Top Message

Through co-creation, we will transform BtoB logistics in Japan

The Seino Group was established by founder Rihachi Taguchi with the mission of supporting society through logistics. Honorary Chairman Rihachi Taguchi’s stance has been to contribute to society in Japan through logistics. This has been a part of our DNA throughout the many years of our history, and it has become widely entrenched within the Group. My own belief is that my mission as the manager of a BtoB logistics company is to enhance both our corporate value and social value. At the same time, I also understand that we need to be flexible in adapting the methods for enhancing value according to the changes of the times. I very much feel that the logistics industry is at an unprecedented turning point. This is because of structural issues that have become apparent, such as the driver shortage linked to the decrease and aging of the population, as well as the growing demands of society that companies reduce their impact on the environment. In this context, an approach in which logistics companies seek to remain competitive solely by staying within their own closed networks is no longer sufficient to meet societal expectations or ensure economic rationality. I think this makes it more important to take on new challenges, even difficult ones, to enhance both corporate value and social value. Instead of adopting a passive stance on these issues, we have established the Team Green Logistics vision. We are determined to use it to streamline logistics and reduce our environmental impact by transcending the boundaries between companies. This initiative will not only solve issues in the industry but also help strengthen our customers’ supply chains and eventually increase the competitiveness of the Japanese economy as a whole. We are confident that this will enhance our corporate value as well.

We will press forward with O.P.P. and On Behalf

In the future of logistics that we have envisioned, there will be a shift from the existing competition based model to a co-creation model. The structure of the Japanese BtoB logistics industry has long been inefficient. Each company has its own delivery network and multiple trucks operate in the same area. This has resulted in a low loading efficiency of freight trucks, 40% on average, and have not made significant progress in terms of profitability, asset efficiency, or reducing CO2 emissions. To change this structure, we need to overcome the boundaries between companies to share logistics assets and transportation data and optimize the network. The Seino Group is pursuing four initiatives. 　The first one is the open public platform (O.P.P.). O.P.P. is a cross-industrial initiative that facilitates collaborations beyond the boundaries between companies and industries with the goal of optimizing the overall logistics network through co-creation. The expected results of this initiative include the improvement of labor productivity and loading efficiency. One initiative that embodies this idea is the matching platform for shippers and drivers operated by HACOBELL. This platform is helping to improve the loading efficiency of approx. 65,000 vehicles operated by approx. 22,000 transportation partner companies, mainly small and medium-sized FTL business operators. Collaborative distribution operations are also implemented in LTL transportation. In this area, our dedicated team reaches out proactively to other companies in the same industry. 　We are also moving ahead with initiatives to form capital alliances as an in-depth form of co-creation. In FY2024, we injected capital into a logistics subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, bringing this company (currently MD LOGIS CORPORATION) into the Seino Group. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation is our customer. Therefore, this capital injection was also an initiative for deepening our co-creation with a customer. In addition, Japan Logistic Systems, Fukuyama Transporting, Sankyu, and other companies took stakes in HACOBELL. This is another example of progress in our industry-wide initiatives. 　Additionally, we will transform the value we provide to customers. Under the On Behalf concept, we are advancing activities where we implement tasks on behalf of our customers, including inventory management, delivery operations, and working capital solutions. We change customers’ fixed costs into variable ones, which helps them concentrate their management resources on their main businesses. We are stepping up these activities so that expanding the range of value we provide will lead to substantial business in the future. 　The final initiative is co-creation with venture firms which have technologies and an entrepreneurial spirit. HACOBELL was created by RAKSUL, which excels at the use of digital technologies, and it was developed by the Seino Group, which has a strong business foundation (For details, see pages 25 to 30). We are also the first in the industry to focus on corporate venture capital (CVC). We are advancing co-creation with startups, including the use of drones in depopulated areas. 　Through these efforts, we aim to create value beyond the framework of a single company. We are sure that this is a bold attempt to make an innovative change in the structure of the industry, which will eventually contribute to increasing the industrial competitiveness of Japan as a whole.

We will accelerate initiatives under Roadmap 2028

To ensure that this innovative change will lead to corporate value, we formulated Roadmap 2028 in 2023. While engaging in customer-oriented management, we were unable to break away from low profitability and low capital efficiency, resulting in our being evaluated harshly by the stock market for our PBR of approx. 0.4. We took this evaluation seriously, looked squarely at the issues in each business, and reconsidered all of our measures and policies, including our capital policy. We then set the targets of achieving an ROE of 8.0% or higher and a PBR of more than 1 as quickly as possible. While we are still at the halfway point, our market capitalization has increased 116%, and our PBR has increased temporarily to almost 1.0. As of the end of FY03/25, however, many targets had yet to be achieved, such as our PBR and ROE targets. Our PBR was 0.8, and our ROE was 4.7%. Therefore, we need to accelerate our initiatives. We have begun to see results in the receipt of appropriate freight rates, the implementation of M&A activities, the acquisition of treasury shares, shareholder returns with a DOE of 4%, dialogue with investors and analysts, the improvement of employee work engagement, and other aspects of our business. On the other hand, we understand that the tasks we have yet to complete include the further improvement of profitability, the development of logistics and FTL businesses, and the improvement of asset efficiency.

