LOCAL NEWS

The Sultan of Selangor signing a plaque commemorating the opening of the new building.

The new head office complex of UMW Toyota Motor (UMWT), situated in Shah Alam, was officially declared open today by the Sultan of Selangor, HRH Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah AlHaj ibni Almarhum Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah AlHaj. Located nearby to the ASSB plant which assembles Toyota vehicles, the new 5-storey complex cost RM50 million to build and has a 24,414 square metre land area.

Rapid growth in the company’s business had required a number of its operating divisions to be housed away from its previous head office in Petaling Jaya and now they are all re-united at the new complex. Besides corporate offices, it also has training rooms, a bistro, cafeteria, prayer room, and resource centre and currently accommodates over 500 employees.

The opening ceremony was attended by top executives and representatives from UMW Toyota Motor’s business partners as well as senior executives from Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) led by Akio Toyoda, the company’s Senior Managing Director and Dato’ Akira Okabe, its Managing Officer who was a former Executive Coordinator at UMWT, which is a joint-venture between the UMW Group and TMC. Also present were the previous representatives from TMC who had served as Deputy Chairman in the company from the time it was established (originally as Sejati Motor in 1982), namely S. Nishimoto, Y. Kido, N. Takahashi and M. Sugiyama.

To commemorate the milestone event, UMWT donated two units of the Toyota Avanza to charities in Selangor, namely the Yayasan Raja Muda Selangor and the Pertubuhan Rumah Amal Cahaya Tengku Ampuan Rahimah.

Later in the day, the first public event to be held at the new complex was a special exclusive preview of the new Toyota Innova by selected members of the public. The preview was part of the run-up to the official launch of the new model this Friday.

The former building in Petaling Jaya which served as the head office of two Toyota distributors over 26 years.

Meanwhile, the old head office in Petaling Jaya will continue to serve as a branch showroom. The building, which was opened in 1979 by Borneo Motors, the Toyota distributor then, was the second purpose-built car showroom in Selangor, the first being the Federal Auto (Volvo) showroom in Jalan Kelang, Kuala Lumpur, which was opened in 1972 (and remains till today). Of course, there were other ‘dedicated’ car showrooms in KL too, such as the Wearne Brothers block in Jalan Pudu and the Inchcape block along Jalan Ampang. However, these were converted from existing shoplots whereas the Toyota and Volvo showrooms were brand new stand-alone buildings.

In 1989, the UMWT head office underwent a major renovation to incorporate new corporate identity elements and in the process, set new standards for car showrooms in Malaysia as well as being a benchmark Toyota showroom in the Asian region. The renovated building, with a display area that looked more like the lobby of a 5-star hotel, was opened by the present Sultan of Selangor who was the Raja Muda at that time.