Toyota Opportunity Exchange Makes its Motown Debut

The 28^th annual Toyota Opportunity Exchange brought together minority and women-owned businesses and representatives from Tier 1 suppliers to network. The event took place at Cobo Hall in Detroit, on November 9^th, with the main idea to support the supplier base and strengthen the relationships.

This was the first time Detroit was the host of the event. Michigan is the home of 60 out of 100 top North American suppliers in the automotive industry and over 1,700 other manufacturing facilities. It has a strong automotive history, a powerful industry and a very large supplier base. Taking all this into consideration, Toyota’s recent $154 Million investment to extend research and development operations and create its Supplier center in the state was no surprise.

“With the relocation of our purchasing team as well as the construction of our Supplier Center in Michigan, it only made sense to bring the Opportunity Exchange event to Detroit. The goal of Opportunity Exchange is to connect diverse companies with Tier I suppliers, and the largest concentration of those Tier 1’s is right here in Michigan,” said Robert Young, group vice president for Toyota Purchasing, Supplier Engineering Development (SED) and Cost Planning. “By strengthening critical skills, business insight, and networking, our goal is to turn today’s connections into tomorrow’s relationships.”

Throughout its long 28-year history, the Toyota Opportunity Exchange has made it possible for hundreds of different businesses to grow and has strengthened the relationships within the automotive industry.

“As the Piston Group continues to grow, we have consistently delivered high customer satisfaction, high quality and low cost, enabling our selection as a supplier to Toyota,” said Vinnie Johnson, founder, chairman and CEO of Piston Group. “We are proud of our partnership with Toyota, and thrilled to participate in the Opportunity Exchange.” This event was followed by various seminars, panel discussions, as well as a trade show.

“Our annual participation in the Toyota Opportunity Exchange has been a key component in our exponential business growth with Toyota in chemical management, and continues to spur creativity within the Chemico organization,” said Leon C. Richardson, president & CEO, The Chemico Group. “We are thrilled that this year’s event is being held in our hometown — the Motor City.”

Looking back at its beginning in 1989 when the Toyota Opportunity Exchange had 300 attendees and now with more than 1,800 attendees, with hundreds of millions in contracts for suppliers, the importance of the event is obvious.

If interested for more information, visit ToyotaOportunityExchange.com

Video:

http://pressroom.toyota.com/video_display.cfm?video_id=36329