When the late Abdul Latif Jameel contacted Toyota Motor Corporation in the mid-1950s, the Japanese automaker was largely unknown in Saudi Arabia. He asked if he could purchase a small number of sample vehicles to test local demand. Toyota agreed. Four BJ all-terrain vehicles made the journey to Saudi Arabia, and a partnership that would span generations began.

The founder had already established his business in Jeddah in 1945, initially exploring a range of commercial ideas before settling on automotive distribution as his primary focus. Securing the authorized distributor rights for Toyota in 1955 gave the company its foundation. He imported 10 Land Cruisers in the first year and sold five — a modest start that belied what the business would become.

Abdul Latif Jameel Motors has now marked 70 years of distributing Toyota in Saudi Arabia, a milestone that has been marked with a dedicated landmark event recognizing the depth and longevity of the two companies’ collaboration.

Hassan Jameel, who heads the domestic Saudi operations of Abdul Latif Jameel and serves as vice chairman, has described the relationship with Toyota as formative not just commercially but culturally. His uncle traveled to Japan in the late 1960s for a Toyota training program. His father studied at university there. Hassan himself completed high school and university in Japan and joined Toyota’s domestic kaizen division in 2004.

“My grandfather started the business with a single gas station in Jeddah in 1945,” Hassan Jameel said in a McKinsey interview. “In the mid-1950s, he contacted Toyota Motor Corporation and started importing Toyota vehicles into Saudi Arabia.”

The Land Cruiser proved particularly well-suited to Saudi terrain, finding its way into remote corners of the country and playing a part in the Kingdom’s development. As Toyota’s reputation grew, so did the scope of the distribution operation. Abdul Latif Jameel Motors eventually became one of the largest independent Toyota distributors in the world, selling close to half a million new vehicles annually at its peak.

Toyota’s trust in the Jameel family extended to Japan itself. When Toyota launched its Lexus sales network in Japan in 2005, it invited Jameel Corporation to open a dealership in Nerima, Tokyo — the only Lexus outlet in Japan funded by foreign capital.

The relationship has since expanded well beyond vehicle distribution. Jameel Motorsport, part of Abdul Latif Jameel Motors, sponsors ROOKIE Racing in Japan, and Rally Jameel has grown into an international rally event, with its most recent edition starting at the World Heritage Site of Petra in Jordan — a long way from those first four BJ vehicles.