Gulf States Toyota Distributors

Gulf States Toyota, founded in 1969, is a private distributor of Toyota vehicles in the United States. They are franchised by Toyota Motor Sales, USA to sell vehicles to car dealerships in the five states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.[3] Corporate headquarters is located within the Houston Energy Corridor on a 400,000-square-foot (37,000 m2) campus with a five and ten-story building beside an eight-story parking garage.

Gulf States Toyota
TypePrivate
IndustryAutomotive Distribution and Parts Distribution
Founded1969
FounderThomas H. Friedkin
HeadquartersHouston, Texas, USA
Key people
Dan Friedkin
(Chairman & CEO)
Jeff Parent
(President & General Manager)
ProductsCars, Trucks, Parts, Marketing, Training
Revenue$8.3 billion (2020)[1][2]
Number of employees
2,000 (2015)[1]
ParentThe Friedkin Group
WebsiteGulf States Toyota

History

During the 1960s, one of Thomas H. Friedkin's hobbies was racing cars. He was friends with Carroll Shelby, famous for designing the AC Cobra and the Shelby Mustang. Shelby had turned down an offer to become a distributor for Toyota because Lee Iacocca told Shelby that "the domestic makers were going to push the Japanese back into the ocean".[4][5] Shelby introduced Friedkin to Toyota, and Friedkin entered into an agreement to distribute Toyota vehicles from the Port of Houston. Gulf States Toyota Distributors (GST) was founded in 1969.[6][4]

Operations

Gulf States Toyota is the smaller of just two private distributors of Toyota vehicles in the United States. The other is Southeast Toyota Distributors in Jacksonville, Florida, founded by the late Jim Moran.[7]

New Rail Site

GST signed an economic development agreement with Temple, Texas in 2008 to construct a $50-million Inland Processing facility. The city is located between Houston and Dallas. GST was granted a 300-acre tract as an incentive to locate there. Construction was expected to begin in July 2009 and be completed by December 2011. However, the Financial crisis of 2007–2008 and 2009–2011 Toyota vehicle recalls caused Gulf States and Temple to adopt an amendment to the agreement in 2010. GST was allowed to postpone construction for up to five years while compensating the city for infrastructure improvements already made: $4.6 million over three years. The project was never resumed.[8]

Hurricane Harvey inflicted severe damage on the company's headquarters in August of 2017, causing staff to relocate for several months while repairs were made.[9]

Leadership

Toby Hynes served as president and general manager at GST from 1999 to 2012.[10]
Martin "Marty" Collins, formerly a marketing executive for Ford Motor Company, was hired after Hynes retired. Ford filed a lawsuit in Detroit, claiming that Collins violated his employment contract by working for a competitor and sharing proprietary information.[11] Collin's attorney responded that Collins was employed by the Friedkin Group, an investment company which owns GST. The suit was eventually dropped.[12]
Collins quit abruptly in 2017 and was replaced by Jeff Parent, a Senior VP who remains in that position as of early 2022.[13]

Vehicle processing center

Vehicle processing center in Houston includes an industrial spur with 7-sidings to offload vehicles from Rail cars. Vehicles are customized to order with options, such as window tinting and they're loaded to Car carrier trailers for transport to dealerships. All vehicles destined for Texas receive the required state inspection before leaving the center so that receiving dealers do not have to.[14]

Parts

Gulf States Toyota built a 300,000-square-foot (28,000 m2) Parts Distribution Center (PDC) near Sealy, Texas in 1986. The center was expanded by 40% in 2019 to 426,000-square-foot (39,600 m2) in May, 2019.[15] The expansion created a shipping dock on the north side of the facility to separate shipping and receiving operations.[16] The warehouse handles 55,000 different parts/accessories.[16]

Community

Outreach efforts in the community include several programs.

Hurricane relief

After Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Toyota people from the US raised over $1.5 million for the Friedkin Disaster Relief Fund . GST parent Friedkin Group also donated $500,000 to the United Way of Greater Houston.[9]

Stadiums

In September 2013, the soccer-specific stadium formerly known as Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas was renamed Toyota Stadium. It is primarily used by Major League Soccer club FC Dallas (also sponsored by Gulf States Toyota) and Frisco Independent School District.
GST also purchased naming rights to Toyota Field in San Antonio, home of minor league soccer team the Scorpions in 2013.[17]

References
  1. "Gulf States Toyota". Forbes.
  2. Drane, Amanda (19 June 2021). "Gulf States Toyota dug in during pandemic, then rode rebound". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved Jun 19, 2021.
  3. Kaplan, David. "No. 1 private company: Gulf States Toyota." Houston Chronicle. June 22, 2013. Retrieved on April 30, 2014.
  4. Automotive News: October 29, 2007-U.S. distributors gave Toyota a toehold in a mysterious new market by Kathy Jackson
  5. Gallagher, John. "Lee Iacocca wasn't perfect: 3 times the auto icon got it all wrong". freep.com. Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  6. Forbes: "Under the Radar" by Doug Donovan October 1, 2001
  7. Hoover's Business Intelligence: Gulf States Toyota, Inc.
  8. "Gulf States Toyota Economic Development Agreement Amended". Meet Temple EDC. 2010-09-02. Retrieved 2021-04-04.
  9. Najarro, Ileana. "Vehicle distributor continues reign over local private sector". digital.olivesoftware.com/olive/odn/houstonchronicle/. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  10. "Toby Hynes, retired". Linkedin.com. Linkedin. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  11. "Ford sues former executive over new job". UPI Business News. Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  12. Pulsinelli, Olivia. "Gulf States Toyota names Martin Collins president". Bizjournals.com. Houston Business Journal. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  13. "Jeff Parent President and General Manager , Gulf States Toyota". Linkedin.com. Linkedin. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  14. Kaplan, David (23 June 2013). "No. 1 private company: Gulf States Toyota". Chron.com. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  15. Fesser, Katherine (31 May 2019). "Gulf States Toyota completes major expansion of Sealy parts distribution center". Chron.com. Hearst Publications. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  16. "Auto company opens $11M distribution center". Bizjournals.com. Houston Business Journal. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  17. "Toyota Announces Presenting Sponsorships of Morgan's Wonderland, New Scorpions Stadium". San Antonio Scorpions. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
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