Toyota to quit Sydney

Toyota Australia has announced it will axe its Sydney-based sales and marketing office when it stops manufacturing and becomes a national sales and distribution company in 2017.

All of the company's corporate functions will be consolidated at Toyota Australia's head office in Port Melbourne, resulting in "a significant reduction in corporate support roles".

Toyota also announced today that its four parts centres located around Australia "will undergo major reform to improve global competitiveness", but added that "most of the Altona manufacturing site will be retained for new and relocated functions".

As a result, Toyota Australia expects to shed about 2600 staff nationally, reducing its workforce from 3900 to around 1300.

"This includes the loss of manufacturing and corporate jobs and the creation of some new roles," it said in a statement issued after executives addressed workers this afternoon.

Toyota Australia’s Port Melbourne HQ currently employs around 325 staff while its Caringbah branch in Sydney has about 310.

Toyota Australia President Dave Buttner said Sydney workers will be encouraged to move to Melbourne when the changes take place in three years.

“This year has been extremely tough for everyone at Toyota Australia,” he said.

“We understand that it is a difficult time for many of our employees and we are committed to supporting them during the transition period.

“These changes will provide us with the best opportunity to have a strong and sustainable base for the next 50 years and beyond.

“The decision to consolidate our corporate operations to Melbourne supports our long-term vision and will assist us in improving business efficiency, increase collaboration and reduce operating costs.

“The intention is that the relocation will be aligned to the end of manufacturing and we will encourage our Sydney-based employees to move to Melbourne.”

Along with its long-awaited post-manufacturing strategy, Toyota Australia today announced the establishment of a 'Centre of Excellence' at its Camry plant in Altona, which will include "a world-class training facility and other commercial initiatives that will enhance the company’s business and the community".

The company’s product planning and national service functions will be moved there from Port Melbourne, while staff at regional Toyota's offices in Sydney, Victoria and Tasmania will also be either relocated or made redundant.

“Our goal is to make these changes as seamless as possible so that there is minimal disruption to our people, our business and our stakeholders,” said Buttner.

“There will be a thorough transition process for interstate relocation and we do not expect any disruptions to our regional offices or product functions that are relocating locally.

While Toyota will axe about 2500 blue- and white-collar jobs in NSW and Victoria at the end of 2017, Holden will sack about 1700 factory workers in Adelaide around the same time but is yet to reveal how many Melbourne-based executives will lose their jobs from a total workforce of about 3400.

Ford Australia will close its factory doors a year early by October 2016, but its Victorian-based workforce already stands at less than 2500, of which only about 850 factory workers remain, alongside around 450 head office staff and more than 1000 designers and engineers.

That number will ramp up to 1200 as Ford undertakes more global development projects next year, while Holden will retain less than 150 designers to work on global models. Toyota's engineering staff will number less than half that, with the Melbourne-based Toyota Technical Centre due to reduce the size of its 160-strong workforce from early next year.

Ford this week released its final two locally produced models in the FG X Falcon and SZII Territory, while Toyota remains committed to releasing its two – the facelifted Camry and Aurion – in early 2015 and Holden is expected to release a final MY16 Commodore by this time next year.

While Holden has said up to a third of its future model range will come from Germany via Opel, with the rest to come from Korea, Thailand or the US, Toyota is expected to source the next Camry from Thailand. Ford will release four new imported models next year from Thailand, Europe and the US.

Toyota started building cars in Australia in 1963 at Port Melbourne, where the Camry entered production in 1987. Since then Camry sales have surpassed 850,000.