CORPORATE sales will account for more than one third of Toyota's European business by 2005, according to Juan Jose Diaz Ruiz, executive vice-president, Toyota Motor Europe Marketing and Engineering.

He said sales to fleets account for about 30% of Toyota's European sales, but the company expects this penetration to increase to 35% within five years.

'The corporate sector is growing and it's stable, so it's a very important part of the market,' he said at the Automotive News Europe conference.

'The issue is how we are going to conduct fleet business in a sensible way to maintain a fair relationship in what we offer to our retail customers and to protect our dealer organisation. We need to come to a good understanding that is to the mutual benefit of our buyers and our dealers, while maintaining market discipline.'

Toyota also has to improve the reach and penetration of its dealer network in certain European markets to improve its sales performance, with Germany a special area of focus.

The company has already rationalised its German dealer network from 640 to 260 territories to improve the volumes and profitability per dealer.

'We have grown by 13% in a German market down by 9% this year,' said Ruiz. (July 2000)