| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Automotive Distribution and Part Sales |
| Founded | 1968 |
| Headquarters | Deerfield Beach, Florida, USA |
| Key people | Ed Sheehy, President |
| 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]
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Automotive pioneer Jim Moran had moved to Florida to "retire" in 1966 after beating terminal cancer. The retirement didn't last, and at 50, he returned to the automotive field by opening a Pontiac dealership in Homestead. He was contacted by Japanese automaker Toyota in 1967, with the intention of establishing a dealer network in the southeast U.S. states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama and North & South Carolina. Moran travelled to Japan to meet with Toyota and see their factories and products. Upon his return, he told associates that while Toyotas didn't compare to domestic autos in style and comfort, they were well built and inexpensive. He agreed to distribute Toyota vehicles from the port in Jacksonville, Florida.
Toyota was intrigued by Moran's marketing genius and ability to understand customers' needs and wants. Toyota Motor Sales uses several Jim Moran innovations. Toyotathon is the annual fall clearance sale used by all Toyota dealers. Moran showed the carmaker how to set up and run dealer advertising associations, how to sell Extended warranty, how to operate a port option facility, how to establish a captive finance company and how to sell Certified Pre-Owned cars.[2]
Southeast Toyota Distributors is one of just two private distributors of Toyota vehicles in the United States. The other is Gulf States Toyota Distributors, in Houston, Texas, founded by Thomas H. Friedkin.[3]
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.
Jim Moran died on April 24, 2007 at the age of 88 [4] on the very day it was announced that Toyota had surpassed General Motors as the number one selling automaker in the world.[5] He was actively involved with the company until his death. In 2008, SET celebrated their 40th year in business.
On July 11, 2008, JM Family Enterprises announced the promotion of one of its top executives to lead the company. Ed Sheehy, 47, was named president of Southeast Toyota Distributors and JM Lexus in Margate, Florida. He replaces Ken Czubay, 59, who was named vice president of U.S. sales and marketing by Ford Motor Company. Since 2007, Sheehy had been vice president and assistant general manager of SET. He also was a member of JM Family's executive management team, after joining SET in 1999 as vice president of marketing.
"This promotion is a testament to Ed's valuable contributions to our company and his proven leadership abilities over the past nine years," Colin Brown, CEO of JM Family Enterprises, said in a statement from the company's Deerfield Beach headquarters. As president of Southeast Toyota distributors, Sheehy will be responsible for leading one of the largest Toyota distributors in the country. As president of JM Lexus, he will lead the world's largest-volume Lexus dealership. The store sold 7,727 new Lexus vehicles in 2007.
Before joining Southeast Toyota, Sheehy was director of marketing for Nissan Motors from 1997 to 1999. From 1984 to 1997, he held several other sales and marketing posts for Nissan.
The economic recession that began in 2008 has been particularly brutal on the automotive industry. Even sales of Toyota, which usually fare better than the big three, have declined significantly. Unlike most other companies, SET is not laying off employees. In February 2009, voluntary severance packages were offered to 79 Jacksonville area associates and 31 in Commerce, Georgia. According to Bob Moore, general manager of vehicle processing:
“The automotive industry is facing its lowest levels in forty years and analysts do not predict an upturn in the foreseeable future. As a result, we are adjusting our organizational structure to align with the current market and significant decline in the number of vehicles we process.”[6]
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.[7] 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.
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.
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 (2,070 m2) operations and maintenance facility was completed in November, 2006 at the company's Westlake complex in northwest 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.[8]
In late 2007, SET opened a 33,000-square-foot (3,100 m2), $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 car and truck maintenance and repair education for Toyota dealership technicians. Classes are available for all skill levels, from entry-level to master mechanic. The center is utilized by employees from the 172 SET Dealerships and has the capacity to provide 83,000 hours of training each year.[9]