Roger White, national sales manager at Fuso, has retired after 49 years’ service with Todd Motors, the forerunner of present day Mitsubishi Motors.
White joined Todd Motors in December 1963 as an engineering cadet in an automotive industry completely different to the one he leaves behind.
Lower Hutt-born White was around cars at an early age. The son of a mechanic, he was building go-karts aged 8 (with dad) and tells DIESELtalk how he would watch as his dad fixed cars. “Dad was a petrolhead, and I became one. I was destined to work in the auto industry”.
The industry White joined was firmly established and based around a hugely successful – but highly- regulated and protected – NZ automotive industry, particularly strong in the Wellington region with GM and Ford both operating large assembly plants.
White recalls that: “After GM and Ford we were next largest, assembling Chrysler Valiants, Commer and Dodge trucks.”
Todd Motor Industries’ Petone factory was opened in 1935 tied to Rootes Group and Chrysler marques; when White joined in late 1963, those ties were still strong, with Todd Motors assembling Humber, Hillman and Sunbeam vehicles in addition to Chrysler’s Plymouths.
White started as a product engineer at the Petone plant in a highly-regulated, insulated industry. Overseas funds were often required to buy a car. Dealers generally held the whip hand in the buying transaction.
Typical of the time, Todd Motors operated a cadetship programme that saw White work across various production departments while studying at polytechnic before successfully transitioning into a senior sales management role in October 1988, when he became Mitsubishi heavy commercial manager, a position White held until recent retirement, as national sales manager for Mitsubishi Fuso.
From his experience gained through the cadetship programme, White would achieve a New Zealand Certificate of Engineering, membership of the NZ Institute of Production Engineers and become a Chartered Professional Engineer.
White believes that these formal qualifications were made possible by the cadetship program me, and that it was a crucial part of his professional development.
“I didn’t want to go to university because in those days if you wanted to study engineering you had to go to Auckland or Canterbury. For me cadetship was great, as it provided practical experience but also, working across various factory departments as cadets did, it helped in developing good people skills.
That put me in good stead for the management roles to come. The training I received at Todd was just fantastic,” White recalls.
In the 1970s, the British car industry, as White describes it, “began to self-destruct” and the first Japanese cars trickled into New Zealand, the latter probably caused by the former. Around this time, Chrysler bought into Mitsubishi, and Todd Motors acquired the NZ assembly rights for Mitsubishi.
White recounts how the first wave of Japanese cars, while viewed with suspicion and not without their own quirky faults, were immediately admired among industry folk for their overall build quality, and were, says White, instantly superior to what was coming out of Britain.
“The panel quality was better and, crucially, the Japanese learned really quickly – the innovations were fantastic and frequent; hence they quickly achieved market dominance, despite being subject to a tariff while British vehicles at that time were not. The yen was weaker then, however,” says White.
This British collapse, combined with proposals to remove tariffs, which were by now seen as being restrictive to the economy rather than insulating it from international turmoil, opened the door for the high-quality, ever-improving Japanese cars and trucks that would dominate to this day.
New Zealand demand for cars like the Mirage, with a then revolutionary supershift transmission, was high; sales of locally assembled cars remained strong throughout the 1980s – these were halcyon days of New Zealand’s automotive assembly industry in terms of numbers and models.
By 1983 the 100,000th NZ-assembled Mitsubishi had rolled off the line (a Mirage, won by a Todd staff member in a company draw). Todd Motors became Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand, opening a larger assembly plant at Porirua.
With the Porirua plant opening, White was again on a learning curve. “We kept Petone running while transferring to Porirua. In addition to our day jobs, all engineers were tasked with a specific project for commissioning the new factory – I was charged with setting up the new paint shop – a major undertaking – complete with underbody dip and enamel coating. It was six months intense work as production migrated fully to Porirua – but once again, it was a fantastic experience,” says White.
By the mid to late 1980s, Japanese new cars had become the dominant force and used Japanese imports were a key feature of the market. White, by now in charge of product planning, was increasingly involved with marketing and enjoying the challenge of specifying models suitable for the local market, and re-engineering these for NZ conditions.
In 1988, it was decided that Mitsubishi’s truck division needed some fresh thinking. White was selected to head the truck division and drive Fuso growth.
White says: “The British CKD (completely knocked down packs) trucks we made, were protected by import tariffs on non-Commonwealth products. In the early 1970s, we were introduced to Fuso and our lives changed forever.”
White had been associated with the NZ- assembled Fuso from day one – the first Fuso to roll off the assembly line (on display at MOTAT in Refrigerated Freight Lines livery) bears White’s engineering signature, as do all early Fusos, having been set-up by White to suit NZ conditions.
