Toyota SA’s Prospecton Plant is Back in Action

In true Toyota fashion, their Durban plant is up and running again after KZN’s devasting floods.

 

Just like their cars, Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) has once again proven their tenacity as they announced that production has resumed at their Prospecton Plant in Durban following the devasting floods which hit KZN, damaging the facility and bringing production to a halt. This announcement was made at Toyota’s “reopening ceremony” which was attended by TSAM Management, members of the media, the newly elected Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, and Siboniso Duma, MEC of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs.

 

Prior to the flooding which left their production lines submerged, TSAM was enjoying an average market share of 30% which was sadly reduced to 17% in May, 18.1% in June and 16.3% in July. Despite seeing its market share washed away (no pun intended), that Toyota tenacity persisted, as the company retained its number one position in the local sales charts. 

 

Speaking at the reopening, President and CEO of TSAM, Andrew Kirby said, “We communicated with Japan (Toyota Motor Corporation) on the night of the 12th April; I very quickly got a message back of support and an offer from them to do whatever they could to help. They dispatched a lot of experts to support us, helping us to repair, identify, diagnose and replace and then communicating with suppliers all over the world to source replacement parts,”. Kirby went on to add, “TSAM’s operations at Prospecton will actually be better and we plan to use this crisis to try and improve our equipment and upgrade where we can. In fact, we’ve created an internal slogan for our recovery called Rebuilding Better Together. This talks to how we all work together as one team to find a way of renewing and improving our site at the same time,”.   

 

Toyota’s “Rebuilding Better Together” slogan could have come at a better time as the plant, and the region was negatively affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 and the civil unrest that brought most businesses to their knees in 2021.   

 

Adding their voice to the day’s events was Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Nomusa Dube-Ncube who said, “On behalf of the government of KZN, the people of KZN, we wish to pay tribute to Toyota South Africa for the enormous strides that they took in resuscitating operations here at the plant. To all the stakeholders who participated in the clean-up operations, we would really like to thank you as the government of KZN. We know that through your hard work and agility, you were able to save people’s jobs,”.

 

TSAM’s Prospecton Plant currently produces the Corolla Cross and Quest, the Hilux, HiAce Ses’fikile and Fortuner, and assembles a variety of Hino commercial vehicles.

 

 

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