Isuzu Motors South Africa has announced a number of key leadership appointments in support of the purchase of the Isuzu related assets from General Motors (GM) South Africa, effective January 2018.

Haruyasu Tanishige, in addition to his current role of Senior Executive officer for the Sales Division of Isuzu Motors in Japan, will be appointed to the position of Chairman of Isuzu Motors South Africa. Tanashige will continue to be based in Tokyo at Isuzu’s headquarters.

Michael Sacke, currently CFO for GM South Africa, has been appointed as Chief Operations Officer and CFO with immediate effect. He will assume responsibility for the transition of GM South Africa’s operations to Isuzu Motors by year-end and also to ensure the integration of the Isuzu truck and light commercial businesses. Following this he will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Isuzu Motors South Africa.

“We are very excited about the appointment of Michael Sacke as he has had a long association with Isuzu Motors, including serving as Board Member of Isuzu Trucks South Africa for the past nine years,” said Tanishige.

“He will play a key role in ensuring the successful transition of the South African operations to the new Isuzu Motors South Africa business.”

According to Tanishige, South Africa is the first market outside of Japan where Isuzu has acquired a 100% ownership of manufacturing and distribution operations. “We view South Africa as a key market for future growth and will be looking to maximise the benefits of integrating our light commercial and truck businesses together.”

He added that while it was premature to comment on Isuzu’s future plans, as the new company would only be fully operational from January 2018, the company did see opportunities to strengthen and grow its base in South Africa.

“Our immediate priorities though will be to ensure the successful establishment of the company, while at the same time strengthening our support to customers.”

Other key appointments include the following:

• The current Isuzu Trucks South Africa Managing Director Hiroaki Sugawara will we appointed to the position of Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Planning
• The current Isuzu Trucks South Africa Chief Operations Officer Craig Uren will be appointed to the position Executive Officer, Sales, Service and Marketing
• Mitsuteru Yageta from Isuzu Motors Japan will be appointed as Group CFO

Other Isuzu Motors South Africa executive appointments will be announced in due course.

 

Ensuring factory readiness

In light of Isuzu’s intention to purchase the GM plant in South Africa as well as GM’s 30% shareholding in Isuzu Trucks South Africa, production managers recently inspect the assembly line at the Struandale plant in Port Elizabeth to ensure production quality is not compromised during the reorganisation process.

The production lines have been consolidated into a single platform supporting Isuzu light commercial vehicle assembly.