Could Toyota's Move to Plano Help San Antonio Plant? - PickupTrucks.com
When Toyota Motor Co. announced it was moving its national headquarters to Plano, Texas, last year, the largest cheer probably went up from real estate agents and home builders in and around the north Dallas suburb. But the second largest cheer probably erupted some 300 miles south, emanating from the roughly 6,000 employees at Toyota's San Antonio manufacturing plant where it builds the full-size Tundra and midsize Tacoma pickup trucks. This isn't the only milestone event that's impacted the giant San Antonio plant in the last couple of years. Not bad for a huge truck plant (at the time dedicated to producing only full-size pickups) that was completed less than two years before the Great Recession, when pickup sales fell off a cliff for several years. Since Texas is crucial to Toyota, we decided to tour the San Antonio plant to see what has contributed to its success. Our tour guide was Mario Lozoya, Toyota director of government relations and external affairs. A former Marine, Lozoya started at the plant in the paint department nine years ago and gradually worked his way up. The announcement of Toyota's move to Texas took Lozoya and other San Antonio executives by surprise, but they welcomed the news,... Source: news.pickuptrucks.com
