Toyota posts $33 million loss

Toyota Australia announced last week an after-tax loss of $32.6 million dollars for the year ended March 31. It's the third financial year in a row that Toyota Australia has posted a loss. For the 2010/11 financial year, the loss was $13.2 million, a considerable improvement on the figure of $107.9 million for the previous financial year.

Despite remaining the country's largest supplier of new cars — by a substantial margin — Toyota endured rapidly shrinking sales last year, due to the impact of the Japanese tsunami in March and the Thai floods in October. The natural disasters even constricted sales and exports of the locally-manufactured Camry and Aurion models for much of 2011. According to the company's press release, Toyota Australia's sales revenue fell by $1 billion during the period.

"It has been a very tough time for Toyota globally during the past year," said Toyota Australia President and CEO Max Yasuda.

"The natural disasters had an unprecedented effect on the company in terms of production volume and reduced sales."

The Thai disaster slowed supply of the HiLux light commercial vehicle range, which is sourced for the Australian market from Toyota's plant in Thailand. HiLux is consistently Toyota's best-selling vehicle in Australia.

"While we cannot control external factors like natural disasters or the strong Australian dollar, there are things we can do to make Toyota Australia leaner and stronger to create sustainable and profitable business operations," Mr Yasuda was quoted as saying in a press release.

"We have had to make immediate change during recent months and adjust our manufacturing workforce. This was an extremely difficult decision to make but was absolutely critical if we want to strengthen our foundation and grow in the future. We also announced a company-wide review of all of our operations aimed at transforming Toyota Australia."

For the 2009/10 financial year the company placed the blame squarely on a one-off tax adjustment. The rise of the Australian dollar in response to the Global Financial Crisis has also played its part in Toyota's misfortune during the past three years.

According to the press material, the cost of laying off staff earlier this year contributed to the company's loss. The company is aiming to turn a profit in the 2012/13 financial year and a combination of structural changes and new models will improve the chances of that happening.

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