Japan: Toyota reassigns 10% of domestic sales staff

Reuters - Toyota Motor Corp has reassigned 10 percent of its domestic sales personnel to boost sales in emerging markets, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The reassigned personnel, about 100 in number, will work out of Japan for the time being, making trips to local markets as needed, the paper said.

Those reassigned will join the domestic employees in charge of emerging markets and will work on developing sales networks, drawing up plans for new products, and sales promotions, the daily said.

With vehicle sales in the United States and other developed economies still to recover to pre-financial crisis levels, Toyota and other carmakers are vying to take advantage of growing demand for inexpensive cars in emerging markets.

Earlier this month, Toyota, Japan's biggest company, posted a smaller-than-expected fall in third-quarter operating profit and raised its prediction for the full year by 45 percent to 550 billion yen saying stronger sales in Asia and lower costs were boosting profitability.