Toyota SA has announced that it has completed the R365m expansion of the Atlas Parts Warehouse in Boksburg, in a vote of confidence for the South African economy.
The company’s President and CEO, Andrew Kirby said the expansion had taken two years and that the centre would be renamed the Toyota Africa Parts Centre or the TAPC.
The expanded warehouse now measures 80 000m² making it the largest of its type in the southern hemisphere. It services 277 Toyota, Lexus and Hino dealerships in SA, 36 countries in sub-saharan Africa as well as six international export markets. Kirby said the facility housed around 2 700 000 pieces of stock at any given time worth R900m, shipped 22 000 order lines to local dealers and a further 3500 order lines to the export markets. Toyota SA uses 220 local parts suppliers.
Phase one of the warehouse was formally opened in 2012 and boasted a capacity of 40 000m². The addition of phase two has doubled the size of Toyota’s parts depot, turning it into a mega-facility measuring a colossal 80 000m², which was equivalent to 11 soccer fields.
Anand Pather, Toyota’s Vice President of Customer Services said that by 2023, the company would expand it solar yield and add battery storage to support extended operational hours to enable it to go completely off the electricity grid.
Toyota is aiming to sell 131 000 cars in 2022. In terms of parts, its sales target is R7.2bn this year, and the company wants to service around 1.4-million vehicles.