Southeast Toyota Distributors LLC

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Southeast Toyota Distributors LLC
Type	Private
Founded	1968
Headquarters	Deerfield Beach, Florida, USA
Key people	Kenneth M Czubay, President
Industry	Automotive Distribution and Part Sales
Products	Cars, Trucks, Parts, Training
Revenue	$11.1 billion (2006/JM Family)
Website	www.jmfamily.com

Southeast Toyota Distributors, LLC (SET) is the world’s largest franchised distributor of Toyota vehicles. The 172 dealers in the five states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina & South Carolina account for 20% of Toyota sales in the United States. SET is a wholly owned subsidiary of JM Family Enterprises.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Vehicle Processing 3 Parts Supply and Distribution 4 Auto Transport 5 Technician Training 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History

SET began operations in 1968 when all Toyota vehicles were manufactured in Japan and imported into the US. The NUMMI plant, a joint venture with General Motors, opened at Fremont, California in 1984 and was Toyota's first assembly plant in the US. Since then, Toyota has opened 6 more manufacturing facilities in the US and in 2008, more than 60% of Toyotas sold in the US are made in the US. Today, most of the vehicles distributed by SET are unloaded from railcars, not ships. In 2008, SET celebrated their 40th year in business.

[edit] Vehicle Processing

SET has two vehicle processing operations in Jacksonville, Florida and one in Commerce, Georgia from which they distributed a total of 415,000 vehicles in 2006, including 56,000 Lexus.^[2] The ship facility is located at the Jacksonville Port Authority (JaxPort) Talleyrand terminal and processes the vehicles that arrive by ship from Japan, which is 40% of Toyotas sold in the US. The $53 million railcar facility, which opened in 2003 at Westlake Industrial Park in northwest Jacksonville, processes the vehicles that arrive from Toyota’s North American manufacturing centers by train. The SET Inland Processing facility, located in Commerce, Georgia, prepares North American-made Toyotas and Lexus for distribution primarily to SET dealers in Northern Alabama, the Carolinas and Northern Georgia.

[edit] Parts Supply and Distribution

SET is the premier Toyota parts distributor in the United States. From a Baymeadows warehouse in Jacksonville the size of eight football fields, SET Parts Sales has the best supply record of all Toyota regions or distributors while shipping more than $2.1 million in parts each day. In 2006, total part sales were $523 million.

[edit] Auto Transport

Southeast Transportation Systems (STS) was founded in July, 2000 to eventually replace the contract haulers used by SET since the company's inception. In 2006, their fleet of 40 tractor trailers delivered more than 100,000 vehicles to SET dealers from the Jacksonville, Florida and Commerce, Georgia processing centers. A new, 22,300-square-foot operations and maintenance facility was completed in November, 2006 at the company's Westlake complex in Jacksonville. The $12 million fleet center is used to perform regular maintenance and repairs on their tractor trailers. Those jobs were previously outsourced and as their fleet expands to 80, they expect to see significant cost savings.^[3]

[edit] Technician Training

In late 2007, SET opened a 33,000-square-foot, $6.6 million training center at its vehicle processing facility in the Westlake area, replacing a smaller, aging facility at the Port of Jacksonville. It provides entry-level to advanced maintenance and repair education for Toyota cars and trucks. The center is used by employees from the 172 SET Dealerships and has the capacity to provide 83,000 hours of training each year.^[4]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Southeast Toyota Distributors website
• JMFE Official website
• SET Marketing website: www.toyotahighway.com
• SET Advertising Agency of Record: 22Squared