Mahmoud Ahmad
Saudi Gazette
HIROYUKI FUKUI, managing officer of Toyota Motor Corporation and deputy CEO, Asia, Middle East & North Africa Region, welcoming words to the visiting Toyota Motors group tour was reflective of how the Japanese company viewed the people and the region. He welcomed the group, saying, “We are very grateful for the loyalty and support that our customers in the Middle East have shown us over the 60 years that we have been exporting vehicles to the region.”
This, he said, was one of the major factors in the company’s success while also helping Toyota achieve a sale of 750,000 units of Toyota and Lexus in the Middle East. He added, “We are very much committed to the Middle East as a growth market, driven by a younger demographic.”
During the Toyota motor show, Toyota brand displayed its new Prius, which will debut in the Middle East early next year. Lexus offered a taste of its creative brand experience with the world premiere of an amazing concept car and various innovative marketing initiatives.
He added, “We are working hard to contribute to a more sustainable world — and hybrids are central to our efforts. At Toyota Motor Corporation, we believe that understanding a car intellectually is one thing, but experiencing it emotionally is another.”
Speaking exclusively to Saudi Gazette, Takayuki Yoshitsugu, chief representative of the Middle East & North Africa Representative office, spoke on a range of issues and challenges. When specifically asked about the tough competition Toyota is facing from South Korean and Chinese brands in the Saudi market and whether their share of the market was being affected and what measures are being used to protect it, he said, “South Korean brand is our strong competitor. We want to say that such tough competition strengthens each manufacturer’s competitiveness, including Toyota. I believe such competition is welcomed.
“Our strategy on how to compete with other brands, first: We do our best to develop better cars. This is a key word in Toyota. We do not stop. We go ahead and provide better customer satisfaction. Second, we want to provide better after sales service to customer. Our business partners, the distributers, have a responsibility to provide better service. I believe our distributers have been doing a good job and they are continuing to further improve to provide a better service.”
Yoshitsugu added that there is no secret behind the delivery of a better after sales service as Toyota and ALJ share the same values. He added, “This is a key word in Toyota, customer satisfaction. This is a high in our operations. Customers choose the brand, dealer and decide everything. We always consider what a customer feels. We encourage our distributers to invest money, human resources, develop facilities for better after sales service. And they in turn fulfill these criteria such that we work toward our goals in unison. So it is no secret, we just share the same understanding — customer satisfaction and customer is always first.”
Commenting on marketing the new hybrid technology in Saudi, he said that Toyota and ALJ believe that the Saudi market is going to change. In the past, consumers loved larger engine, larger size. They did not care about fuel consumption. Now it is all starting to change with the introduction of fuel efficiency regulation as of next year.
Yoshitsugu added, “How to promote hybrid, it is very challenging for us. Our strategy is relying on expanding the knowledge on hybrid technology, what is hybrid and what it consists of and what are its benefits. Second, we provide better hybrid model in the market. Accepting hybrid technology might take longer time in Saudi Arabia and also for it to be popular. But we will continue this activity. Because we believe in the future, same like others, and good efficiency vehicle are popular in the market concerning global environmental issue and fuel consumption challenges in Saudi Arabia.”
When it comes to training Saudi youth in Japan, Yoshitsugu said, “We have on several occasions shared the same values. Toyota and ALJ have 60 years history. Through this history we have been sharing the same understanding, same values, same policy.
This history has enabled many staff working in ALJ share the Toyota way of thinking. On top of this, we have internal company training where young talents from distributers come to Japan to work in Toyota office for one or two years. Then they go back to Saudi Arabia or other Mideast countries, and become a good dealer and share the Toyota way of thinking. We have service training center in Bahrain where we receive many mechanics from distributors, and we teach them how to handle all models and provide excellent maintenance service.”
