Toyota Motor Corp. plans to roll out a restructuring of its U.S. marketing operations in California as early as Monday, people familiar with the plans said.
The company has more than 5,000 employees in California, many of them at a complex in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance that houses Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., the company's U.S. marketing arm.
Toyota's U.S. sales operations have been based in southern California since 1957. Toyota has expanded its operations in the area to include product planning, vehicle design, consumer finance and logistics. The auto maker also has a small manufacturing operation in Long Beach, Calif.
Details of the scope of the reorganization, and whether Toyota plans to move a significant number of jobs out of California to other states, weren't clear Sunday. Two people familiar with the company's plans said some operations could move to Texas. The company declined to comment on what it called rumors.
The company confirmed that it was restructuring its marketing organization. It said employees "whose positions are significantly different in the new organization have been provided with several options, including applying for opportunities within the new marketing organization or in other departments at TMS or Toyota Financial Services."
Toyota said it was also offering redundancy packages to employees. The reorganization is set to take effect Thursday, the company said.
Automotive News had previously reported that Toyota was working on a reorganization of its marketing operation.
Toyota has operations around the U.S., including vehicle assembly factories in Kentucky, Indiana, Texas and Mississippi. The auto maker has technical centers in Michigan and California and manufacturing operations headquarters in Erlanger, Ky.
Toyota last year consolidated management of its North American operations under one executive, Jim Lentz, a first for the Japanese company.
California has long been the mainstay of Toyota's U.S. sales, as the state is for rival Asian auto makers.
However, the high cost of living and high taxes in the Los Angeles area have led some of Toyota's rivals to shift jobs away from the area.
Nissan Motor Co. moved its U.S. headquarters operation from Gardena, Calif., to Nashville, Tenn., in 2006. Honda Motor Co. last year moved a small number of top-level employees from its neighboring Torrance campus to a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, where the company has research-and-development operations and large manufacturing facilities.
Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto said the city was preparing for the news, having been told only that there was some kind of announcement set for Monday.
"We've done everything over the years to support Toyota," he said. "But let's face it, this decision isn't something you make on a Friday afternoon and announce on Monday—this has been going on for a while."
