The event took place at the state-of-the-art St George's Park complex with a motto of "Arrive colleagues, leave friends". The mission of the tournament, which has taken place annually since 2002, was to improve relations between departments and countries within the Toyota Material Handling Europe family.
Festivities at the venue, which is the state-of-the-art training base for the England Football Association, began with an opening ceremony evening and concluded with a celebratory dinner after what was a hard fought and equally fairly-contested tournament.
Teams from Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the UK competed, all with respectful intentions of victory. Good efforts and skills were shown by all players, though it was the UK team who joyfully lifted the prestigious Toyota Material Handling Football European Cup.
Nick Duckworth, managing director, Toyota Material Handling UK (TMHUK) said: "It was an enormous privilege for TMHUK to host the tournament which was a great credit to every one of the colleagues who took part, from the players on and off the pitch, to those colleagues who supported the event in an organisational capacity.
"It was clear to see throughout the event how spirits were high and tied in very well with the Toyota Principles of Challenge, Respect and Teamwork."
As well as Challenge, Respect and Teamwork, another Toyota Way principle, Kaizen, can be evidenced by not only the UK team's rise to first place in 2019, following their runners up placing in last year's tournament, but also their continuous improvement in performances during this tournament. After kicking off their tournament with a shaky 2-2 draw, they worked hard as a team to improve all aspects of their game which culminated with an outstanding performance in the 1-0 Final victory over Germany.
