Gulf States Toyota Distributors
Let's Go Places
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| Private | |
| Industry | Automotive Distribution and Parts Distribution |
| Founded | 1969 |
| Headquarters | Houston, Texas, USA |
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Key people
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Dan Friedkin, Chairman & CEO Ed Dickinson, CFO |
| Products | Cars, Trucks, Parts, Marketing, Training |
| Revenue | $8.4 billion (2015) |
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Number of employees
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2,000 (2015) |
| Website | http://www.gst.buyatoyota.com/ |
Gulf States Toyota Distributors (GST) is the world’s second (out of 2) largest franchised distributor of Toyota vehicles. The 154 dealers in the five states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas account for 13% of Toyota sales in the United States. Per Forbes, GST is a wholly owned subsidiary the holding company, the Friedkin Companies and ranked 53rd on the Forbes 2008 list of America's Largest Private Companies.
Its headquarters are in the Energy Corridor area of Houston.
Carroll Shelby, famous racecar driver was approached by Toyota in 1968 about becoming an automobile distributor. According to Shelby,
"I turned it down because I went to Lee Iacocca, and he told me not to take it because the domestic makers were going to push the Japanese back into the ocean."
Shelby told his racing buddy, Tom Friedkin, about Toyota's intentions to sell distributor licenses. Friedkin flew to Japan and convinced Toyota that he had the necessary knowledge and resources.
Gulf States Toyota brought the first Toyota vehicle to Houston, Texas in 1969, when all Toyota vehicles were manufactured in Japan and imported into the US. Three years later, the company employed 35 associates and had sold 5,000 cars and trucks through 14 dealerships. GST also completed construction of a processing center on a 33-acre (130,000 m2) site at the Port of Houston.
In 1979, GST won the Import Vehicle Triple Crown by being first in import car, truck and combined import sales in the United States with 65,826 vehicles sold.
The NUMMI plant, a joint venture with General Motors, opened at Fremont, California in 1984 and was Toyota's first assembly plant in the US.
Gulf States Toyota completed construction and opened its Parts Distribution Center (PDC) near Sealy, Texas in 1986. Today, the PDC provides dedicated parts delivery to over 150 dealers, shipping nearly 100% of all orders every day.
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Wikipedia