Toyota PH enters a new era with new president Satoru Suzuki

Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) recently introduced its new president, Mr. Satoru Suzuki. He succeeds Mr. Michinobu Sugata who led the company from 2010 to 2015.

Returning from his Japanese homeland, Mr. Suzuki is no stranger to TMP. This is because he once took charge of the company’s Sales and Product Planning operations from 1997 to 1999.

After that, he flew to Singapore to join Toyota Motor Asia Pacific (TMAP) where he manned the Philippines and Thailand markets. He then went back to Japan to handle various projects such as plant expansions, new model launches, and sales before going back here in the country as TMP’s new president.

I take it as my mission to lead our Company in order to meet the growing expectations of our stakeholders. We will do this by continuously accelerating our efforts to push for ever-higher quality in our products and all aspects of operations to achieve customer smiles,” remarked Suzuki-San as he looks forward to a challenging experience aboard TMP.

And what a challenge it will be as he’ll be pushed to surpass the exemplary leadership shown by his predecessor Mr. Michinobu Sugata. In his 6 years as TMP’s president, Mr. Sugata not only maintained the company’s market status atop the industry, he also took the company to numerous record-breaking sales performances year after year.

Among the highlights of his leadership was the inclusion of TMP in the Global Toyota 100K Club. This happened in 2014 when the company reached their 100,000th annual unit sales. Then a year later, TMP reached their 1-Million sales milestone which earned them their 14th Triple Crown award. 2015 also saw TMP successfully selling over 125,000 units, thus ranking them 4th in Asia and 13th in Global Toyota in terms of market sales.

And then there’s the Toyota Vios Cup. Yes, Mr. Sugata brought that as well. Having been around for 2 seasons now, the Toyota Vios Cup features a grid full of Toyota Vios racecars piloted by celebrity racers, racing professionals, and Toyota dealership representatives. This in turn helped to bring back the country’s love for motorsports.

In his closing speech, Mr. Sugata had this to say, “It has been my great honor to lead Team Toyota Philippines, a great team of great people. Rest assured that this is not a goodbye, but a “Till we see each other again!”