By Otsile Kadiege

Toyota South Africa recently announced that phase two expansion to the automaker’s local Atlas Parts Warehouse in Boksburg have now been completed. The expanded warehouse measures 80,000m² – making the largest of its type in the Southern Hemisphere. It houses around 2,700,000 pieces of stock at any given time and ships roughly 22,000 order lines to local dealers and a further 3,500 order lines to the export market. The consolidated facility services to 277 Toyota, Lexus and Hino dealerships in SA (BLNE countries), 36 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as a further 6 international export markets.

Phase 1 of the warehouse was formally opened in 2012 and became a state-of-the-art distribution centre, boasting a capacity of 40,000m². “I’m happy to report that the R365-million expansion of the Atlas Parts Warehouse, that kicked off two years ago, is now complete!,” says Andrew Kirby, President and CEO of Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM), formally opening Phase 2 of the company’s parts distribution centre in Boksburg. “It also gives me great pleasure to announce that this facility will from now on be known as the Toyota Africa Parts Centre or the TAPC.” The addition of Phase 2 has doubled the size of Toyota’s parts depot, turning it into a mega-facility measuring a colossal 80,000m² – which is equivalent to 11 soccer fields. The expansion should make Toyota operate more efficiently and streamline their processes and operations.

“Towards 2023 we’re not only expanding our solar yield, but also adding battery storage to support extended operational hours to enable us to go completely off the grid. In addition to this we will be trialling NEV transport for our dealer network distribution,” says Anand Pather, TSAM’s Vice President of Customer Services.

TSAM’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Leon Theron adds that TAPC plays a huge role in supporting Toyota’s ambitious sales target in the local market. “Our vehicle sales target for this year is 131 000, and that has a direct impact on this operation (parts supply and distribution). If you look at parts, our sales target is R7.2 billion this year, and we are hoping to service about 1.4 million vehicles this year… Parts play a key role when dealers and customers evaluate us – hence we strive to score excellent scores in DSI as well as in CCE .”