Our history and journey began in 1964, when Toyota Tsusho Corporation opened an office in Johannesburg, three years after Toyota began manufacturing vehicles in Durban.
which coincided with Toyota South Africa re-exporting of South African manufactured vehicles.
with offices in Johannesburg and Durban. This set the company up for expansion in response to increasing sales and export demands.
In 2001, Toyota Tsusho Corporation acquired Toyota distributors in five African countries: Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe followed soon after with Uganda and a joint venture in Mauritius. Today, our support network extends to Seychelles, Mozambique, Tanzania and Madagascar. A parts and accessories export business was established, and a vehicle logistics centre was set up to provide a central storage facility for Japanese and South African manufactured vehicles.
Value chain optimisation meant extending our production support services to other companies which also support the manufacturing business.
We also opened a new Vehicle Logistics Centre facility in Southgate Business Park. A signing ceremony took place for associated company, Toyota Tsusho South Africa Processing. Toyoda Gosei opened its South African Airbag Plant in our Production Support Centre Facility.
a French company which has been trading in Africa for more than 160 years.
Opening of Advics South Africa office and plant in our Production Support Centre Facility Expansion of Toyoda Gosei South Africa operation at our Production Support Centre Facility.
of CFAO making them a wholly owned Toyota Tsusho Corporation subsidiary.
In 2017, after acquiring 100% ownership of CFAO, Toyota Tsusho Corporation established its first regional division, Africa Division. Ownership of all of Toyota Tsusho Corporation’s existing African assets, including Toyota Tsusho Africa, were transferred to CFAO. This was part of Toyota Tsusho Corporation’s strategy to consolidate all the African businesses under one umbrella, the CFAO Group, which now comprises the businesses that are part of Toyota Tsusho Corporation’s Africa Division. This has united all assets across the continent while also maintaining CFAO’s closer regional link to the businesses between France and Africa. It enabled the recognition of the CFAO brand to be continued across Africa. Toyota Tsusho Corporation sees this as an advantage for securing and consolidating the further expansion of its African business because CFAO is a well-established and trusted brand with much experience in trade on the continent.
In 2018, there was a restructure, and three new companies were formed. When Toyota Tsusho Corporation’s and CFAO’s African assets were consolidated under the umbrella of CFAO in France, the South Africa based businesses were still operating as part of Toyota Tsusho Africa. Now required to report to CFAO (France), CFAO South Africa created a new holding company for the businesses: CFAO Holdings South Africa. Toyota Tsusho Africa’s Automotive division became a new company, Africa Mobility Solutions (AMS), part of the new CFAO South Africa group. Toyota Tsusho Africa registered as a new company too, as part of the new group.
Now called CFAO Mobility South Africa, the company has brought substantial growth to CFAO South Africa.
By consolidating our operations, we have become an increasingly competitive player in the market and a significant provider of services across the entire automotive industry value chain.
As a leading supplier of world-class material handling equipment and services, CFAO Equipment South Africa quickly becomes a key part of our value chain, offering an end-to-end solution that includes sales, distribution, and rental of new and pre-owned equipment from leading international manufacturers and value-added services for the material handling and industrial market.
Construction began on a new R1.2 billion automotive body-part manufacturing plant at the Dube Trade Port in Durban in 2024 and is set to open in July 2025. Ogihara originated in Japan and has been a key player in the automotive manufacturing industry, providing high-quality tools, dies, and stamped parts to vehicle manufacturers worldwide. The establishment of Ogihara South Africa marks its first expansion into Africa, in partnership with Toyota Tsusho Africa, to localise the production of automotive body parts. Ogihara South Africa will focus on producing various automotive stamped body parts. These parts are essential for the assembly of vehicles and will be produced using high-quality, locally procured steel. This localisation effort will not only reduce dependency on imported parts but also enhance the local automotive supply chain.