstrated by our 2004 figures. They show how far the company has moved forward.

The local factory, now in its 52nd year, works a two-shift system producing up to 375 Transit vans, buses and chassis-cab units a day.

Elsewhere in the group there were disappointing sales of Ford owned prestige marque Jaguar, which saw its historic Browns Lane factory near Coventry close in September last year.