Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co., which is dropping Pacific Investment Management Co.’s main fund from its investment options for employees, is maintaining a relationship with the bond giant after its co-founder Bill Gross’s surprise exit last month.

“While the Pimco Total Return Fund will be removed as an investment option from Ford’s retirement savings plan, Ford continues to partner with Pimco through many other investment mandates,” Becky Sanch, a spokeswoman for Dearborn, Michigan- based Ford, said in an e-mail. “Ford and Pimco have enjoyed a long productive relationship and Ford has confidence in the next generation of Pimco leaders, many of whom have been involved in Ford portfolios around the world.”

The $202 billion Pimco Total Return Fund will be removed effective Nov. 14, Sanch said yesterday, citing the departure of 70-year-old Gross. Ford is among large investors moving money from Pimco after his Sept. 26 exit, with clients rattled by the change pulling a record $23.5 billion in September from the Total Return Fund. They’re moving money to competing funds, or parking it in money-market funds and exchange-traded funds while they reevaluate.