BookTitleToyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Summary

Toyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Toyota Tsusho and the Kenyan government to deepen,and the MOU was renewed for five years in 2016.3 Acquisition of CFAOTo more firmly establish the growing business in Africaand to participate in all regions of The French-speakingWest Africa, where Toyota Tsusho’s business was small,Toyota Tsusho exercised takeover bids in August 2012for France’s largest general trading company, CFAO, withits 160-year history in Africa. CFAO operated a varietyof business, including automotive sales, pharmaceuticalwholesale, and manufacture and sale of soft drinks andbeer in West Africa.CFAO had a network throughout West Africa, and withToyota Tsusho having a strong business foundation inthe southeast an ideal complementary relationship wasexpected. Another big reason for the acquisition wasthat it matched Toyota Tsusho’s corporate portfolio andbusiness strategy as well as its TRY1 strategy, whichaims to focus on businesses outside the automotivesector for expansion. Having a large number of Africanprofessional human resources was also another reason.The 234.5 billion yen investment was Toyota Tsusho’sbiggest investment to date, but there is massive growthpotential in Africa as the last frontier where a middleclasspopulation is rapidly growing, and foreigninvestment on the continent not only aims for the naturalresource sectors but also for domestic demand growth,which is drastically increasing. Such potential promptsToyota Tsusho to challenge to be the No. 1 presence onthe continent.4 Participating in TICAD VToyota Tsusho became involved in a capital alliancewith CFAO to accelerate business development in Africaand was one of the companies selected to representJapan’s relationship with African countries. As such,it participated as a panelist in a number of ways at theTokyo International Conference on African Development(TICAD V), held in Yokohama in June 2013. In thesymposium, Toyota Tsusho identified Africa as one ofits top-priority commitments as for active investment indiverse fields. It was pointed out that Toyota Tsusho’sbasic philosophy is that“the company’s mission is to usebusiness, not charitable support, to aid Africa’s economicdevelopment and improve the level of people’s dailylives, while contributing to human resource developmentfor the future.”5 Sales Headquarters by RegionCollaboration with CFAO is not only in mobilityprojects but has now expanded to include collaborationwith Carrefour S.A. and a joint venture with YamahaMotor in the manufacture and sale of motorcycles; themanufacturing, wholesaling and retailing of L’Orealproducts; consumer goods; and the wholesaling ofpharmaceuticals. All of these activities are producing awide range of results. Accordingly, the Africa region waslaunched as one of the five key operating regions otherthan Japan for the sustainable growth of the ToyotsuGroup, and businesses in local affiliates in Africa, CFAO,and Africa-related business pertaining to the ToyotaTsusho sales divisions strategically implemented underthe single long-term policy of ONE AFRICA in 2015.In December 2016, Toyota Tsusho made CFAO awholly owned subsidiary to promote more integratedactivities with a sense of urgency in Africa, which hadbecome Toyota Tsusho’s strategic focus. In addition,Toyota Tsusho launched its Africa Division, the firstsales division for the region, in April 2017 under thephilosophy of“With Africa, For Africa.”The AfricaDivision has set four priority business areas: automotive,healthcare and chemicals, consumer goods & services,and technologies & new business. In doing so, it clearlyshows its intention to carve out new businesses froma long-term perspective while maximizing synergiesbetween the four business areas and contributing to thedevelopment of local communities.In April 2017, the company set up its second beermanufacturing company jointly with Heineken, inCote d’Ivoire. And in 2018, Toyota Tsusho launchedthe production and sales of pharmaceutical products inMorocco with Sanofi S.A. as it rapidly expands its Africabusiness through CFAO.Signing the Kenya Vision 2030 memorandum of understanding150