Corks pop for Toyota

CORK International, one of Britain's biggest merchandising companies, has switched to a solus badge policy for its 200-strong van fleet with Toyota and has started moving a large proportion of its 120-strong car fleet to the Japanese marque. The Nottingham-based company specialises in supplying non-food items to supermarkets and other retail outlets including Tesco, J Sainsbury, Safeway and Boots as well as department stores, fuel stations and pharmacy chains.

Toyota Hiace vans joined the fleet two years ago alongside Nissan vans and, according to transport manager Pete Knowles, have been so successful that the company is to operate a solus Toyota van fleet. The vehicles are supplied by ACL autolease and are split between three and four year contracts.

Following Cork International's experience with Toyota vans, the company has decided to ditch its user-chooser company car policy and introduce Toyota cars for its salesforce. The three-year switchover has already started and will eventually see 70-75% of the car fleet Toyota-badged with drivers eligible for Corolla, Avensis or Camry models. The cars are on three year/90,000 mile contract hire agreements.