Toyota South Africa has completed the expansion of its Toyota Africa Parts Centre in Boksburg, Gauteng. This makes it the largest parts centre in the southern hemisphere. The expansion cost R365-million and took two years to finish. It is also one of the leading facilities of its kind in the world, with state-of-the-art technology and solar energy.
The Toyota Africa Parts Centre covers a total area of 80 000 square metres, which is equivalent to 11.5 rugby fields. “But why do we need such an immense facility,” poses Andrew Kirby, president and CEO of Toyota South Africa. “Prior to the upgrade, we were working out of two warehouse units. It was key then for us to consolidate everything under one roof on one site in order to become more efficient in our operations,” he explains.
Toyota South Africa’s vice president of customer service, Anand Pather, echoes this explanation. “The expanded warehouse allows us the opportunity to streamline our processes and operations. Toyota is globally renowned for its smart production and management systems. In fact, when it comes to execution, we run things in a military fashion,” says Pather.
Toyota Africa Parts Centre in numbers
This colossal facility stores 2.7-million parts at any given moment. This is roughly R900-million in stock. Toyota has 220 local parts suppliers that need constant resupplying. The parts centre transports around 22 000 order lines to these dealers, including ones in Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini. There are a further 3500 order lines of stock that are exported to overseas dealers.
The facility also stores parts for Lexus and Hino dealerships in South Africa and neighbouring countries. In fact, the parts centre services 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and a further six countries overseas.
According to Toyota South Africa’s vice president of sales and marketing, Leon Theron, the parts centre will play a massive role in supporting the brand’s sales targets. “Our vehicle sales target for this year is 131 000 and that has a direct impact on this operation.”
“If you look at parts, our sales target is R7.2-billion this year and we are hoping to service about 1.4-million vehicles this year. Parts play a key role when dealers and customers evaluate us, hence we strive to score excellent scores. This marks the culmination of a lot of planning, hard work, dedication and strong support from our business partners, key stakeholders and, of course, our team members,” Theron adds.
Toyota and Formex Industries
Toyota South Africa is a direct customer of Formex Industries. Some of the automotive components and assemblies that we produce are fitted on various Toyota vehicles that are manufactured in South Africa. This expansion of the parts centre will house some of our products too, so it’s a positive sign of commitment, not only to parts manufacturers but also to the entire South African economy.
Toyota South Africa has invested around R4.2-billion into the local automotive sector in recent years. Since 2019, this capital has been poured into the parts centre, as well as the company’s manufacturing facilities and assembly lines in South Africa. Formex is proud to be associated with future-focused brands that are dedicated to South Africa. For more information about our components and products at Formex, please contact us today.
Formex Industries is a metal forming and assembly company that supplies a variety of complex products to the local automotive industry and the export market. The company is based in the Nelson Mandela Bay metropole, South Africa’s foremost region for automotive manufacturing and export.
Formex is a Level 2 B-BBEE supplier. The company is owned by Deneb Investments Limited – a subsidiary of Hosken Consolidated Investments Limited (HCI) – one of South Africa’s biggest true B-BBEE companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
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