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 fiscal 2024, both sales and profit declined compared with our record-high earnings in fiscal 2023. However, this was largely due to the absence of certain one-time factors, such as the sales contributions from SUNNY MAIZE CO., LTD., which was included in our consolidated results in the first quarter, and the sales of real estate for sale recorded in the previous year. From a qualitative perspective, we believe the underlying business performance remained solid. Looking ahead to 2025, we anticipate continued increases in personnel and logistics costs, as well as ongoing uncertainty in foreign exchange rates. Although the business environment is expected to remain challenging, we remain fully committed to moving forward in unison as the Oenon Group.
We established a long-term vision, “NEXT100,” to mark our 100th anniversary of establishment in October 2024. Under this vision, which calls for us to achieve sustainable growth, we have defined our 10-year goal of becoming, by 2034, “a company that helps solve the issues facing society while maintaining sound management and steadily generating reasonable profits.” To achieve this vision, we are addressing three key challenges: “strengthening the competitiveness and profitability of core businesses,” “taking on challenges in new fields,” and “promoting ESG management.” Furthermore, as outlined in our Medium-Term Management Plan 2028, we have designated the five years from 2024 as “a period for consolidating our foundations for new growth.” We have established four pillars that we will promote to achieve our goals for this period, namely to “reinforce our presence as a comprehensive shochu manufacturer,” “expand sales routes and increase the scale of alcoholic beverage exports,” “ensure steady earnings from brewing and industrial alcohol for sale,” and “enhance the lineup of enzymes and expand the contract manufacturing business.” 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 2025
Yuji Nishinaga
President and CEO
Oenon Holdings, Inc.
