BookTitleToyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Summary

Toyota Tsusho 70-Year History

In 1994, Textiles Department 1 became the Textiles Department, and TextilesDepartment 2 became the Osaka Textiles Department. Due to the companywideorganizational change in June 1999, these departments were integrated withthe Insurance Department, the newly established Tokyo Textiles Department,Construction Department and Jewelry Department were added, and thesedepartments were reborn as the Consumer Products and Services Division.Strengthening Housing-related ProductsToyota Tsusho’s General Merchandise Department used the company’snationwide sales network for spot-heating equipment, such as heaters, to developand sell general merchandise products, such as the original office furniture brandToyosteel. In 1991, Toyota Tsusho established a special group for overseasprocurement to prepare for overseas procurement expansion, and in 1993, ToyotaTsusho developed the Sepiolite nursing care diaper, which paved the way for itsnursing care and welfare business.In 1995, the Housing Materials Group (later renamed the Living EnvironmentGroup) was established and, in collaboration with related companies, the membersof this group were trained to facilitate the development, processing, sales anddistribution, and installation of housing-related products.Blue Mountain Coffee Farm (Jamaica)Growth of Food Product ImportsIn the 1990s, Toyota Tsusho’s direct trading with convenience stores, whichwere rapidly spreading as a type of social infrastructure, as well as withsupermarkets and family restaurants increased. Seeing even further increasesin this kind of trading since the mid-1990s, Toyota Tsusho began importingEuropean vegetables?said to be the first for Japan?through Toyota Tsusho EuropeS.A.In addition to investing in overseas farm management, Toyota Tsusho investedin a grapefruit farm in Florida in 1988 and in the Blue Mountain Coffee businessin Jamaica in 1989.In 1993, Toyota Tsusho invested in Son De Feng (QingYuan) Foodstuff Co.,Ltd., in Guangdong, China, to secure a supply of Chinese agricultural productssuch as fermented bamboo shoots.Insurance Division pamphletDriving simulator7 Business Development of the Insurance DivisionInsurance Business ExpansionIn the 1990s, the Insurance Division aggressively developed its business byestablishing affiliated companies and expanding its bases. In April 1990, ToyotaTsusho established Toyotsu Family Life (currently Toyota Tsusho InsurancePartners Corp.) to sell cancer insurance. The company started an agency businessat its Tomakomai Office in June 1991 and at the Matsumoto Office in April 1994,and improved the service network. Toyota Tsusho established Toyota TsushoInsurance Management Corp. in April 1997 when Japan’s Insurance Business Actwas revised for the first time in 50 years.In the 1990s, as the Toyota Group expanded overseas, Toyota Tsusho’sInsurance Division provided full-scale insurance advice in cooperation withits overseas business section. In April 1996, Toyota Tsusho started a brokeragebusiness in partnership with Marsh & McLennan Companies in the U.S. At theHistory103