The Takuma Group recently formulated Vision 2030, its long-term vision setting forth medium- and long-term management policies, and launched its 13th Medium-Term Management Plan (FY2021 to FY2023) in April 2021 as the first step towards realizing this vision. Under it, we will strengthen conventional businesses by reinforcing the Group’s management foundation and at the same time strive to achieve sustained growth by accelerating its response to future environmental changes.
During FY2022, the second year of the plan, orders received remained high, despite falling slightly below the initial target. Net sales rose 8.5 billion yen from the previous fiscal year thanks to steady progress on the construction of previously ordered plants. Operating profit rose 3.8 billion yen to 13.8 billion yen as a result of an increase in net sales and improved profitability, while ordinary profit rose 4.0 billion yen to 14.6 billion yen. Profit attributable to owners of parent rose 2.1 billion yen to 9.6 billion yen.
The New Harima Factory began operating in January 2023. The new factory will inherit high-quality manufacturing policies to serve as a manufacturing facility characterized by improvements in productivity and quality, environmental performance and disaster resilience, sustainability, and people- and environmental friendliness as it responds to an every-diversifying range of customer needs, including demand for larger boilers and the ones that operate at higher temperatures and pressures. The new Harima Factory will accommodate a new era by inheriting the site’s 80 years of history while combining new production technologies with tradition. Thanks to the cooperation of everyone involved and the creativity and diligence of each and every Takuma employee, the construction of the new factory overcame a variety of challenges, including coordinating the necessary permits with government agencies, planning and arranging the layout of production equipment, relocating equipment to the new factory while continuing production at the old facility, and contending with the COVID-19 pandemic, soaring building material costs, and a labor shortage in the construction industry. We believe that the valuable experiences gained in the course of building the new factory will drive further improvements in our future operations.
Currently, we are facing a variety of social issues. Medium- and long-term trends posing global issues include the increasingly serious problems of climate change and rising energy demand accompanying population growth and economic growth in developing nations. Challenges in Japan include falling domestic demand due to the shrinking and aging of the population, labor shortages, financial pressure on both national and local governments, and aging of public infrastructure. Furthermore, impacts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have added to the uncertainty surrounding humankind’s drive to realize a sustainable society. Against this backdrop, the question of how to achieve sustained growth into the future is a key challenge.
Tsunekichi Takuma, one of the 10 great inventors of the Meiji and Taisho periods, founded Takuma in 1938 with the philosophy of “Serve society through boiler manufacturing”. Since that time the Takuma Group has inherited this philosophy and used it to establish businesses involving the full array of boilers while taking advantage of technologies developed through boilers to enter the environmental sanitation field with facilities such as waste treatment plants and water treatment plants, broadening its businesses with a focus on the fields of energy use and environmental protection, and contributing to society’s development and the resolution of social problems.
Takuma’s Management Principles state, “Takuma will strive for social contribution, corporate value enhancement, long-term corporate development and the satisfaction of all stakeholders by providing goods and services that are needed and recognized as valuable in society”. These Management Principles lie in this founding spirit, and a dedication to contributing to the sustained development of society over the long term through business activities remains the starting point of the Takuma Group as well as a core expression of its unchanging values.
Along with the technologies and expertise that the Takuma Group has accumulated through the repeated improvement of products and services in keeping with these values, the relationships of sincerity and trust that the Group has developed with longstanding customers by providing after-sales service and solutions have been passed down unbroken as the tangible and intangible assets that embody its greatest strengths and the source of its ability to compete successfully.
The Group is implementing ESG management, which seeks to satisfy all stakeholders and realize sustained growth for the Group by strengthening initiatives that address ESG issues through its business activities.
Vision 2030, which sets forth a long-term vision for the Group as it should exist in 2030, includes this statement: “Aim to maintain our role of being an indispensable presence in society as a leading company in the field of renewable energy utilization and environmental protection by realizing sustained growth alongside our customers and society through implementation of ESG management”. Reducing environmental impacts by increasing adoption of renewable energy will be an essential part of steps to combat climate change. The generation of power using biomass and unutilized waste products as fuel will make a particularly significant contribution to the development of a Sound Material-Cycle Society by facilitating not only the stable supply of power independent of climate impacts, but also the reuse and reduction of waste. By converting biomass and waste into energy with the biomass power plants and municipal solid waste treatment plants we supply, we will help both reduce emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and facilitate the long-term, stable supply of power.
Human resources who contribute to each and every of our departments and worksites will play an essential role in realizing Takuma’s sustained growth. To realize this goal, we formulated the Policy on Human Resource Development and the Policy on Takuma’s Internal Environment Improvement in June 2023. By promoting diversity and utilizing a diverse workforce, we can respond to changes in the business environment in a flexible and timely manner. By fostering mutual recognition and respect of diversity, the organization can accept diverse human resources, leverage their abilities, and create an environment in which employees are assigned to the positions that best suit them. Creating workplaces where each employee takes ownership by becoming an engaged and interested party, where colleagues collaborate closely and honestly share common purpose, and where everyone puts into action decisions made through thorough discussion will serve to strengthen growth and competitive capability.
At a time when the business environment in which the Group operates is forecast to experience continued uncertainty about the future, momentary lapses have the potential to turn into crises that shake management to its core. When facing such crises, it is appropriate to reflect on Takuma’s Management Principles. Fostering a perspective that asks whether we are valuing the Management Principles in our jobs and whether we are using them to shape decision-making will lead the organization in the correct direction and help increase its performance. By ensuring that the Management Principles permeate our organization, we can both resolve social issues and increase our profitability so as to realize sustained growth for society and the company alike.
Takuma has been a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact*1 since 2006, and we support its 10 fundamental principles in the four areas of human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. We will work to develop our business while understanding and respecting these globally shared principles. The Takuma Group has been helping resolve social issues with technologies for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases through such means as high-efficiency power generation using waste and biomass since before the phrase “renewable energy” entered into common usage. We believe that initiatives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) put forth by the United Nations*2 and the COP21 Paris Agreement align extremely well with the Group’s businesses.
We at the Takuma Group encourage stakeholders to offer their candid views and advice, which we will carefully review in order that we might better resolve social issues and contribute to the sustained development of society
*1 United Nations Global Compact: The Takuma Group has joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), which is a voluntary effort to create a global framework for implementing sustainable growth by having companies and groups exercise responsible and creative leadership while acting as good members of society.
*2 Sustainable Development Goals: We are harnessing a variety of technologies to help resolve these critical global environmental issues, which are set forth in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations.
October 2023
President and CEO, Takuma Co., Ltd.
