HINO AIMING FOR HIGHER SALES

Hino Motors Ltd, the leading Japanese medium-heavy and heavy truck manufacturer, is targeting to increase its annual global sales to 230 000 units by 2015, while also improving the company’s profitability. This objective is double the worldwide sales for the past financial year.

The ambitious target was announced at the recent presentation of Hino’s financial statements for the 2010/2011 financial year, which ended on March 31.

There are a number of reasons that Hino believes this target is achievable.

Firstly, the company is well on track to be back at full production in the near future after losing output while the damage caused by the tsunami and earthquake that hit Japan on March 11 was repaired. Most of the facilities are already able to operate at near maximum capacity.

An important strategy for the future is to move more Hino production off-shore and to this end Hino is building a new plant in the city of Koga in central Japan. This plant will produce knocked-down kits for overseas assembly.

Hino is also reviewing its manufacturing systems to improve efficiencies and this will involve more use of modular concepts. There are also important new model launches in the near future which use localised models for the various world markets. Hybrid models will be included in the line-up for certain markets, including the United States.

Hino was once again the sales leader in the Japanese domestic category for heavy and medium-heavy trucks. This was the 38th consecutive year that it has been the top-selling brand and for the 2010/2011 financial year the market share was a record 34.9%. Hino also recorded its best-ever share in the light duty truck market with a penetration figure of 17.8%.

Hino’s overseas sales were at an all-time high at 82 888 units. The company is very aware that sales growth is mainly found in emerging markets and is making a big effort to increase sales in these regions, particularly Asia and Latin America.

Total sales for the period under review were 112 896 units sold in the past financial year, compared to 87 251 units a year previously. Domestic sales were up by 4 105 units (15.8%), while overseas sales jumped by 21 540 units (35.1%).

Hino’s sales were up by at least 20% in all segments of the truck market in Japan, but bus sales were well down on the previous financial year for both Hino and the total domestic bus market. Hino experienced 15.8% growth in its sales in the total Japanese truck and bus market, compared to an increase of 13.9% for the overall domestic truck and bus market.

The biggest global growth in terms of percentage came in the Europe/Africa region, with an improvement of 72%. Asia was not only the largest market, with 54 088 units sold out of a total of 82 888 units retailed overseas, but this region also showed the second highest growth at 43.5%.
Hino’s operating income increased significantly in the 2010/2011 financial year due to profitability improvement measures that were actioned as well as increased sales, but the earthquake disaster nevertheless had a big negative effect on net income as did increased taxation.

Income from sales at 1 242 billion yen was 21.4% up on the previous year, while operating income of 28,9 billion yen was more than 25 times better than the 1,1 billion yen of the 2009/2010 financial year. However, net income amounted to a loss of 10 billion yen, but the company is confident it will be turned around in the 2011/2012 financial year.

STORY BY HINO