From looms to cars...

By the time you finish reading this sentence, 4 Toyotas will have been sold worldwide. That means 17 cars every minute, over 25 000 each day, 9,1 milion vehicles a year. Toyota is currently the largest car manufacturer in the world, as well as one of the TOP10 companies on the Fortune Global 500 list*. It is also the most aknowledged car manufacturer**, a result achieved thanks to the importance Toyota puts on consumer satisfaction. A strong corporate culture, deeply rooted in the company's history is also important.

In the late XIX century, Sakichi Toyoda obtained his first patent for the Toyoda wooden hand loom. He went on to focus his efforts on the improvement and invention of looms, including a significant number of excellent motive and automatic machines. In January 1918 roku he founded Toyoda Spinning and Weaving Company, building an automatic loom with his son, Kiichiro Toyoda in 1924.

Kiichiro, a visionary and revolutionary entrepreneur like his father, witnessed the birth of the motor industry during his stay in Europe and America. After selling the rights to his father's loom patents, he used the money to found Toyota Motor Corporation in 1937, opening a new chapter in the company's history.

*Including Hino and Daihatsu.
**According to the Fortune magazine (2006).