Toyota brings lift truck brands closer together

In response to increasing customer demand and to the "new normal" in the economy, Toyota Industries Corp. (TICO) says it has realigned its industrial truck manufacturing and sales operations in North America.

The management and operational restructuring, which takes effect today, will forge a closer alliance between TICO's Toyota and Raymond brands, the company says. Falling under the umbrella of Toyota Material Handling North America (TMHNA) are Toyota Industrial Equipment Mfg. Inc. (TIEM), the Columbus, Ind.-based lift truck manufacturing plant; Toyota Material Handling, U.S.A., Inc. (TMHU), the sales arm for Toyota lift trucks; and The Raymond Corp., a market leader in electric warehouse trucks. TMHNA will be headquartered at Toyota's TIEM facilities in Columbus.

With the realignment, TMHNA remains part of Toyota Material Handling Group, the worldwide management organization based in Japan.

Jim Malvaso, formerly president and CEO of Raymond, becomes president and CEO of TMHNA. Kazue Sasaki becomes chairman of TMHNA and will continue as president of TIEM and Toyota Industries North America Inc. (TINA). He will also serve on the board for TMHU. Malvaso says the new structure is a natural progression of the regional approach to markets adopted in 2005 by the Toyota Material Handling Group.

"Because of the strength of the Toyota and Raymond brands, we decided to keep the management separate and try to foster cooperation. That succeeded fairly well, mostly on operations on things like procurement, implementing the Toyota production system, and quality improvements," he says.

The closer alignment between the Toyota and Raymond brands extends that approach, Malvaso says. "As the organizations evolved and with the challenges due to the 'new normal' in the economy, we decided to seek out more synergies," he says.

Malvaso says that while TMHNA remains "committed to the [two] brands and a two-channel distribution network," the new alignment will foster greater collaboration.

"A lot of the market is moving toward national accounts, and the demands are getting more intense. We think coordinating will better enable us to deal with those accounts. There may also be some synergies in operations. We will look for ways to be more effective and more efficient," he says.

Malvaso's former role at Raymond will be divided between Charles Pascarelli, who will be president of the Raymond Sales division, and Michael Field, who will be president of the Raymond Operations division.

"We decided to put Raymond on a similar profile as Toyota, which has separate sales and marketing operations," Malvaso explains. "That gives us more flexibility and organizational alternatives." Pascarelli was Raymond's executive vice president of sales and marketing, and Field was executive vice president of operations.

Brett Wood will continue to serve as president for TMHU. Ed Rompala will serve as chief financial officer for TMHNA and will remain as chief financial officer for The Raymond Corp.