NAIROBI, Kenya, March 15 – Toyota Kenya has rebranded to Cooperation for Africa and Overseas (CFAO) Motors Limited Kenya in a move aimed at enhancing multi-brand distribution of cars, motorbikes, and equipment.
CFAO, whose parent company is Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC), will be the exclusive dealer of Toyota vehicles, its genuine parts in Kenya as well as exclusively offering Toyota manufacturer’s warranty
In addition, it will be the distributor of Suzuki vehicles, Yamaha motorbikes, and Hino trucks.
Arvinder Reel, CFAO Motors Kenya Ltd Managing Director, during a media briefing held on Tuesday, said that the firm will, however, retain its Toyota brand which will be a trading name.
“Our core business is Toyota, we are the exclusive distributor, by retaining the Toyota business means that we shall then deal with TTC and we will be the exclusive distributor of Toyota vehicles, nothing changes as far as our offerings are concerned, its purely a rebranding and we will have four brands under our wings,” he said.
“The rebrand and name change by Toyota Kenya Limited was approved through a special resolution by shareholders and authorization by the Board of Directors. Overall, this change allows us to enhance our value chain in the automotive sector over and above the Toyota brand, which remains the core of our business,’ he added.
Reel noted that the decision to rebrand was informed by the need to create a mobility solution provider through the multi-brand distribution of cars, motorbikes, and equipment with non-specific names.
“When we took in other brands under Toyota, it was difficult to communicate (Suzuki- by Toyota), there was a miscommunication when we dealt with other brands, it is better with non-specific brands,” he said.
Under the business, Kenyans can be able to trade in their used vehicles with a new vehicle in order to boost new vehicle sales.
The rebranding, he added, will also enhance its value chain through used cars and trade-in business under the ‘Automark’ brand.
“There is no distributor offering complete value chain, we will offer trade-in for our customers, we are training our staff on how to do valuation and assess used car vehicles,” he said.
He said that CFAO also seeks to seize the opportunity to get the integrated Africa network where it operates.
CFAO which started operations in Africa in 1852 has a turnover revenue of 5.8 billion Euros and specializes in healthcare, mobility, infrastructure, and consumer goods in 39 countries on the African continent.
In 2016, TTC which is based in Paris, France acquired CFAO along with all its subsidiaries and networks across Africa.
TTC went further to form an African Division with all operations in Africa reporting to CFAO Paris.
