Toyota Kenya's flagship showroom opposite Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi. The auto dealer will next week open a new showroom to drive sales of its trucks and buses. Photo/FILE
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The 100,000-square feet facility will offer sales, service and spare parts for its range of commercial vehicles under the Hino brand launched into the Kenyan market in February.
The showroom is located at the Tsusho Business Park at Bellevue, off Mombasa Road.
Toyota Kenya will next week open a new showroom in Nairobi to drive sales of its trucks and buses as it takes on rival General Motors East Africa that dominates the commercial vehicle segment head-on.
The 100,000-square feet facility will offer sales, service and spare parts for its range of commercial vehicles under the Hino brand launched into the Kenyan market in February.
Toyota is banking on the carmall to win a bigger share of Kenya’s new vehicle market where pick-ups, trucks and buses make up more than half of total unit sales.
“The new showroom is in line with firm’s aggressive expansion plan,” Toyota Kenya said in a statement to Business Daily.
“We want to provide focused service to the commercial division (trucks and buses) in sales and service through bigger service bays and spare parts warehouse.”
Toyota joins CMC, General Motors, Simba Colt and DT Dobie who had positioned themselves to reap from increased demand for commercial vehicles from sectors such public transport, haulage, construction, retail and agriculture.
Toyota Kenya last month hired Sachio Yotsukura as its new chief executive to drive the firm’s diversification plan with a focus on the heavy commercial vehicle segment.
The showroom is located at the Tsusho Business Park at Bellevue, off Mombasa Road, about six kilometres from GM’s assembly plant and showroom. Toyota declined to disclose the amount invested in the new facility, only saying it was ‘substantial.’
Its flagship showroom situated opposite Nyayo Stadium caters for saloon cars, pick-ups and sport utility vehicle models Land Cruiser and RAV4.
Toyota has six other branches in Nairobi’s Westlands and Kirinyaga Road, Mombasa, Eldoret, Kisumu and Lodwar.
The move to bolster its commercial vehicle wing will help reduce reliance on saloon sales and comes after General Motors opened a seven percentage point lead over Toyota in the first quarter of this year, the biggest margin since 2010.
Data from the Kenya Motor Industry Association show that GM sold 734 units in the three months to March, giving it a 26 per cent market share compared to 19 per cent by Toyota which sold 525 units.
GM has steadily been gaining market share following a government plan to phase out 14-seater matatus which resulted in strong demand for its Isuzu buses in the public transport sector.
This prompted Toyota to begin production of its 51-seater buses and 10-tonne trucks at the Mombasa-based Associated Vehicle Assemblers plant as a strategy to cut the dominance of GM’s Isuzu brand in the market.
