TOYOTA Jamaica (Toyojam), authorised distributors for Toyota vehicles in Jamaica, has entered a landmark arrangement with an auto parts company in Port Antonio, Jamrock Toyota, to act as dealer.

Toyojam managing director, John Connell, told Auto Wednesday that the association, the first of its kind here, will allow Jamrock to sell Toyota parts and use the brand name in its advertising.

According to Toyojam executives, as a result of a difficulty in adequately serving Portland, the Port Antonio company has been authorised to sell parts only.

“He pointed out that there is a large number of Toyota vehicles in the area and there was a difficulty in getting parts… so we struck a deal,” a gratified Connell said in reference to Jamrock’s principal.

Jamrock managing director Gary Scott was equally upbeat when contacted by Auto.

“I believe that Toyota is the number one brand in the world and they certainly have the largest share of the market in Jamaica,” he remarked.

Scott said that the business opened only a few weeks ago especially to sell Toyota parts.

He contended that Toyota Jamaica was the only real distributor of genuine Toyota parts and as such placed a burden on motorist who had to regularly travel into Kingston to purchase authentic replacements.

“Anybody from the area who wanted a genuine Toyota part would have gone to Spanish Town Road,” Scott asserted.

“By doing this, we can now make it easier for customers in this region.”

This dealership arrangement could soon be replicated in other rural areas, depending on the level of accessibility and the number of Toyota vehicles in a region.

“We want a wider delivery on parts sale,” noted marketing manager Howard Foster.

“In the future, we intend to get other dealers to sell across the island,” he said.

Connell added that the search for new dealers would be done on a “case-by-case basis,” but the intention was to increase the coverage of genuine Toyota parts.

“We will see how we can best improve our parts distributorship,” said Connell.

Toyota dealers are categorised as either one-s, where they are authorised to sell parts only, two-s where a dealer may sell parts and offer service, or three-s which allows for the sale of vehicles and parts as well as servicing, Connell explained.