Toyota made a £60m profit in the UK last year, should be able to double its UK market share from its current 5.1% and wants to become the UK car maker of choice for British consumers, according to its local head of manufacturing operations.
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Hein Van Gerwen who heads a car assembly plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire, and an engine plant in Deeside, North Wales, told the Daily Telegraph: “People in France are very patriotic and buy French cars and it is the same in Germany. How can we make the point that Toyota is a fully integrated producer in the UK and be treated as a home brand?”
Despite employing 4,900 people in the UK, building Avensis and Corolla cars and making a high level of components, including engines, Toyota was seen “too much as a Japanese company”, Van Gerwen told the paper, adding: “It is a global company but has to be seen more as a local company”.
He said that, ironically, Japanese consumers find European car brands attractive and so when Toyota exported UK-made Avensis cars into its home market it added a “made in the UK” label and put union flags in car dealerships.
“I would like our market share to go to 10%” in the UK, Van Gerwen told the Daily Telegraph. At the moment it is sixth behind Ford and General Motors.
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By GlobalDataThe report said Toyota’s UK profits of £60.2m for the year ending March 2006 were up from £50.4m the previous year and Van Gerwen noted the operation was now as productive as Toyota’s most successful Japanese factories and on a par with Nissan’s plant in Sunderland which is often held up as the most efficient plant in Europe.
However, profits would be unlikely to be sustained at current levels in the UK because of the high costs of raw materials, Van Gerwen told the Daily Telegraph. He predicted they would this year be at a “sustainable” level.
He added that Toyota made 265,000 cars last year out of potential total current capacity of 285,000, based on employees working two shifts. It could increase its total production levels to 380,000 while still remaining on two shifts.
The executive predicted Toyota would sell almost 1m cars in Europe this year and, if current demand continued, would beat its target of selling 1.2m in the area by 2010.
He also told the Daily Telegraph Toyota would not be interested in Jaguar.
