Toyota Business Excellence Awards celebrates customer excellence

Cooke Howlison Toyota from Dunedin won the Toyota Supreme Award at the hotly contested Toyota and Lexus Business Excellence Awards, held over the weekend.

The Toyota Supreme Award is awarded for overall excellence in branch operations, market leadership and branch facilities. There is fierce competition each year for the Toyota Supreme Award among the 64 Toyota and Lexus stores spread across the nation, from Whangarei to Invercargill.

Cooke Howlison has been a successful, locally owned, and operated company since 1895, and prides itself on providing customers with an exceptional level of service in Balclutha and Dunedin.

Neeraj Lala, Toyota New Zealand’s Chief Executive Officer, says the Awards celebrate the annual achievements of the Toyota Stores across the country and their contribution to keeping Toyota as the leading mobility brand in New Zealand.

“In 2022 we not only held onto our number one slot against some tough competition and regulatory challenges, but we also successfully launched Let’s Go Places, a new company vision focused on sustainability, mobility and community,” Lala says.

“Our Stores are an integral part of this vision, as they deliver it to their customers and local communities they support.”

“Despite the ongoing supply chain impacts in 2022, it was a very good year for our Stores and the Toyota and Lexus brands with customer excellence and community at the heart of what they do every day,” he says.

In announcing the Awards, Mr Lala acknowledged the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle on the Store network, and the severe impact on the Toyota and Lexus Stores in Hawke’s Bay. “Our thoughts are with our colleagues in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne as they struggle with the massive clean-up and restoration of their businesses and personal properties,” he says.

2022 saw a new award being added to the night – the Citizenship award. The Citizenship award focuses on the Toyota Store that supports their local community with the best initiative. The award went to Ebbett Toyota for their ‘Community Moover’ – a community van that is available to non-for-profit, schools, local sports teams, or other groups and organisations to use, free of charge, as transport for events.

“Its great to see the community initiatives that are happening at individual Store levels,’ says Lala.

“The Community Moover initiative is a great showcase of how mobility can be shared and utilised across a community.”

Ebbett Toyota were also awarded two other awards – the Parts & Accessories Excellence Award, and the Leadership Award was awarded to their CEO, Tony Coutinho.