1. Rebuilding of Earning Power

We accelerate the scrap and build of our existing business and optimize our business portfolio. We will discontinue the production of stearic acid at our subsidiary by the first half of this fiscal year and will consolidate and rationalize manufacturing bases for some of plasticizers and acid anhydrides. Other unprofitable businesses will also be rebuilt, and we will withdraw from businesses that cannot be expected to improve.
On the other hand, we will focus our management resources on growing businesses and aim to make them profitable as soon as possible. In particular, we will promote our new nucleating agents and bio-derived ester oils as ones that help to realize a decarbonized society and will push forward with the development of markets and applications.

2. Gaining a Competitive Advantage through Innovation

We encourage technology exchange and collaborative research with a variety of partners, including companies in the same industry, startup companies, and academic institutions at the Kyoto R&D Center opened in May 2021.
In terms of digital transformation, the DX Promotion Office launched in April 2022 will take the lead in promoting company-wide digitization. Each department is working on its own issues and goals, such as the predictive maintenance of facilities based on the operating data in the manufacturing department, and the advancement of sales strategies in the sales department by using the customer management system.

3. Promoting CSR Management

The CSR Committee selects 11 factors as our ESG materiality and establishes KPIs for each one to promote activities.
In terms of E (Environment), we have established the goals of reducing CO₂emissions in Japan by 50% by FY2030 (compared to FY 2013) and achieving carbon neutral by FY2050. We are already procuring electricity and gas derived from renewable energy sources at our plants and R&D Center. In the future, we will further optimize energy use and reduce CO₂emissions by analyzing operating data of manufacturing facilities. We will also increase the number of bio-based products that serve as substitutes for petrochemical feedstocks.

4. Reorganization and Strengthening Human Resource Development

We make active investments in our human resources because they are what increase our corporate value. The personnel system introduced in April 2023 encourages employees to take on new challenges, and focuses on reducing seniority-based compensation factors and adding more variety to treatment. In addition, we are encouraging the nomination of women to management positions, employing people from different backgrounds, and setting up a flexible work system in order to promote diversity & inclusion.

We would like to ask our shareholders and investors for their continued understanding and support of our business operations.