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Since its founding in 1948, the PLUS Group's core management policy has been to contribute to the solution of social issues through the pursuit of Social Optimality—defined as a situation in which society and the economy exist in harmony with the environment. In 2022, we crystallized our vision for Social Optimality in our Sustainability Policy. Under a three‑year Medium‑Term Business Plan launched in fiscal 2023, we took action on specific priorities based on this Sustainability Policy and the 14 priorities that make up our Materiality.
The unprecedented pace of change in the business environment during the past three years has driven business corporations to take on more ambitious challenges than ever before. One of the most significant changes for us has been the accelerating transition to paperless processes in the wake of the COVID‑19 pandemic. This has resulted in a structural shift that has shaken the foundations of the stationery and furniture industries. We have faced other challenges. A global inflationary trend has rapidly pushed up the prices of raw materials, while our logistics operations have been impacted by a labor shortage brought on by laws restricting overtime hours—known in Japan as the “2024 Problem.” At the same time, we have faced competition from new market players, resulting in part from the emergence of social networks.
However, we believe that a rapidly changing and challenging business environment offers prime opportunities for corporate transformation and progress toward our “Social Optimality” concept. We are starting to achieve tangible results through successive challenges under our Sustainability Policy: “Create Social Optimality with our unique ideas. Opening up the way to a sustainable future.”
In our furniture business, we are championing a shift away from the product‑driven mindset and adopting IGOCOCHI Making (creating comfortable spaces) as our core office design concept. This concept embodies our transition from the traditional make‑and‑sell model to a model focused on redesigning the way our customers work. For example, by installing thermometers and other sensors to monitor the workplace environment, we can provide ongoing recommendations to enhance spatial comfort.
Additionally, within our furniture business, we have fully launched the MOKURAL project, which seeks to revitalize forests and achieve carbon neutrality through the proactive use of domestic timber. As part of this initiative, we released the Vicenda Series, a hybrid office furniture line combining steel and domestic wood. This strategy is helping to expand demand for wooden furniture, in part through an emphasis on the well‑being benefits of natural wood.
In our stationery business, we are seeing steady results from initiatives such as the launch of the COE365 Series, an eco‑friendly brand targeted toward environmentally conscious Generation Z consumers. The products provide a fun way to think about the future while also helping to protect the environment. At the same time, we are making good progress with our efforts to reduce the use of plastic in product packaging.
In our distribution business, we have addressed challenges like labor shortages and delivery inefficiencies by going beyond our traditional BtoB framework to serve the end‑customers of our corporate clients through a new BtoBtoC business model that is now taking shape. For example, we have expanded our COREIL proxy shopping service for residents of nursing care facilities by adding a new home‑delivery dry cleaning service. By reducing the environmental impact through load optimization, while simultaneously easing the burden on care workers and improving the quality of life for residents, this project is generating genuine social value in ways that reflect the PLUS Group's unique capabilities.
These initiatives are the direct result of our long‑standing pursuit of Social Optimality. We firmly believe that our commitment to practicing shiho‑yoshi (a four‑way satisfaction), simultaneously bringing satisfaction to our customers, partner companies, employees, and society, is precisely what drives the enduring competitive advantage that we have maintained since our founding.
In 2026, the PLUS Group launched its new Medium‑Term Business Plan. We developed this plan by defining a specific vision for a decade into the future, and backcasting to determine our path forward. This approach will ensure that we remain anchored in our medium‑ to long‑term vision, while executing growth strategies with unwavering focus even in an era of rapid change.
Guided by our group philosophy—“Unique Values - Higher Satisfaction”—our goal is to remain a company that continuously drives innovation and creates new markets. We aim to achieve this by pursuing a “partnership M&A” strategy, under which we will scale our business by fostering a chain of resonance with partners who share our core values as we strive to become the leading player in the BtoB segment.
At the core of this strategy is the PLUS Resonant System (PRS), a new core infrastructure system that is currently being built using agile development methodology*.
Our vision is to open up the PRS as a marketing platform, not only for existing PLUS Group companies, but also for new member companies acquired through M&A, as well as for our external partners. We envision a future where information sharing and collaboration will accelerate in step with growth in the number of companies sharing information and collaborating via the PRS, which will evolve over the next 10 years into the core of our “chain of resonance.”
Based on the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, this methodology involves short cycles of development and improvement, allowing for maximum flexibility in adapting to evolving market needs.
Our business units are already working toward the realization of this ambitious vision, which will also drive a profound transformation of our corporate culture.
We have integrated our four stationery brands—PLUS Stationery, Pentel, Nippon Notebook, and Sailor Pen—under ASTRUM, a new company launched in April 2026. We see this consolidation as a step toward our evolution as one of the world's leading integrated stationery manufacturers.
In the furniture business, we will further evolve our IGOCOCHI Making (creating comfortable spaces) concept. We will also expand our business into the area of consultation, including direct engagement with employees of our corporate clients. Our goal is to become a vital partner for our corporate clients by using offices as the starting point for initiatives that directly address issues affecting their human resources and organizations.
In the distribution business, we are moving away from our traditional business model based on the rapid delivery of goods from our warehouses. Under our “procurement professional” concept, we are instead building a new business scheme built around the provision of goods and solutions tailored to the specific outcomes that our customers aim to achieve.
Alongside the evolution of these existing businesses, we are driving bottom‑up business creation through our Next‑Generation Core Business Creation Program. In 2023, this program produced Tabereru, a food‑based employee benefits service. Tabereru leverages cutting‑edge freezing technology, but the true source of new value created through this program is human passion and ideas. The chemical reaction generated by combining these human factors with technology is the ultimate driving force for innovation.
One of the core values shared by all of our employees is a commitment to pursuing uniqueness. We are determined to foster a group‑wide culture that empowers individuals to bring their personal visions to life and mobilize partners both inside and outside the company to build new initiatives. At the same time, we aim to cultivate a mindset that embraces calculated risk and inspires people to pioneer the new de facto standards without fear of failure.
Across all of these business activities, my highest priority is maintaining an unwavering commitment to the customer's perspective. We must constantly focus on what our customers want to achieve and become so that we can help them to realize those outcomes. I believe that the pursuit of this customer perspective aligns with our commitment to Social Optimality and underpins our corporate purpose. As chief executive, I see continuous monitoring of our operations to ensure no business unit ever loses sight of this customer perspective as one of my most critical responsibilities.
As the PLUS Group evolves into a global enterprise and platform provider, we must also enhance our sustainability management in step with changing needs. Although we are not a publicly listed company, we constantly strive to maintain the highest standards of governance and management on par with listed companies.
Furthermore, I believe that sustainability is not only about avoiding passing the buck to future generations, but also about actively building pluses for the future. With our corporate philosophy, PLUS no kokoro (the Spirit of PLUS), as our driving force, we will continue to work alongside stakeholders worldwide to build a more prosperous and sustainable society.
We are confident in the future of the PLUS Group, and we look forward to sharing the next chapter of our story with you.