President's Message

In April 2023, YKK AP transitioned to a new management structure. Following in the footsteps of the founder and first president Tadahiro Yoshida and the second president Hidemitsu Hori, I am once again humbled by the great responsibility of ensuring the sustainable growth of the business.

On taking up my new position as president, I set out becoming a "global leading company" as the ideal for "what we seek to be and how we ought to be in 2030," and have developed the "Evolution 2030" to achieve that goal. Accordingly, we will undertake initiatives based on the following three policies.

First, in order to "contribute to the global environment," we are aiming to reduce internal CO₂ emissions by 80% (relative to FY2013) by FY2030. We plan to make a total of 50 billion yen in sustainability-related investments in Japan and overseas through FY2030. Next, as part of "creating new value for our customers," we will seek to transform our business model by developing and proposing "unitized curtain walls" for mid-rise buildings, which help reduce labor requirements, and the "integrated insulated building envelope solutions." In addition, we hope to increase the proportion of our sales generated overseas from the current 17% to 30% by investing in the order of 100 billion yen in overseas markets. Moreover, in April, we developed the YKK AP Human Rights Policy, with the aim of achieving "prioritizing employee well-being and engagement." As such, we will work to create an environment in which a wide range of personnel can play an active role, provide employees with opportunities for growth, and increase the proportion of women in management positions.

Through proactive efforts by all employees to implement these measures, we aim to become a leading company with net sales of 1 trillion yen.

In FY2022, net sales reached 508.6 billion yen, a record high for the second consecutive year. Operating income also increased for the first time in four years, to 17.8 billion yen, or 103% of the previous year's level.

Currently, demand for remodeling and renovation is surging due to the government's subsidy program, a measure to strengthen support for energy conservation. As a result of the unexpected surge in order volume, delays in delivery have occurred, and we apologize to our customers and business partners for the inconvenience this has caused. We are currently in the process of expanding our production facilities to meet demand. Meanwhile, we are taking every possible measure to reduce the burden on employees at manufacturing sites, such as labor saving through the introduction of automated equipment and the outsourcing of assembly work to outside companies. In the coming fiscal year and beyond, it is predicted that the logistics and construction industries will face a shortage of labor. As a measure to address this problem, we have developed an approach of stocking goods close to where they are needed and transporting them to job sites in near-complete condition. In order to secure engineers for design and construction management, we will also focus on training engineers while increasing the number of mid-career hires.

YKK AP's strength lies in the character of its employees. We have assembled a group of personnel who take the YKK philosophy, the "Cycle of Goodness," or a mindset of rendering benefit to others, as their own and can take action accordingly. Therefore, human resource development is one of our key issues. We are actively reviewing our salary structure and expanding position and qualification benefits to ensure that employees feel rewarded in their work.

Together with our diverse workforce, we will evolve to become a global leading company.

YKK AP Inc. President Representative Director
Akira Uozu