User:SSuggests/Gulf States Toyota

Subject - Suggested edits to the page

Hi Wikipedia editors, I’d like to suggest the below updates to the Gulf States Toyota page on behalf of our client. We do have a relationship with Gulf States Toyota and want to be transparent about that so am hoping we can collaborate on objective updates to the page based on notable references. The page overall has quite a bit of content about The Friedkin Group rather than about Gulf States Toyota, so our overall goal is to clean that up and improve the page content. Thank you!

In the upfront, could we change the name of this page? Please see details below. In addition, there are suggestions to the Infobox, Overview, History, Recent History and Future sections.

Page Name: We'd like to drop "Distributors" and name the page simply “Gulf States Toyota” as that is the full name of the company as cited here.

Suggested Overview - This section is currently focused on the Friedkin Group and should be an overview of Gulf States Toyota instead.

We suggest the following copy: Gulf States Toyota (GST) is one of the world’s largest independent distributors of Toyota vehicles and parts. GST distributes Toyota vehicles and parts to more than 150 dealerships across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. GST is the second largest of only two franchised Toyota distributors in the United States. In 2021, Gulf States Toyota ranked 45th on the Forbes list of America’s Largest Private Companies.

Gulf States Toyota Section - We suggest removing the content as this section is not needed once the name is changed to Gulf States Toyota.

History and Recent History Sections - We recommend combining these sections as one single "History" section. Please see suggested edited copy below. This includes removing content that is about Toyota, rather than about Gulf States Toyota. We also suggested deletions in cases where citations were missing, including this sentence, "In 2012, Ford sued the now former President of GST for allegedly violating his non-compete and confidentiality provisions, to which GST stated it would hire Mr. Collins "no matter how long it takes." Mr. Collins is no longer the President of GST after serving for several years." (no citation) We would also recommend deleting this sentence from the current version as the citation provided does not support the information shared: "The City invested millions in improvements only to have GST pull out of the deal after several years in 2015 Gulf States had to pay the City of Temple several million dollars for its failure to complete the deal."

Future Section - We suggest removing the future section. Nothing in the future section speaks to the future and is information on The Friedkin Group or information already said above.

History
Tom Friedkin started Gulf States Toyota, and brought the first Toyota vehicle to Houston, Texas in 1969, when all Toyota vehicles were manufactured in Japan and imported into the US. Three years later, the company employed 35 associates and had sold 5,000 cars and trucks through 14 dealerships. GST also completed construction of a processing center on a 33 acre site at the Port of Houston.

In 1979, GST won the Import Vehicle Triple Crown by being first in import car, truck and combined import sales in the United States with 65,826 vehicles sold.

GST completed construction and opened its Parts Distribution Center (PDC) near Sealy, Texas in 1986. Today, the PDC provides dedicated parts delivery to over 150 dealers, shipping nearly 100% of all orders every day.

In 2003, GST helped name Houston's premier sports and entertainment venue—the Toyota Center. At year's end, GST exceeded 149,000 total vehicles sold. In 2005, Gulf States Toyota was named the #1 privately held company in Houston by the "Houston Chronicle"'s Chronicle 100 list. GST was also listed at #40 on Forbes' list of America's Largest Private Companies.

In the production of Toyota's manufacturing GST made a simplistic production reporting tool which increased Toyota's overall output. Yokem Toyota was one of the earliest adopters to the Dealer Daily platform.

Production began at San Antonio's Texas truck plant in 2006.

Toyota (not GST) now has ten manufacturing facilities in the US. Today, the majority of vehicles distributed by GST are not unloaded from ships. In 2008, GST entered an agreement with the City of Temple to construct another vehicle processing center promising jobs and economic benefits served by rail road.

In 2013, the Houston Chronicle ranked GST as #1 in its list of Houston area private companies. That year, the Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas, home to the MLS team FC Dallas, was renamed the Toyota Stadium due to GST's sponsorship. GST also named Toyota Field in San Antonio, Texas, home of the San Antonio FC professional soccer team that competes in the USL.

In 2013, GST also announced a lay off at its Vehicle Processing Center due to a change in business focus. "While the entire plant is not being closed, several positions are being eliminated based on a change in business objectives and accessory product offerings for 2014," the WARN letter states.

In 2019, GST reached its 50th anniversary in business. That same year, GST expanded its Parts Distribution Center in Sealy, Texas by 40 percent to a total of 426,000 square feet.

In 2021, the Houston Chronicle ranked GST as #2 in its list of Houston area private companies for the third consecutive year.