R. Sakamoto, president of Toyobo presents future direction of company at New Year press conference.

Mr. Ryuzo Sakamoto, president of Toyobo

Mr. Ryuzo Sakamoto, president of Toyobo, held a press conference at the Hilton Hotel, Osaka on January 12, where he gave a presentation on the future direction of the company. What left a strong impression was that the character of its business would change drastically in the future as shown in Fig-1.

The sales of textile fibers accounted for 56 % of total sales amounting to 461.1 billion yen in 1995. The amount of sales in 2006 was less than that of 1995, but business profits increased. It lowered the sales of textiles fibers to 35 % of the total, and increased the specialty businesses instead. The president, Mr. Sakamoto, emphasized that the company wanted to further strengthen this tendency.

To set the direction of the company in the future, Mr. Sakamoto showed "The future direction" as seen on the right side of Fig-1, which he said was the targeted ratio of business around the year 2010.

To aim at it, the company will promote various specialty businesses by expanding the evolution and integration of film and functional polymers, and of elementary technology, and will increase the range of specialty businesses by putting more emphasis on products for various uses such as functional resin for automobiles, electronic materials for the e-market place, fabrics for air-bags in vehicles and non-woven fabrics. He announced a policy to extend the reach of those businesses through a global promotion covering China, Europe and America.

Fig-1 Toyobo’s business description

( Click the image for enlargement )

Textile fibers to focus on functional types and withdraw unprofitable items.

Mr. Sakamoto presented the company policy that the textile business, which has been largely supporting Toyobo's business, will be focusing on internationally competitive functional textiles. Last year's review of underperforming businesses for textile fibers considerably improved profitability, and the company will continue conducting revisions this year to withdraw unprofitable items.

Mr. Sakamoto said that, like other companies, Toyobo suffered badly from soaring fuel prices last year, but that negative impact has contributed to having the company make total efforts to reduce costs and focus on technical renovation at the same time, which led the company to spring back more strongly, to be more aggressive and to be willing to try to expand through intensifying strategic investment on the specialty businesses.

Japan Vilene unifies brand name of clothes wadding to "Airpack".
2 new products developed and promotion started for 2007 autumn/winter.

Japan Vilene will unify its brand name of clothes wadding to “Airpack” and deal with apparel businesses in Japan and China.

This label unification is targeted at improving its brand-name cachet through simplifying its brand structure.

Based on the above-mentioned strategy, the company has newly developed 2 types of product outlined below targeting sports apparel and begun its sales for 2007 autumn/winter.

• “Airpack DS” Down-like/soft type
• “Airpack MS” Microfiber/smooth type
  (Both products have 3-type standards, 60g/m², 90g/m² and 120g/m²)

“Airpack DS” is a clothes wadding for high-quality sportswear and ladies’ wear. It is made of polyester for down-like soft feel. Its very soft hand, high bulkiness and heat-retaining properties are realized with ultrafine microfiber entangled more delicately and intricately than ever before.

“Airpack MS” is a polyester clothes wadding for men’s wear, sports and outdoors and it has a smooth hand on its surface and high heat-retaining properties with excellent strength and washing fastness. It can produce a slim silhouette for jackets and coats with inner cotton because of its smooth surface with a 3-layer structure of ultrafine microfiber.

Pret A Porter Paris to be held from February 1 to 4.

Pret A Porter Paris February 2007 and Pret A Porter Accessory Collection autumn/winter 2007/08 will be held at Hall 7 in Paris Expo Porte de Versailles for 4 days from February 1(Thu.) to 4 (Sun.)

A total of 1,500 brands from 50 countries will be exhibited this time in 11 areas (8 areas for pret-a-porter and 3 areas for accessories/fashion goods).