Toyota PH to take on active regional role

When Michinobu Sugata took over the presidency of Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. (TMP) in 2010, the company already boasted 28 dealerships that helped the company close the year with a record 56,855 unit sales.

This figure not only enabled TMP that year to dominate the market with a 33.7-percent share, but also helped the Philippine automotive industry to breach the 170,000-unit sales mark.

As Sugata heads back to Toyota Japan for his next assignment—reportedly a key promotion—he left a TMP that is both a market leader and a trendsetter.

Remaining dominant

Today, with a network of 49 dealerships nationwide and record sales volume that reached 125,027 units at the end of 2015, TMP remained dominant, capturing a 43.32-percent share of the market that just breached the 323,000-unit sales mark.

After achieving a cumulative one-million sales milestone and its 14th consecutive Triple Crown last year (No. 1 spot in overall sales, in passenger car sales, and in commercial vehicle sales), the company is now ranked fourth (in terms of vehicle sales) among other Toyota markets in Asia as well as 13th out of the 170 countries where the Japanese carmaker is present.

Sugata is also lauded for reliving motorsports in the country, and bringing it closer to more people.

Strong leadership

Indeed the Toyota Vios Cup, which just concluded its second season in November, is now regarded as the most anticipated one-make race in the country and an excellent platform for discovering new talents.

“His strong leadership has led TMP to achieve tremendous growth and expansion in the sales and production volume in the past six years, such as constantly breaking new sales records since 2012, reaching the 100,000th annual unit sales in 2014 that enabled TMP to be inducted to the Global Toyota 100K Club, and achieving the cumulative One Million Sales Milestone in 2015, said Kyoichi Tanada, Toyota Motor Corp. managing officer and CEO of Asia, Middle East and North Africa Regions.

Welcome challenge

SUZUKI, TMP’s new president, is eager to build stronger partnerships with the government as he plans to make the Philippines a key player in the regional automotive scene.

Tanada also lauded the Philippine government’s implementation of the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS Program), which TMP is expected to actively participate to further boost the competitiveness of the auto manufacturing industry in the country.

During this most prosperous chapter and time of great accomplishments for TMP, taking on the helm of the company is surely a welcome challenge for Satoru Suzuki.

“It is with great pleasure once again to join Team Toyota Philippines after 16 years of absence. I am eager to build strong partnerships with you in the coming days because I firmly believe that with your strong support, we can all make a positive change to usher the country toward becoming a key player in the regional automotive scene,” he said during the turnover ceremony last week at Makati Shangri-La Hotel.

Suzuki was formerly TMP’s VP for marketing, in charge of sales and product planning operations from 1997 to 1999, before moving on to Toyota Motor Asia-Pacific (TMAP) in Singapore, where he took charge of the Philippine and Thai markets.

Achieving midterm target

Before finally coming back to TMP as its new president, Suzuki was responsible for all sales-related issues in Asia, in both TMAP-Japan and TMAP-Singapore, one of the reasons why he was chosen to lead a new TMP team that aims to achieve its midterm target of selling 200,000 units by 2020.

OUTGOING TMP president Sugata (right) receives a plaque of appreciation from Philippine Economic Zone Authority Director General Lilia de Lima in recognition of his significant contributions in further enhancing the Philippine automotive industry and the growth of Japanese autoparts investments in the Peza.

“As I begin my second tour of duty in TMP, I feel very privileged to work with a stronger and more resilient team. Today, I can see that TMP is better prepared to face the vast opportunities as well as the challenges of the future,” said Suzuki.

Suzuki added that he is eager to build stronger partnerships with the government as he plans to make the Philippines a key player in the regional automotive scene.

Sugata agreed, saying that the momentum of growth and development of the Philippines is unstoppable.

“Even Toyota Global sees the Philippines as one of the most promising countries to become one of the Top 10 worldwide in terms of sales,” he said.