A quarter of the market

2007 was a good year for Toyota in Australia.

With a VFACTS tally of over one million vehicles sold in Australia for 2007 -- a new record -- Toyota scored the highest sales total for passenger and commercial vehicles in Australia, fielded five cars in the top eight sellers, achieved the position of number one car company in every state of Australia, was the sole company to sell more than 200,000 vehicles for the year, enjoyed 50 per cent growth in sales measured over the past five years and 87 per cent growth over the past ten.

On top of that -- and 95,000 vehicles exported -- Toyota also retained the top selling commercial vehicle crown for another year, the 29th since 1979. 

And you know what? Toyota -- not content with selling 236,647 vehicles into the Australian market and acquiring 22.5 per cent share of the total market -- is aiming to better 250,000 next year and possibly break the 25 per cent market share barrier. That assumes firstly that the market will hold steady around the one million units mark and secondly, that Toyota can sell another 14,000 vehicles over the course of 2008.

Even more astonishing, Toyota intends to do it without any major new model announcements during the year. The company launched seven new models into the market in 2007 and whilst the Kluger's sales picked up by a massive amount following the launch of the new model, in the main it was a case of swings and roundabouts for Toyota.

With the introduction of a new model, there's a progressive erosion of sales for the superseded model leading up to the launch, presuming the company pegs back its inventory to clear stocks of the earlier model and buyers hang back until the launch of the new model.

The LandCruiser 200 Series is a typical example of this type of situation, where Toyota ran down stocks of the 100 Series and the buyers started placing orders for the 200 Series when the earlier model was still available. Toyota effectively kissed goodbye to possibly several hundred unit sales ahead of the introduction of the 200 Series.

Of course many of those would have been recouped with the introduction of the new vehicle, or side-tracked into the Prado as an alternative, but how many potential buyers were lost to Nissan's Patrol during this transitional period?

According to Dave Buttner, Senior Executive Director for Sales and Marketing at Toyota Australia: "At the launch of the new LandCruiser, we effectively lost a month and a half to two months' sales, because we blacked out the product -- the product ran down -- and we had to ramp up the new product."

Buttner pointed out that during 2004, when Toyota introduced virtually no new product, the company still enjoyed record sales.

So the balancing act appears to be one of keeping the product range "fresh" -- but also allowing the sales express to continue at full steam, without stopping at all stations.

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