Joint winners take crown
Two companies have shared top honours at Toyota and Lexus’ business excellence awards.
Bowater Toyota and South Canterbury Toyota have shared the supreme award for 2020 for all aspects of store operations and market leadership.
They saw off competition from 62 other stores from Whangarei to Invercargill with the judges saying there was “an exceptionally high standard of candidates”.
Steve Prangnell, Toyota NZ’s general manager, says the awards celebrate the vital contribution stores have to ongoing trust in the brand – something that was needed more than ever during the past year.
“To say the business environment over the past 12 months has been challenging would be an understatement,” he says.
“With lockdowns, economic downturn and struggling communities, 2020 has presented stores with operating conditions they’ve never seen before.
“Despite this, success of the store network have been nothing short of amazing due to a combination of focus and effort – two things they can control and that have delivered exceptional results across the board.
“Sales of new vehicles grew in the latter months of 2020, Toyota continues to lead the market with an 18.1 per cent share of all new passenger and commercial registrations, and our market share has improved by 2.4 per cent – all of which are great results despite the challenges presented.”
Bowater Toyota and South Canterbury Toyota have taken out various titles in previous years. Bowater Toyota has been store of the year times – in 2014, 2015 and 2016 – while South Canterbury Toyota landed the stop award in 2019.
The chief executives of both branches have long histories of service and loyalty to the marque.
Tony Bowater, of Bowater Toyota, is a third-generation branch owner, while South Canterbury Toyota’s Craig McDermid has been in the industry for more than 32 years.
Bowater Toyota has Toyota stores in Nelson, Richmond and Motueka. South Canterbury Toyota operates four –Blenheim, Rangiora, Kaiapoi and Ashburton.
It was also a successful night for Manukau Toyota, which scooped two titles – excellence in leadership for displaying exemplary leadership in the advancement of the stores’ people and the franchise, plus the president’s trophy for outstanding customer service.
Other winners at the award ceremony in Auckland on March 12 included TRC Toyota Feilding for store of the year.
Auckland City Toyota took out the Toyota Financial Services Excellence Cup, while Valley Toyota won the used-vehicle excellence cup.
South Canterbury Toyota lifted the parts and accessories excellence cup, and Tasman Toyota landed the service excellence cup.
“Having clear awards criteria gives stores targets to aim for,” adds Prangnell. “Every year the competition seems to be more intense as our stores aim for continuous improvement.”