We will continue to improve our corporate culture

The hands-on approach is part of the Seino Group’s corporate culture that has been passed down since our foundation. To increase our knowledge of customers and transportation sites, Seino Transportation, our core operating company, has introduced a training program in which officer candidates drive trucks and gain experience in pickup and delivery operations for approximately one year. We believe that it is rare for listed companies our size to take such an uncompromisingly hands-on approach. 　We provide support for our baseball club and other sports clubs and community activities because teamwork is important on the front lines of the Transportation Services Business. To our pleasure, in 2025, our team again advanced to the national tournament in the Intercity Baseball Tournament. Rooting for our peers in a companywide manner leads to stronger cooperation and teamwork in daily operations and also to the development of a sense of unity among employees. This helps build a strong organization. 　In addition to these initiatives, in 2024 we added an article on the implementation of the corporate philosophy to our Articles of Incorporation, which can be called the company’s constitution. This reflects our belief that the consistent implementation of our corporate philosophy and our corporate culture which enables us to implement it are the sources of the value we create. This initiative is implemented by only a few companies in Japan, including Eisai and the Marui Group. We promise to be fully committed to implementing it as we have received our shareholders’ approval.

We leverage external perspectives in our management

We believe it important to continue to pay attention to global trends, harness collective intelligence, and continue to review our ways of doing things, even as we improve our unique corporate culture. Since I became the president of Seino Transportation in 2003, I have been focused on the prosperity of our customers and have been concentrating my efforts on increasing operating revenue and profit, which are indicators for our management philosophy: Advancing Our Company and Supporting Employee Well-Being. My experience as an outside director of the Marui Group, which engages in forward-thinking management, together with my dialogues with people who have wide-ranging knowledge, made me aware that, as a manager of a listed company, I needed to step up dialogue with investors and rethink our approach to capital efficiency. Consequently, I made a course correction. This resulted in Roadmap 2028. We were able to significantly improve the quality and scope of our dialogue with external stakeholders. We would like to better leverage this in our management activities. We were also able to reaffirm that the financial well-being of employees is compatible with shareholder return. We will therefore enhance the employee stock ownership plan on an ongoing basis. 　In addition, in 2024, we transitioned from a company with an Audit and Supervisory Board to a company with an Audit and Supervisory Committee, which has facilitated prompt decision making. We were joined by new outside directors, including Mr. Takahiko Ijichi, who has been an executive vice president and representative director of Toyota Motor Corporation, and Ms. Makiko Sato, who has experience in supporting startups and venture investment. This has increased the diversity of the Board of Directors. We also substantially transformed the Advisory Board in 2023. Every month, we invite professionals in the fields of corporate governance, management strategy, sustainability, and other fields to participate in a lively exchange of views with me, our business managers, and our future management executives on a specific theme. We have begun to implement a cycle in which I, as a management executive, am responsible for promptly changing whatever needs to be changed to strengthen our organization.

We will build a sustainable future with all of our stakeholders

Our dialogue with our investors, including Commons Asset Management, a long-term investor and an impact investor, made me aware of the need to visualize the path for creating corporate value and, in particular, to quantify both the financial and non-financial aspects of our progress along this path. We have positioned non-financial indicators, including GHG emissions reduction, improvements in loading efficiency, employee retention rate, and employee engagement at the core of integrated management of economic and social value and have commenced a cycle of implementation, verification, and dialogue. This initiative is still in its early phase, but we would like to make improvements based on feedback from you. 　As a management executive, I am sure of one thing. That is, a company must be an entity that continues to create value together with society, instead of only pursuing profit. I believe that, for long-term growth, it is essential for a company to establish trust and create value for all stakeholders—customers, employees, their families, business partners, other partners in collaborations, shareholders, society, and the environment—and contribute to their sustainable development. Through Team Green Logistics, we will achieve our continued evolution, from a company which transports goods into a value creator with logistics at its core, one that combines a wide array of value rooted in logistics and that facilitates the growth of its customers even as it creates solutions to social issues. This is not just a management strategy. It is also our responsibility to future generations and our mission as a company engaged in logistics, which is a part of social infrastructure. We will continue to pursue value that lies beyond transportation and grow together with society.