Toyota aligns lift truck brands
In response to increasing customer demand and to the “new
normal” in the economy, Toyota Industries Corp. (TICO)
says it has realigned its industrial truck manufacturing and
sales operations in North America.
The management and operational restructuring, which
took effect April 1, will forge a closer alliance between
TICO’s Toyota and Raymond brands, the company says.
Falling under the umbrella of Toyota Material Handling
North America (TMHNA) are Toyota Industrial
Equipment Mfg. Inc. (TIEM), the Columbus, Ind.-based
lift truck manufacturing plant; Toyota Material Handling,
U.S.A., Inc. (TMHU), the sales arm for Toyota lift trucks;
and The Raymond Corp., a market leader in electric warehouse trucks. TMHNA will be headquartered at Toyota’s
TIEM facilities in Columbus.
With the realignment, TMHNA remains part of Toyota
Material Handling Group, the worldwide management
organization based in Japan.
Jim Malvaso, formerly president and CEO of Raymond,
becomes president and CEO of TMHNA. Kazue Sasaki
becomes chairman of TMHNA and will continue as president of TIEM and Toyota Industries North America Inc.
(TINA). He will also serve on the board for TMHU.
Malvaso says the new structure is a natural progression of
the regional approach to markets adopted in 2005 by the
Toyota Material Handling Group.
“Because of the strength of the Toyota and Raymond
brands, we decided to keep the management separate and
try to foster cooperation. That succeeded fairly well, mostly
in operations on things like procurement, implementing
the Toyota production system, and quality improvements,”
he says.
The closer alignment between the Toyota and Raymond
brands extends that approach, Malvaso says. “As the organ-
accolades
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45%
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SOURCE: YRC WORLDWIDE
izations evolved and with the challenges due to the ‘new
normal’ in the economy, we decided to seek out more synergies,” he says.
Malvaso says that while TMHNA remains “committed to
the [two] brands and a two-channel distribution network,”
the new alignment will foster greater collaboration.
“A lot of the market is moving toward national accounts,
and the demands are getting more intense. We think coordinating will better enable us to deal with those accounts.
There may also be some synergies in operations. We will look
for ways to be more effective and more efficient,” he says.
Malvaso’s former role at Raymond will be divided
between Charles Pascarelli, who will be president of the
Raymond Sales division, and Michael Field, who will be
president of the Raymond Operations division.
“We decided to put Raymond on a similar profile as
Toyota, which has separate sales and marketing operations,”
Malvaso explains. “That gives us more flexibility and organizational alternatives.” Pascarelli was Raymond’s executive
vice president of sales and marketing, and Field was executive vice president of operations.
Brett Wood will continue to serve as president for
TMHU. Ed Rompala will serve as chief financial officer for
TMHNA and will remain as chief financial officer for The
Raymond Corp. ;
—Peter Bradley
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