Medium-term Management Plan
Kagome’s Vision and Growth Strategies
Kagome considers its brand statement “True to Nature, the Flavor of Kagome” to be a promise to customers and contributes to the realization of people’s healthy diets through the development and delivery of products that benefit from the value of nature’s bounty.
First Mid-Term Management Plan 2016-2018
Earnings structure reform
- ●Raising the value of existing products
- ●Innovating new products
- ●Narrowing down existing and new products
- ●Reducing slow-moving products, disposal and inventory
- ●Reducing fixed costs
Work style reform
- ●Prohibiting overtime after 8:00 p.m.
- ●Introducing a telecommuting system
- ●Introducing a staggered working hour system
Second Mid-Term Management Plan 2019-202
- ● Complete earnings structure reforms in domestic agri-business and international business in fiscal year 2019
- ● Start new businesses and take on new domains, aiming for growth by 2020-2021
- ● Go from reforming work styles to reforming lifestyles
The Second Mid-Term Management Plan, which began in fiscal year 2019, is an important milestone for Kagome’s achievement of its long-term vision.
Kagome will start new businesses and take on new domains and will focus on further improving its social value and economic value.
■ Basic Strategy and Four Priorities
Basic Strategy
Growth by continuing to improve earning power, starting new businesses and taking on new domains
Priorities
- 1.Continue to boost value and reduce “unreasonableness, waste and inconsistency”
- 2.Start new businesses and take on new domains
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3.Go from reforming work styles to reforming lifestyles -Be a company that is enjoyable and meaningful to work
for, even with strict accountability - 4.Develop the mechanisms to be a strong company
Continue to boost value and reduce “unreasonableness, waste and inconsistency”
Meet needs by enhancing value in terms of functionality, onvenience and flavor
●Boosting value
We will focus on boosting value in terms of "improving the convenience of containers" for tomato sauce and other products, and "enhancing the flavor" of fresh tomatoes as well as "strengthening products with functional claims." In vegetable beverages, we will step up the search for ingredients and development of products that meet growing demand for sugar-free products among all generations. Meanwhile, we will focus on raising the prices of products that offer more value to a level commensurate with the value they offer. Using the same kind of thinking, we will also strive for higher sales of existing high added value products at a price level at which reasonable earnings can be expected.
●Reducing the cost of goods sold and slow-moving inventory and inventory disposal, and increasing logistical efficiency
Besides ensuring stable procurement of raw materials and narrowing down unprofitable products, we plan to reduce the cost of goods sold by improving production line efficiency. We will also focus on reducing slow-moving inventory and inventory disposal, which remains an issue, and on improving logistical efficiency.
Starting new businesses and taking on new domains
- For transformation to a “vegetable company"
Proposing "vegetable-based dishes” in the growing home meal replacement and restaurant markets
●Vegetable solutions
Commercial farms and vegetable processing plants are faced with many challenges including reducing the workloads and expanding sales networks in the agricultural industry, and consumers want food preparation and cooking to be simpler and less time-consuming. The business which consists in proposing solutions that leverage Kagome's expertise to meet these needs is called "vegetable solutions." Vegetable solutions is a top strategic priority for maximizing earnings and steadily making progress towards a "vegetable company" under the Second Mid-term Management Plan. Under our new structure without the boundaries between the consumer use, food service use and agri-business (fresh vegetables), we will expand the vegetable processing business as a new business and will propose convenient vegetable-based dishes using vegetable ingredients and condiments to the home meal replacement and restaurant markets.
●Initiatives for service business
We will lay the foundations for commercialization of the health promotion seminars tackled since 2017 and strengthen the related sales structure. We will also explore new business potential at facilities such as Kagome Yasai Seikatsu Farm Fujimi, which we opened as a sightseeing facility that embodies a "vegetable company."
Go from reforming work styles to reforming lifestyles
-Be a company that is enjoyable and meaningful to work for, even with strict accountability
Aiming to achieve total annual working hours of 1,800 by 2020
●Work style reform
"Work style reform" will enter a second phase. We will promote improvement in the efficiency of business operations through standardization and systemization, ensuring that all employees grasp that "work style reform" means "reforming their own lifestyles and are able to produce results at work in 8 hours per day for the achievement of total annual working hours of 1,800. We will also focus on making it even easier for employees to work, including letting employees have secondary jobs and introducing a flextime system, and we are aiming for an average percentage of paid leave of 80%.
●Promoting diversity
Aspiring for the ideal "scenario where all employees experience self-realization and job satisfaction through their proactive work at Kagome, increasing the sense of unity and strength of its organizations," Kagome will further promote the development of structures that enable it to fully demonstrate the effectiveness of diversity management. Besides aiming to achieve our vision of “50% of the workforce consisting of women-from employees to executive officers" by around 2040, we will also make a start on increasing work opportunities for LGBT, foreign workers and people with disabilities.
Develop the mechanisms to be a “strong company"
Mechanisms to increase the probability of success of equipment and business investments
●Initiatives to improve quality
Aiming for zero quality failures, we will pursue more sophisticated quality management. At the same time, we will adopt an integrated approach to environmental management, which takes into consideration issues such as prevention of global warming, water preservation on a global scale, and protection of biodiversity.
●Optimization of resource allocation
For the achievement of its long-term vision, Kagome will promote the "optimization of resource allocation." More specifically, we will thoroughly manage the allocation of resources by creating a business portfolio in business units, and we will focus on the innovation of business models and divestment.
●Investment decision criteria and monitoring of investment effect
Kagome will seek to improve the probability of success of investment projects by reviewing investment criteria and setting new criteria. We will also introduce mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating important projects after investment.
Capital cost
Kagome’s 2025 Vision is to “become a ‘strong company’ capable of sustainable growth, using food as a means of resolving social issues.” With this in mind, we developed the Second Mid-Term Management Plan 2019 under the basic strategy of achieving growth by continuing to improve earning power, starting new businesses and taking on new domains. To advance our efforts toward accomplishing the Mid-Term Management Plan, we emphasized business performance, such as revenue and core operating income, as well as capital efficiency. From the perspective of business performances, we formulate quantitative targets (revenue and core operating income) by business for each fiscal year, announce them and check the achievement progress periodically while also reviewing the measures being taken, as necessary. From the perspective of capital efficiency, we implement investment screening on major business investment and capital investment projects according to the internal rate of return (IRR) and the payback period criteria, and conduct monitoring on achievements in terms of profitability and capital efficiency for a limited number of years after relevant investments. If a project is found to fall short of the criteria as a result of monitoring, we review the strategy to determine the direction, including withdrawal through Board of Directors’ meetings and management meetings. In addition, we set target ROICs that exceed capital costs with respect to existing businesses. To achieve these targets, we establish KPIs and formulate action plans for the respective businesses.
