Toyota Australia posts $194 million profit after announcing factory shutdown in 2017

TOYOTA has turned into a cash machine since it made the decision to close its Camry production line, posting its second profit in six years.

Toyota Camry car factory at Altona, May 2014

HERE’S proof that, sadly, it doesn’t make financial sense to make cars in Australia.

Toyota has reported an after tax profit of $194 million following last year’s epic tax loss of $437 million, when most of the future factory shutdown costs were attributed.

In fact, Toyota’s profit would have been higher had it not incurred a further $66 million in restructuring costs this financial year due to closure of its manufacturing operations at the end of 2017.

It is the biggest profit Toyota has made since 2008, and only the second time it has posted a profit in six years.

The profit is also, coincidentally, almost the same amount of money Ford Australia reported as a loss -- $191 million — for its last financial year. (Holden is yet to post 2014 financial results).

Toyota says asset right downs and provisions for redundancy payments will continue to blunt its profitability for the next three years.

MORE: The end of the line for the Toyota Camry

“Despite some difficult announcements during the past 12 months, our employees have continued to be committed and passionate,” Toyota Australia President Dave Buttner said in a media statement.

In an interview with News Corp Australia in April, Mr Buttner said Toyota was “100 per cent categorically, absolutely, committed to continuing production until the end of 2017.”

Despite the imminent closure, Toyota says its 2500 factory workers are determined to work to the end.

“When the gates shut for the last time, I know I can hold my head high knowing I’ve done my best,” said Robert Cook, a technical officer on the production line that will build 90,000 cars this year, about twice as many as Holden and five times as many as Ford.

Popular model ... the Toyota Camry coming off the line at the company's Altona factory.

The Toyota Camry has been Australia’s top-selling medium-size sedan for 21 years but 70 per cent of the vehicles made locally are exported to the Middle East.

Toyota has built more than 3.2 million cars in Australia since 1963 — just three years after the first Ford Falcon and the same year the EH Holden came out — and more than 2 million vehicles have been made in Altona since the factory opened in 1995.

When local production ends, Toyota will likely import the next generation Camry from Thailand, which has a free-trade agreement with Australia and is now the second biggest source of vehicles sold locally after Japan and ahead of South Korea.

Mr Buttner, who came up through the ranks at Toyota in manufacturing-related jobs between 1988 and 2002, said he had mixed emotions about the arrival of the last Australian-made Camry.

“It’s a bitter sweet experience,” said Mr Buttner. “Bitter in that it will be the last product we build in Australia … but the other feeling is of great pride, when you see the commitment and absolute passion and dedication of every worker on the production line.”

Toyota says it has started retraining its workers for life after manufacturing and up to 90 per cent of blue collar staff had taken up the offer to develop new skills.

The average length of service for Toyota Australia’s production line workers is 15 years. The longest serving employee, an 83-year-old who works in quality control has been with Toyota for 42 years.

“We are actively looking across Victoria: where are the jobs, are they in construction, hospitality, healthcare, what’s the average weekly wage, what’s the entry qualifications,” said Mr Buttner.

The financial results were announced today because Toyota works on the Japanese financial year ending 31 March 2015.

The company says 264,947 Toyota and Lexus vehicles were sold in that 2014/15 period.

Toyota was Australia’s top-selling automotive brand for the 12th year in a row in 2014 and the Corolla was the top-selling car for the second year in a row.

Toyota Australia currently employs approximately 3,900 people across Australia.

But the number of staff will be scaled back once the 2500 factory workers are made redundant and Toyota closes its Sydney headquarters and consolidates staff at its Port Melbourne office.

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling