Toyota SA boss takes over reins in Europe
He will retain his leadership here
TOYOTA South Africa president and chief executive Johan van Zyl will only spend one week out of every four in South Africa when he takes up the additional responsibility of heading up Toyota Motors Europe.
But Van Zyl on Thursday expressed confidence in the senior management team at the local company.
“Toyota South Africa has a very strong management team and it will stay exactly as it is currently. Everybody is on top of what they must do and with modern technology it’s easy to communicate.
“I’m more than confident and have got huge trust in the capability of the South African team to run the operations. They are hard working and committed and the direction we are going in South Africa is clear,” he said.
Van Zyl indicated he would also retain his position as president of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA.
Strong leadership
He will spend two weeks in Brussels and one week each in Japan and South Africa each month when he takes up the additional position of president and chief executive of Toyota Motors Europe from April 1.
Van Zyl, who is 57, said the normal retirement age in the company was 63, but he did not even think about or believe in retirement.
However, Van Zyl said if a change was needed in the leadership of Toyota SA in the future because of his additional responsibilities, there were enough candidates within the company from which to select his successor.
Van Zyl said in his new role he would be looking to find more synergies between Toyota’s European and South African operations, particularly from a production viewpoint.
He said Toyota had eight manufacturing facilities in Europe and one in South Africa, and there was a need to optimise the production capacity utilisation of these facilities.
“One of the big benefits South Africa has got is a free trade agreement with Europe and we need to look at how to optimise and exploit this agreement, not just for cars but also for components.”
Van Zyl stressed the importance to South Africa’s motor industry of the renewal by the US government of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).
The renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act has helped with car and component exports.
He said Agoa had helped with the export of vehicles and components and “losing any market will be a disaster for the industry”.
Van Zyl added that some suggested that if one manufacturer closed down its operations in South Africa, it would be good for Toyota, because it would increase its market share. “It will be a total disaster because you will get a domino effect. When one (company) leaves, you can’t sustain the supply base, suppliers can’t be competitive and then slowly the industry will just die. We must avoid it at all costs.”
The government process to agree to a free trade area between Southern African Development Community, TOYOTA Motor promoted a French national and an American woman to unprecedented executive roles for the world’s largest car manufacturer, shaking up management ranks that are predominantly comprised of Japanese men.
Didier Leroy, the head of Toyota Europe since 2010, will become one of six executive vice-presidents as of April 1, the Toyota City, Japan-based company said today on Friday.
Julie Hamp, the head of communications for North America, will be made managing officer and become the first female executive in the company’s 77-year history. the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and East African communities must continue, he added.
This agreement was supposed to be signed in December, but agreement could not be achieved on all the tariff lines, he said.
“South Africa must get free trade agreements with all these areas, because the type of markets we are supplying to there is very good for South African manufacturing, not
Leroy’s elevation underscores president Akio Toyoda’s push to remold the company, founded by his grandfather, in the wake of a global quality crisis after he began leading the car maker. Hamp becomes just the third woman among top management at Japan’s largest car makers, a reflection of the slow progress by an industry known as a boys club before Mary Barra’s ascent to the top job at General Motors (GM) last year. “Toyota has realised that they’re not a Japanese car maker, they’re a world car maker,” Edwin Merner, the president of Atlantis Investment Research in Tokyo, said. just Toyota.”
Van Zyl said Toyota SA exported about 70 000 vehicles last year, with about 35 000 units exported to African countries.
But he expected Toyota SA’s exports to drop to 65 000 vehicles this year because of regulatory framework changes in Nigeria, Angola and Algeria and the impact of lower oil prices on government spending in oil-producing countries, such as Nigeria, Angola and Algeria.
“If they’re going to understand overseas markets and plan, design and build cars, then they have to have people who have a good understanding of those markets.”
Recalls of more than 10 million vehicles for unintended acceleration in 2009 and 2010 led Toyoda to delegate more autonomy to overseas regional units, with the aim of speeding up responses to safety issues and better tailoring the design and engineering of its cars to local buyers’ tastes.
Leroy was among those executives given additional responsibility in the wake of the recalls, taking on
He said Toyota SA’s plant at Prospecton in Durban had an annual capacity of 220 000 units and, excluding trucks, it produced about 155 000 vehicles last year.
Van Zyl believed the overall domestic vehicle market this year would be at about the same level as last year, adding that Toyota SA always planned for a market share of about 20 percent.
He confirmed a new Hilux model would be launched in the first quar- the role of chief quality officer in 2010. He retained the title when he was appointed president of Toyota Europe.
Toyota Europe earned ¥66.4 billion (R6.5bn) in operating income during the first nine months of the current fiscal year. Leroy, 57, became president after a ¥33bn operating loss in the 12 months to March 2010, and the region has reported operating income in each year since.
Hamp joined Toyota in June 2012 from PepsiCo where she was global head of communications, and previously held communications positions at GM. – Bloomberg ter of next year, but stressed that Toyota’s production system was designed in such a way that it would not result in a period where it had big gaps in production.
Van Zyl said the new Hilux model would require new investment in the plant and also create some new jobs, but declined to quantify the investment or expected job creation.
South Africa’s motor industry lost 13 weeks of production between 2013 and last year because of strikes.