Toyota expands warehouse for third time
Toyota New Zealand has finished the first stage of a significant expansion and upgrade at its Palmerston North base.
The 11,000-square-metre expansion to Toyota’s parts warehouse took a year to build, and the company is hiring eight more staff for the continuing upgrades.
It is the third expansion to the now 35,000sqm Kelvin Grove warehouse in 15 years, following work in 2003 and 2007. Toyota logistics manager Dave Rhodes-robinson said the
expansion was driven by a massive growth in parts sales, and the new employees will join the warehouse’s 42 staff – 16 of whom have been added during the past two years.
Rhodes-robinson said new vehicle sales had steadily grown for more than a decade, and imports of used Japanese cars had been at record levels since 2008 – putting more cars and more Toyotas on New Zealand roads than ever before.
More cars meant more repairs, and more car owners looking to replace worn parts or add new extras; and Toyota’s accessories and parts sales topped $140 million nationwide in 2017.
‘‘[And] the fastest growth in demand is for larger parts, such as bumpers, headlights, panels and roof racks, which was putting extra pressure on warehouse space.’’
The roomier warehouse was needed so Toyota had enough parts on the shelves to ensure overnight delivery for at least 95 per cent of orders, Rhodes-robinson said.
It also gave Toyota room for phase two of the warehouse upgrade – improving the efficiency and safety of the warehouse layout, and carrying out earthquake strengthening.
Rhodes-robinson said entire sections of the warehouse needed to be cleared out as the 18-month project progressed.
‘‘There are 1.4 million individual parts in the warehouse at any one time. All of them will need to be moved at least once during the upgrade work.’’
The eight new staff are being hired to assist in the upgrade. But Rhodes-robinson expects they’ll still have jobs after it’s done, since by that point the warehouse will likely need at least eight more staff to meet the demand for parts.