弊社社長小林敬一がIHA主催｢2017 IBC Global Forum｣で登壇致しました。

2017年9月、弊社社長の小林敬一はアメリカ･フロリダで開催された、IHA(国際家庭用品協会)主催の｢2017 IBC Global Forum｣に出席し、日本の家庭用品業界とYUWAグループについて発表を行いました。

これは、当社が長年に渡ってIHAがアメリカ･シカゴで開催している｢International Home & Housewares Show｣に参加してきたことで、友和グループの紹介とともにあまり知られていない日本の家庭用品市場についてのプレゼンを依頼されたものです。

小林社長が現地で発表したレビューを紹介します。

2017 Global Forum Recap: YUWA, Japan

The president and CEO of the YUWA Group, Mr.Keiichi Kobayashi, co-presented this retail market overview with Mr.James Karani.

YUWA Introduction and Range of Services
Since 1965, The YUWA GROUP which comprises the 3 companies YUWA Co.,Ltd (distributor and wholesaler), Strix Design Inc and Strix Consulting Inc. has been involved in the houseware industry since 1965. YUWA is involved in kitchen, dining, home cleaning and laundry, picnic and outdoor products. Recent new categories added include home health care.

YUWA’s team or staff propose and organize projects that include selection and provision of product assortments to fulfill client needs, providing products from 600 local suppliers to 200 clients who have a total of 23,000 stores nationwide. The total reach is in essence the whole Japanese population, basically 120 million potential consumers. Annual sales are US $750 million.

Drug/supermarket/convenience stores make up 40% of their business and mass market chain channel at 25% share. Strongest products categories are Cook and Bakeware, Cleaning Products and Lawn/Garden/Outdoor Living, and Kitchen Tools and Accessories.

YUWA CLOUD offers a proprietary system indirectly linking suppliers and retailers for product information, order management, quality control, billing and payment processing and sales analysis reporting. YUWA takes pride in its quality control procedures that prevent defective products from reaching consumers and delivers quality, safe products to customers.

Specialized Services
YUWA as a housewares-related company that offers specialized market research which is rare in this industry. They study market size and changing trends and provide retailer-based research and housewares category-specific research. Its STRIX Consulting is the backbone of the YUWA logistics network. STRIX Design provides design-related services to clients, such as organizing trade show displays, branding and product development support for suppliers.

Analysis of Japan’s Housewares Market 2016
In the total market size of $1.2 trillion of YUWA’s key categories, YUWA provided a list of specific products and their sizes and growth rates. New sales opportunities emerged in existing categories because of technical improvements, lifestyle preferences and changes in retail offerings. For example, aluminum foil sales increased because of new coatings on the foil and food storage containers and home organization products grew because of consumer education about how to maximize space in the traditionally small refrigerators and homes. Sales of electric kettles increased because of the better quality of safer products inspired consumers to move from stovetop kettles to electric. As the popular convenience stores offered better tasting coffee, consumers purchased more coffee-related products to use at home. Pedometers, once sold only in health care shops or electronic shops, are now convenient and wearable and are sold with housewares in various stores in the general houseware categories.
Housewares floor space allocations in general merchandise stores and supermarkets is decreasing.

Economic Overview
Japan ranks #3 in global GDP. No. 1 is the U.S., four times the size of Japan’s GDP. #2 is China, with twice the size of Japan’s GDP and #4 is Germany, which represents 2/3 of Japan’s GDP.
Japanese consumers spend 58% of their GDP, compared to U.S. consumers spending 71%, Chinese consumers spend 37%, Germans spend 59% and UK consumers spend 65% of their national GDP.

Demographic Analysis
YUWA explained Japan’s regions and the highlights of each area’s demographics: population sizes, key industries and tourist attractions.

Overview of 2016 Retail Market
YUWA outlined the op 10 retail types, market shares and dollar value sales in the 93.72 trillion housewares market. YUWA also pointed out recent changes in formats and successes in each segment and highlighted the key retailers in each channel, described their histories and points of differentiation, and listed each retailer’s number of stores. YUWA also compared some key retail chains to comparable U.S. retail brands.

Supermarkets
Mail Order and E-Commerce: Amazon is #1
Convenience Stores: provide necessary services, such as bill payments, printing, ticket sales, and are increasing eat-in facilities, serve good quality coffee
General Merchandise Stores: struggling, as in other countries
Consumer Electronics: suffered during recession, added alcohol and health/cosmetics to attract customers sales
Department stores: food sections deliver high percentage of sales
Drug stores: a small percentage of total retail market but fastest growing brick & mortar stores
Home Centers
Cooperative Societies
Variety Stores
Other

Conclusion and Forecast
Japan is still a growing market, with total market size annual growth of 0.03%. In 2015-2016, the mail order/e-commerce segment grew by more than 10%. In 2017, data shows that online retail overtook the share once held by supermarkets. Based on data indicating changes in retail floor space dedicated to housewares, steep growth in ecommerce is predicted.