Toyota Motor Corp. the largest Japan carmaker said the company felt a sense of crisis as the company braced for two consecutive years of falling profits and Toyota would streamline operations to bolster margins. The company’s operating profit tumbled 20 percent to 438.9 billion yen ($3.94 billion) in the carmaker’s fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31. Net income slid 6.6 percent to 398.4 billion yen ($3.58 billion), the company said Wednesday while announcing full-year earnings results.
Revenue increased 6.8 percent to 7.44 trillion yen ($66.87 billion). Global retail sales advanced 3.1 percent to 2.5 million vehicles in the January-March period, including results from its Daihatsu small-car subsidiary and truck-making affiliate Hino. The fourth-quarter slump sealed a retreat in full-year profits, with both 12-month operating profit and net income falling from the previous year.
The reversal cut short a run in which Toyota had notched two-straight years of across-the-board records in full-year revenue, net income and operating profit. It also put Toyota on the path toward another Toyota warned that profits will fall again in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2018.
