President's Message
Toyota Australia's sustainability reporting focuses on the challenges that affect our business performance and matter most to our key stakeholders. Reporting in an honest and open way helps build trust, motivate staff, and supports our economic, environmental and social performance.
Looking back on the past year, I am reminded of the highs and lows Toyota Australia faced, and what stands out is how we leveraged these experiences to continue our journey to become a company that exceeds customer expectations with quality vehicles at affordable prices.
I want to share with you the company's progress and some of the initiatives that are bringing benefits to our company, stakeholders, the environment and to the community.
The March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake had a major effect on Toyota Motor Corporation's global operations, including Toyota Australia. Its impact was unprecedented and it placed significant pressure on our people, suppliers, dealers and customers. Since March, Toyota Australia has worked closely with its stakeholders to manage parts supply shortages, vehicle production adjustments, reduced vehicle imports and sales and customer concerns. With vehicle production back to pre-earthquake levels, I want thank all those involved for the effort and perseverance undertaken to get our company back on track earlier than expected.
During the past year Toyota Australia rallied to support Dealers affected by floods and Cyclone Yasi and to rebuild customer trust following global and domestic vehicle safety recalls. Our local manufacturing operations experienced increasing costs, including rising raw materials prices, while the strong Australian dollar gave rival imported vehicles a significant price advantage and impacted Toyota Australia's export performance.
Despite these strong headwinds, the Australian automotive industry began to regain its footing after a challenging three years, overshadowed by the global financial crisis. Improved economic conditions and market demand compared to previous years saw Toyota Australia produce 113,332 Camry, Camry Hybrid and V6 Aurion vehicles during the year to 31 March, representing a 23 per cent increase from 2009. Vehicle sales and exports also improved during the year, making us Australia's number one car company for the eighth year in a row. During the year we also celebrated the production of the 1.5 millionth Camry and the 500,000th vehicle export to Saudi Arabia.
One of the year's major highlights was the approval in September 2010 by Toyota Motor Corporation for Toyota Australia to build the next generation four cylinder AR engine. Works are already underway to design and develop a Global Engine Line in the existing engine plant, representing a shift to leading edge and environmentally sustainable engine manufacturing equipment. The project will inject approximately $300 million of project expenditure into the Australian economy and from late 2012 more than 100,000 engines will be produced each year for Camry and Camry Hybrid sedans.
Toyota Australia has a long standing commitment to improving our environmental footprint across all our operations. This continues today with many environmental improvement initiatives underway including the installation of a trigeneration plant at the company's headquarters to reduce CO2 and the implementation of our award winning Toyota Environmental Management System at all sites. We also launched the Toyota Environmental Dealership program to help Toyota dealerships embed environmental thinking and sustainable business practices into their daily operations.
Toyota Australia recently commenced development of the Toyota Community Foundation, to enhance our community contribution across areas including local government, community groups, disaster relief contributions and social development in the areas of environment, road traffic safety and education. Employees will be involved in shaping the direction of the Foundation and I look forward to updating you on its progress.
Our sustainability efforts are the result of the dedication and commitment of our people. I thank all our employees, dealers and suppliers for their work during the past year and the contribution they make towards sustainability on behalf of Toyota Australia.
Our vision is a long term one, where we continue to work with all stakeholders to improve the way Toyota Australia operates and contributes to society by creating more efficient, more environmentally-advanced products.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, management and employees of Toyota Australia, I invite you to view our full report online and welcome your feedback on our ongoing sustainability journey.
Max Yasuda
President & CEO
Toyota Australia