As with cars, White recalls that early Fuso trucks were regarded with some suspicion even though,as he says: “They were well built and reliable, but they [only] had 6-speed boxes and 2-speed axles, with two levers to use when you wanted to split the gears, clearly not suitable for our rugged terrain.
“We embarked on a project to install the Eaton 15-speed, which would set the standard for all Japanese heavy duty trucks for the next 40 years. Truck buyers came to appreciate the sheer reliability and value for money that Japanese trucks, and Fuso in particular, offered,” says White.
Fuso has grown from modest but healthy unit sales of 32 in 1978 to 500 in 2012.
Under White, Fuso rose to become the top selling truck brand between 1990 and 2000. Progressively introducing Canter, Fighter and Shogun trucks into New Zealand, local assembly is no more, but Fuso has sold over 20,000 trucks in New Zealand, to date.
White considers Fuso to be the pioneering brand among Japanese trucks – Nissan were the first on the NZ market but Fuso sales would outstrip them. In recent years, Isuzu has become the dominant brand, swapping No 1 spot with Fuso on occasion.
Why has Fuso been so successful? White says simply: “It was the best equipped heavy truck, with engine braking and well ahead of the game in all respects.”
White concedes that competitors caught up, but Fuso had stolen a march with great products built to high standards, and designed specifically for New Zealand.
By late 1988, having spent the previous 25 years in production engineering roles, White had acquired a taste for marketing and was enjoying working with Mitsubishi’s marketing team, selecting the products that would work in New Zealand.
This transition into sales management was timely for White: in the early to mid-1980s it was clear the writing was on the wall for the local auto assembly industry.
As early as 1981 a National-led government had begun work on its ‘industry plan’ and this leaned toward removing tariffs. Subsequently, tariffs were scaled back and assemblers incentivised to import complete built up units (CBUs). There
was no need to build cars locally if you could bring them in more cheaply.
GATT (the General Agreement on Trade Tariffs) to which New Zealand was a signatory, became the WTO (World Trade Organisation) and tariffs were out of style – deemed a brake on the growth in international trade. New Zealand, an early adopter of the new WTO consensus, earned international admiration for initiating de-regulation quickly.
While complimentary articles congratulating New Zealand on its dismantling of an over regulated market were published in international business pages, it spelt the end for New Zealand’s auto assembly industry. The new lean industry that would follow would be based around importation and distribution; specifying models that best suit New Zealand, and then shipping them in.
White’s almost 50 year career with Todd/Mitsubishi might have ended in 1988 had it not been for his successful transition into sales management with Fuso. The people skills that White developed, from moving around the factory under the cadet programme, enabled White to equally engage with customers.
“The truck customer is quite different to the car buyer,” White says.
“He’s got to make a business decision, there’s no room for an emotional or prestige purchase. Truck buyers are pragmatic and they need someone who knows the truck inside out.”
Were there any similarities between the Todd Motors White joined in December 1963 and the Mitsubishi Motors he left in December 2012? “No,” says White, “totally different. At its peak there were 1400 people at Porirua and now the current figure is 60. Today’s market is import and distribute.”
White’s achievement in reaching this service milestone of 49 years with Mitsubishi is remarkable in itself – however, viewed through the prism of the tumultuous late 1980s and early-mid 1990s of an industry in flux, it is yet more remarkable still.
White’s durability throughout can be put down to the solid training received firstly via the cadet programme, leading to formal engineering qualifications and his ability to adapt and change, just as Todd Motors itself had to do.
A genial communicator, deeply knowledgeable about the product and manufacturing process, White has lived and breathed Fuso for the last 25 of his 49 years with Mitsubishi. Prior to that, he was just as passionate about Dodge, Commer and Humber in the age of non-remittance licence vehicle sales, when customers tried to persuade a dealer to sell them a car.
White has thoroughly enjoyed his automotive career and is thrilled to have been able to spend it almost entirely at Todd (there was a one-year break). “I’ve only had one job, one wife and lived around here the whole time.”
White feels that some might find that boring, however, he knows he has learned, and achieved much. He has worked in an industry that has changed beyond recognition, and has seemingly effortlessly ridden a wave of dramatic industry change.
Married to Diane, Roger has three children, Tania, Sarah and Bradley, and remains a car fiend still. He has restored and rallied cars and been national administration manager for the Vintage Car Club, where he is a life member. His restoration projects include the (in-progress) 1938 MG TA, a gorgeously returned-to-original condition 1928 De Soto Roadster and a 1964 Austin Healey 3000.
Echoing a ‘petrolhead at heart’ sentiment, he says that: “Just for fun, I bought a 1983 Mirage turbo with the supershift last week.”
DIESELtalk extend our best wishes to Roger and his family, for a long and happy retirement.
