Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

Coordinates: 33°51′26″N 118°18′43″W / 33.857163°N 118.3118381°W / 33.857163; -118.3118381

Main article: Toyota
Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc.
Founded 1957
Headquarters Torrance, California
Key people
 Jim Lentz, CEO
Products Toyota, Lexus, and Scion products marketed in the United States market
Number of employees
 6,500
Website Toyota.com

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (TMS) is the North American Toyota sales, marketing, and distribution subsidiary devoted to the U.S. market. Founded in 1957 in California, TMS currently employs more than 6,500 people. Its current headquarters in Torrance, California supervises 14 regional offices. Toyota has plans in 2014 to move its headquarters to suburban Dallas, Texas, in Plano, construction having begun in the fall of 2014.[1] The construction location is Texas State Highway 121 and Legacy Drive, across the street from the FedEx Office Headquarters, and the J. C. Penney World Headquarters.

TMS oversees sales in 49 states of Toyota, Lexus, and Scion products through a network of over 1,200 Toyota dealers (of whom more than 900 also sell Scion vehicles) and over 200 Lexus dealers. Toyota vehicles in Hawaii are distributed by Servco Pacific. TMS develops Toyota's television campaigns and other nationwide marketing materials, and supervises dealer marketing to ensure that dealers present a uniform image. TMS also manages regional distribution, which occurs through 12 parts centers and five vehicle centers. James E. Lentz III is the president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.[2]

TMS uses two private distributors in the United States, which were established in 1968. Southeast Toyota Distributors, founded by Jim Moran, and Gulf States Toyota Distributors, founded by Tom Friedkin have exclusive rights to market vehicles and parts in their respective states. SET covers NC, SC, GA, FL & AL. GST distributes to MS, LA, TX, AR & OK.

Corporate affairs

Corporate headquarters

The company maintains its headquarters in Torrance, California in Greater Los Angeles. The campus has six buildings,[3] with a total of 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m2) of office space.[4] In 2012 a 1.1 megawatt hydrogen fuel cell generator was installed at the campus, giving half of the power for the six buildings during the peak demand period. The generator does not generate emissions. By using the generator, as of 2012 the company saves $130,000 in utility bill charges.[3] As of 2014 the headquarters has 5,300 employees.[4]

On October 31, 1957,[5] Toyota opened its first United States office in a former Rambler/Ford dealership, at 6000 Hollywood Blvd. As of April 2014 that building is still a Toyota dealership. Because the city had airline access to Tokyo and because of the proximity to the Port of Los Angeles the U.S. division of Toyota located its U.S. headquarters in the Los Angeles area.[4]

The Torrance headquarters opened in 1982.[4] In 2003 the Toyota South Campus in Torrance received the Golden Nugget Award.[6]

Plano headquarters move

In 2014 Toyota announced it was moving its United States headquarters to Plano, Texas in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.[4] The new headquarters will have around 4,000 total employees, including about 2,000 employees from the current headquarters and 1,000 employees from Toyota Financial Services, which also was in Torrance. The company plans to permanently move most employees by the time of completion of the new headquarters, late 2016 or early 2017, while initially the company will open a temporary office in Texas and move small groups of employees there in the interim.[7] The administration of the Dallas Japanese School, the supplementary Japanese school serving Japanese citizen and Japanese American children living in the DFW area, stated that it expected to receive an additional 150 students due to the headquarters move.[8]

On Tuesday April 29, 2014, Mayor of Dallas Mike Rawlings stated that Toyota had considered moving the U.S. offices to the City of Dallas but decided against it due to the quality of the Dallas Independent School District (DISD). A spokesperson of Toyota stated that the company, when deciding where to relocate, considered higher education, K-12 schools, access to the airport, and cost of living. The spokesperson did not say which cities other than Plano were being considered.[9] In response to the move, the mayor of Torrance, Frank Scotto, stated that he was "very disappointed" by the decision.[7]

Matthew Haag of The Dallas Morning News stated that Toyota may have moved its headquarters to suburban Plano because of its similarities to Torrance, another suburban city.[10]

Marketing

Toyota Motor Sales USA and Gulf Toyota Distribution hold the naming rights to Toyota Center.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jerry Hirsch and David Undercoffler, Toyota to move jobs and marketing headquarters from Torrance to Texas, Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2014
  2. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/business/10prius.html New York Times: October 10, 2008-
  3. 1 2 Hirsch, Jerry. "Giant new Toyota fuel cell powers buildings rather than cars." Los Angeles Times. October 21, 2012. Retrieved on May 11, 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Hirsch, Jerry and David Undercoffler. "Toyota to move jobs and marketing headquarters from Torrance to Texas." Los Angeles Times. April 27, 2014. Retrieved on April 29, 2014.
  5. ↑ Toyota North America began
  6. ↑ "Toyota Headquarters South Campus Expansion." (Archive) Turner Construction. Retrieved on May 23, 2013.
  7. 1 2 Artsy, Avishay. "Torrance mayor ‘very disappointed’ Toyota is moving jobs to Texas" (Archive). KCRW. April 28, 2014. Retrieved on April 30, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Toyota's move to North Texas brings more interest in Japanese schooling" (Archive). WFAA-TV. June 26, 2014. Retrieved on April 10, 2015.
  9. ↑ Haag, Matthew. "Mayor Mike Rawlings: Toyota didn’t move to Dallas because of DISD." The Dallas Morning News. April 29, 2014. Retrieved on April 30, 2014.
  10. ↑ Haag, Matthew. "Maybe Toyota moved to Plano because the suburb is a lot like Torrance, Calif." (Archive). The Dallas Morning News. May 6, 2014. Retrieved on September 4, 2015.
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