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Toyota Event For Minority Businesses Draws 1,400 To Cincinnati

11 November 1998

Toyota Event For Minority Businesses Draws 1,400 To Cincinnati, Features NAACP President

    CINCINNATI, Nov. 11 -- "I applaud Toyota's creative approach
to minority business development," said Milton Hinton, president of the
Cincinnati Branch of the NAACP upon attending Toyota's ninth annual
Opportunity Exchange trade show.
    "The company's idea of encouraging business contacts between their direct
suppliers and minority-owned businesses is a remarkably practical approach,"
he said.
    Hinton was also pleased that Toyota featured as its keynote speaker Kweisi
Mfume, president of the national NAACP.  Hinton added that Toyota's approach
exemplified the type of effort the NAACP is encouraging nationally through its
Fair Share program.
    Toyota held its first Opportunity Exchange in 1990.  The automaker's
direct  --  or Tier I  --  suppliers attend as exhibitors for the purpose of
doing more business with minority-owned companies.  Since the first
Opportunity Exchange held eight years ago, attendance has grown from 100
participants to more than 1,400 this year.  Last year's event generated nearly
$8 million worth of contracts between Toyota's suppliers and minority business
enterprises (MBEs).
    "Opportunity Exchange, coupled with the company's commitment to a five
percent purchasing target for minority business, will mean good things for
minority business, and that means good things for the U.S. economy," Hinton
said.
    Businesses such as Rush Trucking, a minority-owned company out of Wayne,
Michigan, appreciate the opportunity to make business connections with major
suppliers.
    "It's easy to talk about being committed to minority business
development," said Andra Rush, a Native American who owns Rush Trucking, "but
Toyota's common sense idea of connecting MBEs with their Tier I suppliers
speaks much louder than any corporate policy statement."
    Toyota has steadily increased its local production and procurement since
it began making automobiles in North America in 1984.  With annual capacity to
produce more than one million vehicles, the company's overall spending with
North American suppliers has grown to more than $7 billion a year.  Toyota now
buys from nearly 100 minority-owned firms.
    At last year's Opportunity Exchange, Toyota said it would increase
minority purchasing to five percent by 2002.  Furthermore, Toyota asked its
many direct suppliers to make the same commitment.
    "We have made good progress toward our target," said Teruyuki Minoura,
president and CEO of Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America, Inc., "and so
have our suppliers.  But reaching those goals starts with building
relationships, and that's why Opportunity Exchange is so important.  This
event gives us a great chance to introduce minority suppliers to Toyota's
largest suppliers, and that often leads to more business for those minority
companies."
    "Many times we are asked why this issue is so important to us," Minoura
added.  "It's simple.  First and foremost, Toyota is a company that thrives on
new ideas from our suppliers, and more diversity leads to more ideas.  And
second, our customer base is diverse, and we think our way of doing business
should reflect that."
    Toyota directly employs more than 26,000 Americans with plants in
Kentucky, California, Missouri, Indiana, West Virginia and Canada.  The
current lineup of  North American-built vehicles includes the Camry, Avalon,
Sienna, Corolla, Tacoma, Camry Solara and Tundra.