President's Message
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to our investors for your support.
We at the Oenon Group are guided by our Corporate Group Philosophy in conducting our biotechnology-based business, which focuses on fermentation technology. We place topmost importance on delivering safe and secure products to our customers, maintaining a combined customer- and profit-oriented focus throughout our operations. We are also promoting initiatives that contribute to the “co-creation of future value.” Specifically, we believe it is essential to fulfill our social responsibilities as a company that supports the infrastructure that underpins society and livelihoods. By doing so, we aim to ensure sound and sustainable growth over the medium to long term. Accordingly, we promote ESG management, which takes environmental, social and governance factors into consideration.
In 2023, sales increased for our price-conscious store-brand chu-hi (RTD) products, chu-hi base spirit, and umeshu plum wine. These sales, plus several successful rounds of price revisions since March 2022, resulted in our highest level of profits to date. In 2024, we expect the operating environment to remain difficult, due to protracted yen depreciation and the so-called “2024 problem” in the logistics industry. We will push forward, working together as a group to surmount these challenges.
In October 2024, we will celebrate our 100th anniversary of establishment. To mark this anniversary, we are engaging in initiatives under the Long-Term Vision 100, which defines our sustainable growth vision as a company. We are rolling out a host of measures centered on the vision’s five pillars: focus on the shochu business, expand sales in the brewing and industrial alcohol business, conduct production reforms, achieve new development in the enzymes and pharmaceuticals business, and follow a real estate CRE strategy. Underpinning our working styles as we move into a “new normal” era is our sangen shugi principle (genba, genjitsu, genbutsu). This idea, the “three reals philosophy,” is sometimes expressed in English as “the actual place, the actual situation and the actual goods.” Our actions will follow a cycle based on three principles: decide swiftly, act nimbly and engage in honest reflection. As a result, we aim to manage the Group with a sense of speed, responding flexibly to changes in our environment.
We ask for your ongoing support and encouragement of these endeavors.
March 2024
Yuji Nishinaga
President and CEO
Oenon Holdings, Inc.
