BookTitleToyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Summary

Toyota Tsusho 70-Year History

was established, with Toyota Tsusho taking a 70% stake.The new company started steel scrap recycling operationsin August 2006.In December 2012, Pasona Group Inc. and ToyotaTsusho Thailand Co., Ltd., established a joint venture,Pasona HR Consulting & Recruitment (Thailand) Co.,Ltd., and in February of the following year the newcompany began offering recruiting, training, and HRconsulting services for Japanese companies moving intoThailand. In December 2013, Toyota Tsusho opened aclinic at TMC’s plant in Thailand and entered the medicalbusiness.To strengthen sales in the growing Mekong region, inAugust 2017 Toyota Tsusho established Toyota MaterialHandling (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (TMHTH), in Bangkok.This was a regional sales management company forindustrial vehicles. Through sales of the three industrialvehicle brands of the Toyota Industries Group?Toyota,BT, and Raymond, TMHTH offered optimal logisticssolutions and maintenance services.Toyota Tsusho also established TY Optics (Thailand)Co., Ltd., which produces automotive headlamp lenses,and J-Oil Mills (Thailand) Co., Ltd., whose goal is todevelop oil applications.2 Business Development in VietnamExpanding Business in the Mekong RegionWhile Thailand was the center of Toyota Tsusho’sbusiness promotion in Southeast Asia, the company wasalso looking to expand business in the economicallydeveloping Mekong region, covering parts of Cambodia,Vietnam, Lao PDR, and Myanmar. In December 2008,Toyota Tsusho established Toyota Tsusho VietnamCo., Ltd. (TTVN) in Vietnam, a country with nearly 90million people and high potential for economic growthdue to factors such as a very young population?60%of whom were under 30 years old. Toyota Tsusho alsodeveloped Toyota Lexus dealers through investmentand launched various initiatives for businesses in thenonautomotive sector.Entry into the Frozen Vegetable BusinessIn March 2012, the Toyota Tsusho Group invested30% in Dalat Japan Food Co., Ltd. (DJF), a frozenvegetable processing company in Vietnam and enteredthe frozen vegetable production business. DJF had manyyears of experience in producing frozen vegetables forthe Japanese market using vegetables cultivated in theCentral Highlands of Vietnam. So, in addition to thealready existing frozen vegetable business in Vietnam theinvestment to the already in DJF enabled Toyota Tsushoto secure a stable source of frozen vegetables for theJapanese market.Entering the Detergent Materials BusinessOne of the businesses undertaken by TTVN centeredon supplying raw materials, such as chemicals and resins.In December 1995, Soft Chemical Corp. (SCC) wasestablished by the Taiwanese company Formosan UnionChemical Corp. (FUCC), local Vietnamese companyDaso Corp., and Tomen Corp. (before its merger withToyota Tsusho) and started manufacturing and sellingsurfactant, which was a raw material used to makedetergents. The new company, SCC, not only suppliedsurfactant to meet domestic demand; it also beganexporting the product to neighboring countries, such asMalaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar.Soft Industry Corp. (Vietnam)History159