Building on Our Existing Strengths

We aim to increase our corporate value by taking a medium- to long-term perspective in fields where our Group companies have strengths. This includes developing multifaceted business fields centered on China and other parts of Asia as well as promoting initiatives to further new business opportunities and maximize synergies in our areas of strength, such as the consumer sector.

Building Synergies that will Become Growth Pillars over the Medium to Long Term

In January 2015, ITOCHU acquired 20% of the share of China’s largest state-owned conglomerate, CITIC, in a 50–50 joint investment with CP Group in order to expand our earnings base in China and other parts of Asia, our areas of strength. Since around 80% of CITIC’s earning power is in the financial sector, our role as its partner is to contribute to expanding its non-financial businesses. Meanwhile, CITIC is an unchanging reliable partner for the ITOCHU Group in China, with its local market of approximately 1.4 billion people and rapid business development supported by various government policies. With the impact of COVID-19 on top of an already uncertain management environment, it has become necessary to take a more comprehensive approach to risk identification and business discernment. We will combine the resources of CITIC, including human networks and information, with our own strengths in the non-resource sector, especially the consumer sector, to build synergies that will become earnings pillars from a medium- to long-term perspective.

Creating New Business Models Utilizing Customer Contact Points

FamilyMart is the Group’s core business company with customer contact points involving its network of approximately 16,500 physical stores in Japan and around 15 million customer purchases a day. By placing this business under The 8th Company, our policy is to achieve further supply chain optimization and efficiency gains through a “market-oriented perspective,” by responding to market and consumer needs, rather than fixating on the vertical organizational structure based on the traditional product-oriented approach. In addition, by promoting a series of digital strategies such as electronic payment, we will increase convenience and customer appeal, which will strengthen the earning power of existing stores even further. Amid increasing pressure to revise the business model of the convenience store itself, we will take steps to further strengthen our existing business foundation. At the same time, we aim to build a new business model that creates new added value across the traditional boundary of goods or services through the fusion of physical and digital formats, and exploring future overseas expansion in more detail.