TG Missouri repeats as champion

~ The Perryville auto parts maker won Division I for the second straight year.

TG Missouri's employees have skills that extend beyond making parts for Toyota vehicles.

This has been evident in the past two years, as the Perryville-based Toyota affiliate supplier has captured two straight Corporate Games championships for Division I.

The latest title came last month, when TG Missouri cruised to victory.

The Corporate Games, conducted by the Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department, is a two-week competition involving various sport and non-sport events for employee-based organizations. Division I includes businesses with at least 100 employees, while Division II, won this year by the Division of Youth Services, is for those with less than 100.

The Olympic-style event, which promotes healthier lifestyles, teamwork, participation and fun, includes activities such as dodgeball, flag football, poker, billiards and trivia.

Last year, TG Missouri and one of Procter & Gamble's two teams had equal scores, but TG Missouri had more first-place finishes to win the tiebreaker. This time around, TG Missouri defeated P&G's lone entry by 145 points. Procter & Gamble had won the event in 2003.

"I would say it's becoming a rivalry," said Brigitte Kinnaman, who is in charge of organizing teams for TG. "We beat them pretty good this year. I guess people get busy with work, and it's hard to get teams together."

Kinnaman credited different sports leagues in Perryville and experienced athletes as the reason for TG's success.

"We have some softball leagues that we participate in and some basketball and volleyball leagues," she said. "The guy that did the trail run relay was [former Southeast Missouri State track athlete] Tyson Brown, and many people played sports in high school.

"Our president [Nobuo Fujiwara] is good at volleyball. It's kind of fun having the president on the team."

Kinnaman said when it comes down to competition, TG Missouri means business.

"I didn't realize there was such an art to tug-of-war," she said. "We actually had a coach that had us dig toe holes in the ground and measure how far apart we stood from each other. My arms hurt the whole next day."

TG Missouri employs more than 1,200 people, and any employee can participate in the Corporate Games. This year, about 75 workers were included on the roster.

"We send out an e-mail, and I post some stuff around work," Kinnaman said. "I have different people who are good at a certain event go around and pick their teams. You have to kind of find out who's good at what."

The facility in Perryville -- which produces steering wheels, airbags, side molding and interior and exterior plastic trim parts for automobiles -- was the only TG company in the United States when it started in 1987. At that point in time it was called TG USA, but eventually the corporation expanded to several different locations around the country, and the named changed to TG Missouri.

Kinnaman said about 20 Japanese people work at TG Missouri, which is owned by the Japanese company Toyoda Gosei. Every four years, they are sent to different locations "so that they can rotate ideas, and we can keep the Japanese culture in the company and make sure the quality is good."

"It's a neat place to work," Kinnaman added. "The technology is always the best, and it's great working with the Japanese."

Plaques were awarded for first-place finishes in the individual events, and TG Missouri received a trophy for finishing first overall. Kinnaman said just participating in different events and having fun outside the office is the objective for the company.

"Obviously, our primary thing is to win awards as far as our quality," she said, "but it's a big deal for us to be seen in the community as something other than just a business."