"Casper Kruger, who has been the Hino SA vice-president for the past five years and was instrumental in rolling out the change in name from Toyota SA Trucks to Hino SA, has relinquished his position at Hino SA and returned to Toyota SA," explained the Toyota SA senior vice-president - sales and marketing, Calvyn Hamman.
"Concurrent with the name change was the establishment by Casper and his team of a dedicated Hino dealer network. Casper has returned to Toyota SA Motors as vice-president - vehicle sales and dealer development for passenger vehicles and light commercials," added Hamman.
Ernest Trautmann has taken over the position of vice-president of Hino SA from 1 April. He was previously GM - sales and dealer network of Toyota SA.
Trautmann, who joined Toyota SA in 1988 as a marketing and management consultant in the training department, has built up a very impressive and extensive track record in many aspects of the motor industry including eight years with the Toyota and Lexus distributor in the United Arab Emirates. In all, he has spent 26 years working with Toyota product, of which 18 years have been with Toyota SA.
Although Trautmann will have overall responsibility for the Hino operation in South Africa his focus will be on strategic and future planning.
Pieter Klerck, formerly senior manager for advertising of Toyota SA, is now GM - sales and dealer network of Hino SA. His new position will include parts, service and customer relations, thus making him, in effect, the operational head of Hino SA.
Klerck's links with Toyota stretches back many years. Before joining Toyota SA in 2006 he worked at two advertising agencies where he was actively involved on the Toyota account.
"We believe that splitting responsibilities at Hino in this manner will be beneficial in that it will ensure there are two people to share the load which will result in even better service for the dealers and their customers," added Hamman.
