Isuzu SA ready to rev up growth new CEO
Isuzu Motors SA, which is already a market leader in medium-size and heavy trucks, is ready to grow and make its bakkies have a bigger impression in the country, incoming MD and CEO Billy Tom said on Wednesday.
Under founding boss Michael Sacke, who is moving with his family to New Zealand, the truck maker has spent its first 29 months establishing itself in the market and integrating into the global manufacturing network of its Japanese parent.
Now, said the 50-year-old Tom — the first local black MD and CEO among SA’s seven major vehicle manufacturers — it is time to press the “growth” button.
Isuzu Japan is spending R1.2bn to manufacture the next D-Max bakkie range in SA from 2021. That, allied to the market disruption caused by Covid-19, presents the SA company with a unique opportunity to rethink how it markets and sells its vehicles, Tom said.
No-one knows exactly what the future holds, only that traditional methods of buying vehicles are changing. Online marketing and virtual showrooms and test-drives will become more widespread.
“Winning companies will be those that are flexible and nimble and can change course quickly. As a small company, that is what we need to be,” Tom said.
Isuzu SA chair Shigeji Sugimoto said: “Covid-19 has changed the world as we know it and it is important that we recognise we are in unnavigated territory and thus need to be open to all possibilities.”
Isuzu, the smallest of SA’s seven major vehicle manufacturers, has been building its own vehicles in the country since January 2018, after buying the local manufacturing and distribution facilities of General Motors. The disinvested US company had built Isuzus under licence.
Isuzu’s Struandale assembly plant in Port Elizabeth has capacity for 70,000 vehicles a year on three shifts.
In 2019, it rolled out about 23,200 D-Max bakkies and 3,600 bigger trucks.
The numbers will be lower this year because of the lockdown, but Tom thinks the company can approach the capacity limit over the medium term “if we exploit every opportunity”.
To do so will require not only significant growth in SA but also a major push outside. Unlike rivals, which send their vehicles around the world, Isuzu’s only foreign markets are in subSaharan Africa.
While most of SA’s motor companies export more than half their production, only about 15% of Isuzu vehicles leave SA.
In February, the last full sales month unaffected by Covid-19 lockdowns, Ford exported 5,820 bakkies, Toyota 3,567 and Isuzu 343.
Despite a wealth of marketing experience, Tom, who will officially take control on July 1, might not appear an obvious choice to run Isuzu.
He has spent the last 12 years working for Coca-Cola SA and ABI bottlers. In a CV that includes stints at Standard Bank, SABMiller and Distell, he has spent only 20 months in the motor industry.
He worked for GM in 20062007, when he helped set up a specialist dealer network for the Hummer, Cadillac and Saab brands. However, Tom said he has been indirectly involved in the truck industry for much of his career.
“At SAB and Distell, I was on the operations side, involved in the selection and purchase of trucks,” he said. “Becoming Isuzu CEO is almost a natural progression.”