Monument Toyota Constantia took home the coveted Toyota Dealer of the Year Award at a gala function held at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, Gauteng recently. The award was received by Dealer Principal Julian Visagie. It is the third Dealer of the Year trophy that Monument Toyota Constantia can mount in their already full cabinet, where it will take the pride of place amongst several other awards received during the night and previously during the regional dealer awards.
Speaking on this award Dr Johan van Zyl, President and CEO of Toyota SA Motors commended the Constantia-team for their hard work. “Monument Toyota Constantia’s performance is proof that strong leadership and the right people make all the difference. While the dealer principal is intimately involved with all areas of the business he allows his management team to lead their own departments, resulting in a very innovative and highly motivated team.”
The strength of the Monument Toyota Constantia team is evident in the number of other awards received during this glamorous evening. Julian was called to stage during the evening to receive the Vice President’s Award for Vehicle Marketing and Customer Service, while team members Jonathan Stephenson and Gustav Pelser received the Vice President’s Awards for the best New Vehicle Sales Manager and Service Manager respectively.
Gustav was also called to stage to receive the Vice President’s Award for the best Service Manager at a Monitor Dealer. Monitor Dealers are specially equipped to monitor and report on technical issues as part of Toyota’s constant aim for product improvement.
The Dealer of the Year Award was preceded by a number of President, Vice President and Chairman Awards. The evening started with a special Dakar Recognition Award handed to members of the Imperial Toyota South Africa team. With Dr van Zyl, Glyn Hall (Team Manager) and racing team Giniel de Villiers, Duncan Vos and Rob Howie on stage the team was thanked for what Dr van Zyl described as a “fairytale ending” to the team’s first foray in the Dakar, with three locally built Hilux vehicles in the top 10 of one of the world’s most gruelling off-road races.
Preceding the President’s and Vice President’s Awards a special Chairman’s Achievement Award was handed to George Baikie of the Halfway Group. Starting as an apprentice in 1968, George worked himself up in the Toyota network and now stands at the head of 9 Toyota and Lexus dealerships.
“George is well known for his never failing energy and drive and we salute his hard work and commitment to the Toyota brand,” says Dr van Zyl. Dr van Zyl also handed a special Chairman’s Award to Ryan Seele, who has worked tirelessly for two years as the National Dealer Advisory Council Chairman.
Receiving President’s Awards for exceptional performance in the Mega, Large, Medium and Small Dealer categories were Julian Visagie (Monument Toyota Constatia) Glenda Austin (McCarthy Toyota Durban North), Fanie Erasmus Snr (Lydenburg Toyota) and Riël Gresse (Upington Toyota) respectively.
President’s Awards were also handed to the best performing Group Managing Director (MD) (Andrew Miller – Imperial Toyota Group), best performing MD (Alfie Rieckhoff – Thekwini Toyota Group) and to the dealer with the most outstanding customer experience (Henk Louwrens – Riversdal Toyota).
The President’s Awards were followed by a special Toyota Financial Services CEO Award to Durban South Toyota and Dealer Principal Raj Rampathy. Raj and his team achieved an exceptional new and Automark vehicle market share for Toyota Financial Services and achieved an above average new customer service rating.
Speaking on the award Johan Brink, CEO of Toyota Financial Services, commended Raj and his team: “Toyota Financial Services is an integral part of the Toyota Group and we pride ourselves on our industry leading rating for customer service and fast turn-around times. Raj and his team have outperformed even our highest expectations and for that we congratulate them!”
Moving to the Vice President’s Awards McCarthy Toyota Pinetown was rewarded in the Automark category. Marc Darne, the Dealer Principal, and Viresh Rambaly joined the executive team of Toyota SA Motors on stage to receive this award. In keeping with Toyota’s spirit of putting the customer first and its ingrained belief in caring for the environment, several Vice President’s Awards were handed to dealers in the Environmental and Customer Service Categories.
In these categories the Imperial Toyota Group was honoured for its outstanding environmental credentials when it received the Vice President’s Eco Award. The awards for exceptional customer service for Mega, Large and Medium dealers were handed to McCarthy Toyota Durban-Kingsmead (Gordon Bannister), Oranje Toyota Klerksdorp (Dawie Lubbe) and Halfway Malanda Toyota (Suresh Sewbaran) respectively, with Riversdal Toyota walking away with the President’s Award in this category.
The final Vice President’s Award was awarded to the best Parts Manager. Harry Ramsugit of McCarthy Toyota Durban-Kingsmead was recognised in this category. Winners in the various categories will soon jet off to exotic parts of the world, like the Baltic and Dubai as part of their reward.
Guests at the gala award’s evening was treated to entertainment by some of South Africa’s best known artists, such Nianell, Jannie Moolman, Corlea and Lloyd Cele. The night also included special awards to the top performing Lexus and Hino dealers and a special Toyota South Africa Motors’ celebration of an unequalled 32 years of market leadership in the South African market.
