~ Seeking 飛天 Fravashi ~

From an unprecedented global depression

It has been three years since the last Grand Marin Commemoration Ball (Grand Marin is a party held every three years, inviting customers and partners). During the last three years, we experienced a heavy fall of oil and grain market price, an unprecedented global depression, triggered by the Lehman's fall. Mr. Warren Buffett, the great stock market investor and who is also considered to be a modern sage, phrased this experience as "fallen from the precipice." Now, are we recovering from this darkness?

Fighting with our back against the wall

Our company's revenue increased 40% from the last Grand Marin Commemoration. We have been fighting so strenuously, as if we were in the state of war.
The cost of raw material of cheese and margarine rose up to two times higher, and the issue of butter shortage appeared in many newspapers.
"Our company is in danger!"
With our back to the wall, "Styrino" (cheese alternative) was born. Then, in our attempt to diversify our main product, margarine, the idea of chocolate-related product appeared.
These two products won the "Best Industrial Processed Food Prize" from Japan Food Newspaper Company in 2009 and 2010.

Core Competence

I have emphasized to our employees, the paramount importance of "Core Competence" and to make specialty products as much as we can.
Our portioned margarine products occupy a 80% market share in Japan. Our flavored margarine products occupy a 70% share. Marin Food is practically a monopoly in cheese alternatives. Chocolate Fondue is currently made only by Marin Food.

Sales and Marketing Structure

We have forty sales people all over Japan. Each sales person visits 170 companies in a month. In addition, every year, we invite 150 companies to our factories and arrange factory tours and introduce products.
At the same time, every year, our R&D team visits 150 companies to explain the qualities of our products.

Conservativity about Food

Our food industry is surprisingly low-key, low-tech, and conservative, when compared with other industries. Our tendency to prefer mother's home cooking continues throughout life, which can prevent us from experiencing new tastes and new flavors. How many food products have you eaten for the first time in your life this year?

Boundless Possibility

However, I also believe that our food industry is full of potential. We eat three times a day.
Japan's food industry is a 80 trillion yen market. Annual food consumption per capita is 650 thousand yen.
By contrast, Japan automobile business is a 10 trillion yen market. Annual consumption per capita is 85 thousand yen.
Housing industry, which is one of the biggest purchases for a person, is a 24 trillion yen market. Annual consumption per capita is 200 thousand yen.
As you can see, the food industry is bigger than any other industry.
When you look at the food industry abroad, it is a 1500 trillion yen market with the population of 7 billion, which is a dazzling dimension.
Nestle, the largest food and nutrition company in the world, has a revenue of 10 trillion yen, which is only a 0.6% share in the world.
It is clear that each one of us in the food industry has boundless possibilities.

Marin Food's "Stylino" won the 24th New Technology and Food Development Prize from Japan Food Newspaper Company in 2010.

Stylino was born, responding to the soaring prices of the cheese in 2007 and 2008.
Applying the oil processing technology as a margarine manufacturer, we replaced the milk fat with vegetable fat, and emulsified with a lactoprotein of good quality.
Its price is set 2~30% lower and yet its flavor is comparable to cheese products. It melts superbly and is low in cholesterol at the same time.
The product name "Stylino" derives from two Greek words "Sty"(future) and "Tili"(cheese), wishing it to be a future cheese.
Our situation is not always rosy. However, nothing can be more exciting and moving than challenging the goals and surviving the severe competition in the swell of changing times.
I wish to serve as a locomotive for employees, customers and partners who serendipitously work with Marin Food, to co-create the precious future in our hands.

Charles Ellis described the secret of the making of Goldman Sachs as that they did not have excellent ideas nor awful ideas, but they made a modest step every day by day, as solid as possible, in the right direction.

It has been 31 years since I became a president of this company. Our progress was as if a cow in a city was forwarding up a winding ramp at a sluggish pace.

This year, I named our voyage "Galaxy Train," in the midst of the stream of seeking a rejuvenation of Japan and the world, to search for the seed of eternal life.


January 29, 2011
Naoki Yoshimura
President, Marin Food Company