Toyota eyes 10% growth in 2016 sales

Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. is bullish on sustaining its stellar performance under a new leadership, with vehicle sales targeted to grow by at least 10 percent to 137,000 units this year.

Under newly appointed TMP president Satoru Suzuki, the country’s biggest automotive player is also looking to breach the 200,000-unit sales mark by 2020, which will enable the company to cement its leadership in the domestic market.

Last year, TMP dominated the Philippine automotive market with a 43.32-percent market share, which was equivalent to a sales volume of 125,027 units.

“As TMP’s incoming president, I take it as my mission to lead our company in order to meet the growing expectations of our stakeholders. We will do this by continuously accelerating our efforts to push for ever higher quality in our products,” Suzuki said at the turnover ceremonies Wednesday night.

Suzuki, who previously served as TMP’s vice president for vehicle sales operation from 1997 to 1999, replaced Michinobu Sugata, who served as the sixth president of TMP in its 27-year history.

TMP, under Sugata’s leadership, saw a “tremendous growth and expansion in the sales and production volume in the past six years such as constantly breaking new sales records since 2012, achieving a cumulate one millionth sales milestone and 14th consecutive Triple Crown in 2015.” As of end 2015, TMP also ranked fourth among other Toyota markets in Asia in terms of vehicle sales and 13th out of the 170 countries where the Japanese carmaker is present.