Shrink Sleeve Labels
Profitability improved through the efforts of each region
I believe that everyone involved in Shrink Sleeve Labels is responsible for growing this business as the Fuji Seal Group (FSG)'s core business and generating profits. However, during the previous medium-term management plan, we had to place higher priority on improving profitability than increasing sales under the influence of regional conflicts, rising fuel and raw material costs, and other factors. I am truly grateful to the members of each plant who, despite the difficult conditions, the staff of each factory were aligned with each other and continued their all-out efforts toward improvements, thereby transforming FSG into a corporate group structured to be able to earn profits just by manufacturing products.
Of our four regions, the Americas had the most distinctive business environment. Although the region was the only market that grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation occurred as a backlash and things suddenly began to sell badly. We revised selling prices to address the pressure on profits caused by rising raw material costs, resulting in a V-shaped recovery in profitability. With a high growth rate of the market, we will continue to grow while making profits and invest these profits in further growth.
Expanding into new regions and enhancing product development
FSG.30, our new management plan, has set a sales target of 350 billion yen or more for the entire Group. As one of the measures to achieve this target, the Shrink Sleeve Labels business aims to expand into new regions. With 2030 as our target year, we will take on the challenge of entering high-potential markets, in South America and India. We will also promote and enhance product development. We have many excellent technical experts in Japan in particular, so we hope that they utilize their extensive experience and technical capabilities in other countries with high growth rates.
Japan still has room to grow, of course. In the country, there are still many fields where shrink sleeve labels are not used. In addition, the Japanese market is large. Furthermore, last year, we restructured our organization from a company system to a business division system, which has increased our agility and our speed of product development
Taking advantage of changes as opportunities for business expansion
Environmental regulations are becoming more stringent in Europe, but we are optimistic about it in the belief that product development in timely response to new trends and changes will allow us to achieve the top market share. For example, we have succeeded in our Label-to-Bottle initiative with RecShrinkTM, which has obtained certification from the U.S.-based Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR). Against the backdrop of accelerating efforts to create systems for plastic recycling, our competitors are following suit and developing similar products, which are now becoming mainstream in the Americas market. This proves that we have been on the right track and that business will expand automatically as long as product development matches the local situation.
As a person in charge of a business, from now on, I must solve the challenge of how much human capital we can invest. We will devote energies to developing not only future management team members but also manufacturing, development, and sales staff and to creating an environment where talented people can demonstrate their capabilities while keeping in mind the need to assign the right people to the right positions.