Message from the President

The Morinaga Group will continue to create healthy foods that can be enjoyed beyond generations, thereby bringing smiles to the faces of people around the world now and in the future.

Morinaga & Co. Ltd. was established in 1899 as a confectionery manufacturing company. In the 120 years since its founding, the company has tackled many challenges.

The first challenge tackled by the company’s founder Taichiro Morinaga was to provide delicious and highly nutritious Western confectionery to the people of Japan, who in the late 1800s lacked nutritional food options and were unfamiliar with Western confectionery culture. Ever since then, we have continued to tackle numerous challenges, such as the development of milk caramel packaged in pocket-size boxes and the first chocolate in Japan to be produced from cacao beans in a “bean-to-bar” process. Such efforts have enabled us to provide a diverse range of memorable products that are cherished by Japanese consumers. The trust that we have earned from our customers and the public through these efforts is one of the core strengths of the Morinaga Group.

In fiscal 2021, we began to implement our 2030 Business Plan, a new long-term management plan formulated with a long-term view toward further growth and enhancement of our corporate value that will enable us to realize our 2030 vision. Amid the turbulent changes in the current external environment, we will address those changes by leveraging the technologies we’ve accumulated and the trust we’ve earned over our 120-year history. Our efforts will be guided by a sustainable management approach to solving important management issues that integrates both financial and non-financial considerations as we work toward our 2030 Vision “The Morinaga Group will Change into a Wellness Company in 2030. Further evolve reliability and technology built on in its 120-year history to support people’s wellness life styles in all generations worldwide.”

In the 2021 Medium-Term Business Plan, the first stage of the 2030 Business Plan, we made steady progress in our initiatives to build our management foundations, in addition to realizing high growth. However, issues remain from the perspective of profitability. In light of those issues, in the 2024 Medium-Term Business Plan, we will aim to establish a “growth trajectory” based on a virtuous circle of growth potential and capital profitability by practicing ROIC management. In doing so, we will bring certainty to our path toward the achievement of the 2030 Business Plan.
We will also pursue greater diversity and inclusion, which we have declared as a key basic policy for the realization of our 2030 vision. Based on the principle of “Leverage each person’s individuality,” by enhancing our ability to respond to changes and creating innovation through augmenting the diverse knowledge generated by various individuals, we together with our customers will continue to address those customers’ and society’s challenges.

To be a sustainable company that continues to grow, our mission is to ensure that the Morinaga Group continues to create healthy food products that are cherished by people of all ages and continues to conduct all of its corporate activities in a manner that helps bring smiles to the faces of people around the world today, tomorrow, and into the future. By creating food products that promote the health of both minds and bodies, we will contribute to the realization of a happier and more sustainable society.

The MORINAGA Group looks forward to your continued support and guidance.

Eijiro Ota
Representative Director, President