At Toyota Nigeria Limited (TNL), risk management is part of our culture, Managing Director, Kunle Ade-Ojo has said.
In a chat with Senior Motoring Editors in Lagos, Ade-Ojo explained that TNL always observe the market situation in Nigeria to determine how to react.
According to Ade-Ojo, TNL is still very healthy financially despite drop in sales and turnover.
He maintained that TNL is still number one in Nigeria, adding that the initial challenge with stock has been rectified.
He said: “Toyota is still in top position in Nigeria. As I said earlier, we had issue with stock some time ago and it affected us. That has been resolved. We’re still in top position and we’re going to remain top at the end of the year (2018)’’.
“Explaining further, Ade Ojo said the company work directly with manufacturers: “Since we work with manufacturers, there is what we call cycle lead time and cycle of ordering, production and arrival.
“In 2017, we had challenges with finance. Our business partners, the manufacturers were also very risk averse. So, there was limitation on what we could order. By the end of 2017, we had ordered vehicles that were going to be arriving by April/May this year. So, that affected our stock because lead time for ordering was stretched last year.
“Normally, it used to be between five and seven months from order to arrival. Last year, even till date, it’s between six and eight months. “So, I am ordering now and vehicles are going to be arriving in eight months. I have a short time to react if the market suddenly changes. That was one of the things that impacted us and we could only recover in the second half of the year”.
–Photo Caption: Managing Director, Toyota Nigeria Limited, Kunle Ade-Ojo (Right) and City BusinessNews Editor, Moses Ebosele after an interactive session in Lagos.
