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Following a four-month hiatus, Toyota SA’s Prospecton Plant in eThekwini has come back on stream. The plant was damaged by the floods that hit KwaZulu-Natal in April, leaving in their wake damage to the tune of billions of rand.
Many areas of the 87 hectare plant were submerged and silt brought the plant’s operations to a grinding halt. More than 4 000 vehicles which were damaged had to be crushed. Manufacturing robots and machinery were also damaged and, according to the firm, accounted for most of the recovery costs.
For the past 4 months, staff at the Toyota plant have rolled up their sleeves and got to work on cleaning up. There was no electricity or water at the plant for some time, which made the task difficult.
“We communicated with Japan (Toyota Motor Corporation) on the night of 12 April. I very quickly got a message back of support and an offer from them to do whatever they could to help.
“They dispatched a lot of experts to support us, helping us to repair, identify, diagnose and replace and then communicating with suppliers all over the world to source replacement parts,” says president and chief executive of Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) Andrew Kirby.
Prior to the flooding, TSAM held a market share of about 30% but it shrunk to 17%, 18,1% and 16,3% in May, June and July, respectively. What kept the company buoyant during this period was its imported vehicles, such as the Starlet, Rumion and Urban Cruiser models, which ensured the company retained its number-one spot in local sales.
The unforeseen shutdown of the plant meant TSAM lost about 68 000 units in production targets for this year. According to Kirby, the company would be on course to achieve its targets next year but, for this year, the focus would be on breaking even.
“TSAM’s operations at Prospecton will actually be better and we plan to use this crisis to improve our equipment and upgrade where we can. In fact, we’ve created an internal slogan for our recovery - ‘rebuilding better together’. This talks to how we all work together as one team to find a way of renewing and improving our site,” says Kirby.
At the plant’s reopening ceremony, recently appointed KZN premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube praised the men and women who had aided in the clean-up and restart of the factory’s operations.
“On behalf of the government of KZN, the people of KZN, we wish to pay a tribute to Toyota South Africa for the enormous strides that they took in resuscitating operations here at the plant.
“To all the stakeholders who participated in the clean-up operations, we would really like to thank you, as the government of KZN. We know that through your hard work and agility, you were able to save people’s jobs,” said Dube-Ncube.
The resumption of production should see the company’s market share firm up in the coming months. What is important, however, is that 8 000 direct jobs were retained and TSAM did not retrench any staff during the shutdown.
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