Toyota tops '99 sales

Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. (TMP) finished in pole position as it topped sales in the overall vehicle market in 1999. Preliminary sales figures released by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines (CAMPI) for the past 12 months showed Toyota leading all other auto companies with sales of 21,613 units. This translates to a significantly improved sales share of 29 percent versus the previous year's 21 percent.

"We realy appreciate this renewed vote of trust that the Filipino motorists has given us," Vince Socco, seniior vice president for marketing at Toyota, said. Last year was the ninth year of market leadership for Toyota since it started operations in the Philippines 11 years ago. It will be recalled that Toyota had earlier lost the number one position to Mitsubishi in 1998.

Socco explained that Toyota's sales performance in 1999 was particularly encouraging in view of the seven year low in overall sales posted by the industry. "Despite the apparent continued slide in total market sales, we were able to steadily increase sales on a monthly basis, making us the only auto company -- excluding new CKD entrant Ford -- to post a growth versus year-ago levels," he said. Toyota's volume turnover last year represents a 27 percent growth from 1998. "This validates our belief that we should continue to abide by our commitment to offer number one quality vehicles and services at the most reasonable prices, even in the worst of adversities.

Reeling from the tail effects of the Asian crisis, the auto industry reported a seven percent decline in overall sales when comparing to 1998. It is the lowest sales level since 1993 and is significantly short of CAMPI's 80,000 initial market estimate made at the start of 1999. The still cautious stance taken by banks towards extending auto credit and the lingering effects of the currency crisis continued to weigh heavily against the industry. The bright light in last year's otherwise dismal performance was the introduction of new models that almost always perks up market demand.

"The new Toyota Revo was our white knight in 1999," Socco reported. Since its introduction in November, 1998, the Revo has sustained its popularity, capturing over 50 percent of the Asian Utility Vehicle market. In May of last year, Toyota augmented its Revo line with its now best-selling Sports Runner or SR variant and, in September, with the diesel engine version of its GLX variant.

Together with its new Revo, Toyota set out to further strengthen its overall market position with the introduction of its new Corolla Altis line in October. Socco said that "with the new Corolla, we were able to revitalize interest in our car lines, giving our competitors real good fight. After all, the Corolla is the world's number one selling car with over 20 million units sold worldwide."

Meanwhile, Toyota expressed bullishness on the prospects for the year 2000. "We are hoping that the recovery in vehicle sales will finally take root this year," Socco said. Although it had originally projected a recovery in sales during the last quarter of 1999, auto industry sales remained flat.