‘General Merchants and Traders who add value to products’
For the second company report, we will make a feature of “Toyota Tsusho Australasia.” As the name suggests, it is a general trading company of the Toyota group, but it is not just automobile-related products that the company deals in. What kind of business will they be conducting here in Australia?
Description of business
Toyota Tusho Australasia mainly supplies facilities, parts, and materials to the Toyota Motor Corporation, the Toyota Motor Corporation group, and subsequent suppliers. Toyota Tusho Australasia does not sell just their products separately. For example, they sell a wheel which has been already tired instead of selling a tire and a wheel separately. Their characteristic is to create added value in products. Each business place has different enterprise contents. At the corporate headquarter in Melbourne, they conduct automobile-related business, and in Sydney they are dealing in non automobile-related areas such as food, chemistry and textiles. In Perth, they also export silica sand which is a raw material used for making glass products and solar panels.
Advantage in expanding business in Australia
Australia is one of the foremost resource-producing countries. In addition, the Australian economy is on a much firmer footing than Asia, Africa and Latin America and it is unlikely that a country risk problem would affect the company in Australia. Furthermore, Australia is a developed country in the field of medical technology and drug works. There are a lot of unique products such as organic products and a variety of groceries, so there are many business opportunities in wide-ranging areas.
A future focus area
The aim of Toyota Tusho Australasia is to get the operating revenue from automotive areas and non-automotive areas to be 50:50 by 2015. Currently, they gain more revenue from automobile related areas, but instead of depending on automotive areas, they are looking to expand their business in fields of food, chemistry, and energy resources.
Australia is a great resource- producing country, but at present they are not capitalizing on their strength as one of the top resource producing country in the world. It appears as though Toyota Tusho Australasia is going to be adding value to the wealth of resources, export them, and conduct a business which is good for Australia.
Finally, the president of Toyota Tusho Australasia, Mr. Oba showed me around the company and the steel center.
I saw the word “ANZEN FIRST (Safety First)” everywhere. The workplaces are safely managed, and they have never had an accident since their initial foundation. I witnessed how they are working on the plates for a car’s body. Before I visited this place, I thought that they were manufacturing the plate in an auto factory. I also looked at assembly of tires and wheels. It was my first chance to take a close look at the silver rolls which are often seen on the back of the trailers on the express way.
