A celebration has been held in Johannesburg to mark the 40th anniversary of Toyota Material Handling operations in South Africa.

South Africa’s first Toyota forklift franchise was founded in 1984 by Saffron Industrial Equipment (SIE) which was supported by Japan’s Masahiko Nakagawa, then general manager of Toyota Tsusho Corporation’s forklift division, who attended the 40th anniversary celebrations. 

In 1999, Toyota Tsusho Africa was established as a subsidiary of Toyota Tsusho Corporation with offices in Durban and Johannesburg and in 2001 Toyota Tsusho Corporation acquired Toyota distributors in five African countries: Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, followed by another in Uganda and a joint venture in Mauritius. 

In 2022, Toyota Material Handling (South Africa) was acquired by CFAO and its network extends to the Seychelles, Mozambique, Tanzania and Madagascar.

Toyota Material Handling (South Africa) over the decades has introduced successive generations of the Toyota forklift from the 4-Series, followed by the 5-Series in 1987, the 6-Series in 1992, the Series-7 (distinctly named to differentiate it from BMW’s 7-Series), and most recently, the 8-Series in 2007.

“From humble beginnings, when our founders took a leap of faith by forging relationships with Toyota in Japan, we set out to transform a small operation into a globally respected distributor,” CFAO Equipment MD Richard Cox told those attending the 40th anniversary celebration.

“Today, we celebrate four decades of growth, innovation and delivering value to our customers, employees and stakeholders.

“From modest beginnings, we’ve grown to employ over 1,100 people and built a strong footprint across South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, with 12 dealers and 15 branches.”