In Northern America, which also includes Mexico, Toyota Motor Corp is the No. 3 auto manufacturing company. Last year, it has a significant 14.4% U.S. market share and is expecting to sell a whopping 2.2 million vehicles this year in North America and Mexico. In South America, the company is witnessing somewhat similar conditions. In Brazil, which is the 4th largest market in the world, Toyota Moto Corp ranks only a No.8, lagging behind other renowned names such as Fiat and Peugeot Citroen. The company enjoys only a mere 5.2% market share across 40 fastest growing regions in the world.
In 2012, the company sold only a handful of 321,000 vehicles throughout Latin America. However, the booming market in Latin America is expected to hold significant growth opportunities for Toyota, anticipates the experts. It is expected that in 2013, the regional sales of the company can soar to a 22% selling approximately 391,000 vehicles, said St. Angelo. The CEO aims at joining hands with the top tier brands in Latin America and Caribbean by the end of this decade. However, at the same time, he expects to boost the sales revenues without that uncontrolled overreach that the company witnessed before the financial crisis hit the market globally.
As a part of the dramatic management change facilitated by Toyota President Akio Toyoda, Lentz and St. Angelo took charge of their responsibilities on April 1, 2013. The President had the focus to tap the talent pool of Toyota in the United States, giving greater responsibilities to the executives on the global platform. With this aim, both Lentz and St. Angelo were chosen as the CEO of Toyota in North America and South America respectively, the former being on the sales side and latter on the production side in the company for years. Similarly, the market conditions that they are now witnessing couldn’t be more different.
