TUGAS SOFTSKILL BAHASA INGGRIS
Toyota to move jobs and marketing
headquarters from Torrance to Texas
Toyota's move to suburban Dallas would put
management of Toyota's U.S. business close to where it builds most cars for the
American market.
April 27, 2014 | By Jerry Hirsch and
David Undercoffler
Toyota Motor Corp. plans to move
large numbers of jobs from its sales and marketing headquarters in Torrance to
suburban Dallas, according to a person familiar with the automaker's plans.
The move, creating a new North
American headquarters, would put management of Toyota's U.S. business close to
where it builds most cars for this market.
North American Chief
Executive Jim Lentz is expected to brief employees Monday, said the person, who
was not authorized to speak publicly.
Toyota declined to detail its plans. About 5,300 people work at Toyota's
Torrance complex. It is unclear how many workers will be asked to move to
Texas. The move is expected to take several years.
Toyota has long been a Southern
California fixture. Its first U.S. office opened in a closed Rambler dealership
in Hollywood in 1957. The site is now a Toyota dealership. In 1958, its first
year of sales, Toyota sold just 288 vehicles — 287 Toyopet Crown sedans and one
Land Cruiser. Last year, Toyota sold more than 2.2 million vehicles in the U.S.
The U.S. branch picked Los Angeles
for its first headquarters because of proximity to the port complex — where it
imported cars — and easy airline access to Tokyo. As Toyota grew, it opened its
national sales and marketing headquarters in Torrance in 1982. The complex,
built where its parts distribution warehouse was once located, now has 2
million square feet of office space.
But today, about 75% of the Toyota
branded vehicles sold in the U.S. are built in America — many of them at plants
in Texas, Mississippi and Kentucky.
The automaker won't be the first big
company Texas has poached from California.
Occidental Petroleum Corp. said in February that it was
relocating from Los Angeles to Houston, making it one of around 60 companies
that have moved to Texas since July 2012, according to Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Perry last month visited California
to recruit companies. The group Americans for Economic Freedom also recently
launched a $300,000 advertising campaign in which Perry contends 50 California
companies have plans to expand or relocate in Texas because it offers a better
business climate.
Like these other companies, Toyota
could also save money in an environment of lower business taxes, real estate
prices and cost of living.
Frank Scotto, Torrance's mayor, said he had no warning of
Toyota's decision. He said he did know that the automaker planned a corporate
announcement for Monday.
"When any major corporation is
courted by another state, it's very difficult to combat that," Scotto
said. "We don't have the tools we need to keep major corporations
here."
The mayor said businesses bear higher costs in California
for workers' compensation and liability insurance, among other expenses.
"A company can easily see where
it would benefit by relocating someplace else," Scotto said.
Both New York and Texas have aggressively pursued major
California corporations by promising a number of financial incentives to get
them to relocate, he said.
Toyota's move to Texas comes in the
wake of its crisis with sudden-acceleration incidents. Some accidents were
linked to floor mats jamming the gas pedal, causing the car to accelerate out
of control. Those problems started Toyota on the path to reorganization.
Toyota was slow to disclose and
address the problems, but it eventually recalled millions of vehicles to fix
the floor mat issue, along with another mechanical defect that caused sticking
gas pedals. This year, Toyota paid a $1.2-billion federal fine for misleading
consumers, regulators and Congress about the safety problems.
A special panel convened by the automaker said that Toyota's
management responded slowly and ineffectually to the growing sudden-acceleration
crisis because it was hampered by a top-down management style that gave short
shrift to customer complaints.
The panel also noted that Toyota had developed an adversarial relationship with
federal safety regulators.
The automaker has worked to reorganize
its management structure to address those problems and give more autonomy to
its regional operations. Toyota named Lentz, a longtime U.S. sales executive,
chief executive of its North American operations, in charge of manufacturing,
research and development, sales and marketing.
Lentz is now overseeing the
establishment of a new North American headquarters, close to its U.S.
manufacturing hubs.
The company is well established in
the South. Its primary factories are in Kentucky, where it builds the Camry and
Avalon; Mississippi, where it builds the Corolla; and Texas, where it builds
Tundra and Tacoma pickup trucks. It also has a big engine plant in Alabama.
Toyota next year will launch assembly of its first U.S.-built Lexus, the
automaker's luxury brand, in Kentucky.
Moving the U.S. corporate
headquarters to Texas puts senior management closer to those factories.
Toyota isn't the first automaker to
leave Southern California. In late 2005, Nissan announced it was moving its
North American headquarters from Gardena to Franklin, Tenn., just outside of
Nashville. About 550 employees left for Tennessee; an additional 750 left jobs
at Nissan to stay in Southern California.
"The costs of doing business in
Southern California are much higher than the costs of doing business in
Tennessee," Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said at the time. He cited
cheaper real estate and lower business taxes as key reasons for the move.
Fritz Hitchcock, who owns several Toyota dealerships in
Southern California, said Toyota's decision won't affect local car sales. But
he said it represents an "indictment of California's business
climate."
david.undercoffler@latimes.com
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