Bereng Mpaki
THE launch of the new Toyota Fortuner range to the Lesotho market tomorrow, 20 May, is set to coincide with the official opening of the Maseru Toyota premises.
This was revealed this week by Maseru Toyota founding director, Elijah Ledimo, who said they moved to the facility — which is along Mpilo Boulevard — last October but decided to first settle at the premises before the official opening.
Maseru Toyota is a vehicle dealership that sells a wide range of new Toyota models and also provides after-sale services for Toyota vehicles. The company sells passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. It is a franchise of Toyota South Africa.
Before relocating to the new premises, Maseru Toyota had been operating from a smaller space which restricted its expansion and development.
However, the new two-storey facility has a vehicle sales department which includes the showroom, maintenance workshop, parts and accessory section, as well as the administration block on the top floor.
“We wanted to ensure that everything was in order and get all the settling down issues out of the way before we could go ahead with the official opening,” Mr Ledimo said.
He further said the company had to invest in the property since they needed a bigger space to carry out their operations uninhibited.
“We invested in the building because the company needed a bigger space as it had grown too big for the place we had been located,” said Mr Ledimo.
“So moving to these spacious offices gave us an opportunity to work faster than before and accommodate the necessary services that should be found in a dealership.”
Maseru Toyota founding shareholder, Casba Kolotsane, chipped in, saying they had invited a number of clients to tomorrow’s opening ceremony so they could also celebrate the company’s milestone.
“Our company serves a wide range of customers around the country including the government, corporates as well as private individuals,” Mr Kolotsane said.
“We have invited our clients’ representatives so they can celebrate with us.”
He said they were hopeful their investment in the new premises would be recovered due to the strong performance of the Toyota brand in the market.
“Toyota is a leading vehicle brand in the market, so we are hopeful that the investment we made in this building will be recouped over time,” Mr Kolotsane added.
Sales Manager, Nthatisi Ledimo, touched on the launch of the Toyota Fortuner range, saying the seven-seater sport utility vehicle (SUV) would surpass customer-expectations. She said the Fortuner range was coming hot on the heels of the new Toyota Hilux which was unveiled in March this year.
“This year is proving to be a great one for us at Maseru Toyota. We recently launched the all-new Toyota Hilux range, and now we are going to introduce the Toyota Fortuner range,” said Ms Ledimo.
She also said the new Toyota Fortuner range not only came with enhanced performance features but was also spacious and cost-effective compared to other brands.
Ms Ledimo said they were confident the new Fortuner would perform well in the market given the strong support its predecessor enjoyed from Basotho.
