Toyota on Monday night (28 April) confirmed earlier reports it was establishing a new headquarters for its North American operations in North Dallas (Plano), Texas in a move it said was designed “to better serve customers and position for sustainable, long-term growth”.
Within three years, three separate North American headquarters for manufacturing, sales and marketing, plus corporate operations, will relocate to a single, purpose-built campus in Plano, about 19 miles north east of downtown Dallas.
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The North American finance arm also plans to move its base to the new shared campus. The move will affect about 4,000 employees.
The automaker said it would also expand the Toyota Technical Center (TTC) in Michigan to accommodate direct procurement relocated from Erlanger, Kentucky, to the campus in York Township near Ann Arbor.
“This expansion is part of an increased investment in engineering capabilities and will accommodate future growth in product development,” Toyota said.
The move to Plano from three current headquarters locations affects about 2,000 employees at Toyota Motor Sales, USA (TMS) in Torrance, California (just south of Los Angeles); about 1,000 at Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America (TEMA) in Erlanger and some workers at Toyota Motor North America (TMA) in New York city.
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By GlobalDataToyota said it would start the move with initial small groups this summer but most employees won’t shift until construction of the new headquarters is complete in late 2016 or early 2017.
Toyota Financial Services (TFS) is not expected to move to Plano from Torrance until 2017, affecting another 1,000 California employees.
Jim Lentz, Toyota’s chief executive officer for the North America region said: “With our major North American business affiliates and leaders together in one location for the first time, we will be better equipped to speed decision making, share best practices, and leverage the combined strength of our employees.
“This, in turn, will strengthen our ability to put customers first and to continue making great products that exceed their expectations. Ultimately, enabling greater collaboration and efficiencies across Toyota will help us become a more dynamic, innovative and successful organisation in North America.
“This is the most significant change we’ve made to our North American operations in the past 50 years, and we are excited for what the future holds.”
To soften the blow of a major pull-out from the two states, Toyota also announced a US$10m “philanthropic commitment to provide continued funding for local non-profits and community organisations in in California and Kentucky over a five-year period beginning in 2017, over and above existing commitments.”
Toyota said sales and marketing, manufacturing and corporate business units would retain responsibilities and operating names.
Building the new HQ in Plano should take about two years after ground breaking in autumn 2014. Initial small groups of employees will work from a temporary location in Plano.
Toyota will also build a new facility on TTC’s York campus to accommodate those 250 direct procurement positions currently based at TEMA.
About 300 production engineering positions based in Erlanger will be relocated to a new facility to be built at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK) in Georgetown, Kentucky while about 1,000 TEMA administrative positions will move to Plano.
Toyota’s 10 manufacturing plants in the US will not be affected initially by these changes.
There are also no immediate changes to Toyota regional field offices, Lexus area offices, operating units in Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico, Toyota Financial Service regional offices, sales offices, service centres and its bank, Calty Design Research facilities, Toyota InfoTechnology Center, Toyota Racing Development, AirFlite, logistics services field locations and distribution centres.
After moving some staff from California, Toyota will continue to have approximately 2,300 employees there and 8,200 in Kentucky.
This includes 750 new jobs being added at TMMK for production of the Lexus ES, which begins in 2015. Toyota will also maintain its offices in New York and Washington, DC.
The move also will not affect Toyota’s relationship with Gulf States Toyota, a private distributor of vehicles based in Houston, Texas.
