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Maruha Nichiro President Comments, "First Half Year's Smooth Sailing"

December 9, 2010

Maruha Nichiro Holdings President Toshio Kushiro held a year-end press conference at its headquarters in Tokyo on December 7, and shared his thoughts on this year as well as his outlook on the next year onward. President Kushiro showed a sign of relief by saying, "As assuming a role of a brand new president in April, I was concerned about company performance, but the first half year went well somehow. The seafood segment that was going through tough times last year has now gone back to normal."

"It's been two years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, facing such trying times, domestic consumption has become lackluster because of the abruptly rising yen and deflation. With such a substantially low rate of new graduates receiving informal job offers, I am worried about a sense of stagnation affecting young people, who will be responsible for Japan's future. We must prepare ourselves for the continuation of these hard times, thinking about stagnating income growth, the falling birthrate and the aging population, and the shrinking population," he said.

As for the business conditions and the first half of the year's performance of the seafood segment, the President stated, "A strong upward movement of fish prices led to increases in revenue and profit. Both the Fisheries and Aquaculture Unit and the Marine Products Tradings Unit significantly improved their performances. While The North America Operation Unit registered increased revenue and earnings, the Marine Products Wholesaling Unit marked an operating loss as a result of contractions in sales and profit. The Strategic Sales Unit also suffered reduced profits dealing with value-oriented consumers."

The food segment kept a sideway-sales move. Its operating profit showed a slight reduction. Referring to Storage/Logistics Operation, Mr. Kushiro said, "Downsized inventories ended in an outstanding profit loss."

Regarding the mid-term management plan "Double Wave 21," having this fiscal term as the final year, the President spoke of its progress: "Initially we had a goal of \1 trillion in sales and \24 billion in operating proceeds. Since the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the business circumstances have drastically changed. Now we are looking at revised sales of \850 billion and operating earnings of \18 billion. During the first half year, sales were 99 percent and operating earnings were 100 percent contrasted with the planned figures." He indicated as-planned progression of the management plan. Moreover, apart from the numbers, he revealed, "integration effects enabled by reorganization of production bases are more than projected. We have managed to shrink expenses by \2.7 billion and labor cost by \2.1 billion. Interest-bearing debts have also decreased a great deal, and we estimate less than \300 billion next year." Conversely, he also mentioned, "Our aspirations for overseas market filtration and M&A wouldn't go as we wanted them to. These aspects will be part of the next mid-term management plan."

The original article was published on December 9, 2010 and was translated by Kiyo Hayasaka

Nippon Suisan's High Expectation for Synergy Effects of Delmar Co

December 7, 2010

Eiichiro Yamahashi, Commissioned General Manager of Food Service Products Dept. of Nippon Suisan talked about the positioning of Delmar Co., a newly added group company, within the Group and his expectation of it:

"Delmar has expertise in dealing with seafood processing; therefore they can make the best of the Group's raw material procuring power, like pollack, salmon, and shrimp. Delmar as a manufacturer boasts its own development, production, and distribution functions, from which we can expect the synergic effects in a mutually complementary manner. At the aspect of distribution, Nissui's distribution ability can be utilized."

"We are exchanging information on day-to-day duties; we are looking to manufacture Nissui products for home and professional uses with Delmar. If possible, we want to add Delmar products to our spring collection as early as next year."

The original article was published on December 7, 2010 and was translated by Kiyo Hayasaka

November Tsukiji Market Stats: Transaction Value Jumps 5% to \35.9B

December 2, 2010

The total transaction volume (primary operation) of seven wholesalers at the Tsukiji Market for November added up to 45,694 tons, up 1.8 percent compared with last year, and \35.9 billion in value, up 4.9 percent. The average unit price was \787 per kg, an increase of 3.1 percent.

Helped by an extra day of work in November, five out of seven companies pulled off increases in transaction volume in their primary operations. Swollen unit prices drove the value beyond the previous year's figures in six companies.

Takeshi Yoshida, Executive Managing Director of Tsukijiuoichiba Co. Ltd., said, "Though, high-end commodities, like specialty fish and live fish varieties, had a tough time, mainly frozen fish exhibited growth. Scallop, salmon, like sockeye, and fish roe were all performing well. There was a 20 percent decline in fresh tuna transactions, but a frozen kind went up more than last year."

"Partly because it was just awful last year, salmon, fish roe, and frozen tuna gave us an advantageous factor. Fresh fish and specialty fish virtually stayed flat," Tsubasa Oshikata, Executive Managing Director of Tohto Suisan, said.

Masahiro Watanabe, Board Member/Senior Sales Director of Daiichi Suisan, stated, "Special items like sea urchin and oyster, bonito and blue-backed fish varieties went well, however frozen fish and large sized fish fell short of the last year's numbers."

Marusen Chioda Suisan suffered declines in both volume and value. Executive Managing Director Kimio Okazawa commented on it: "We have lost sales in all of frozen food products, which we stopped dealing with as of the end of September; despite which we performed quite well."

Company	Volume (t)	Unit Price (￥/kg)	Value (￥ a million)
Chuo Gyorui	8,496 (1.4%)	917 (3.9%)	7,791 (5.3%)
Daito Gyorui	9,594 (4.0%)	797 (↓0.0%)	7,645 (4.0%)
Tohto Suisan	7,369 (3.2%)	898 (2.7%)	6,619 (5.9%)
Tsukijiuoichiba	8,222 (7.8%)	746 (3.0%)	6,130 (11.0%)
Daiichi Suisan	4,358 (↓3.5%)	786 (4.3%)	3,427 (0.7%)
Chiyoda Suisan	6,896 (↓6.3%)	515 (5.7%)	3,551 (↓1.0%)
Sogo Shokuhin	760 (20.2%)	1,022 (↓12.7%)	776 (4.9%)
Total	45,694 (1.8%)	787 (3.1%)	35,939 (4.9%)

The original article was published on December 2, 2010 and was translated by Kiyo Hayasaka

Yokohama Reito Expands Overseas Transactions

December 1, 2010

Yokohama Reito President Toshio Yoshikawa held a press meeting on the financial results for the year ended September 2010 at the company's headquarters in Yokohama on Nov. 29. It reported a turnover of \121.4 billion, or a 9.1 percent rise from the previous year, and operating profit of \3.793 billion, up 118 percent, ending with outstanding growth in both revenue and profit.

President Yoshikawa summed up the company performance with a hint of mixed feeling: "You may think we performed well, judging solely from the numbers. However, our group company's scandal (a subsidiary, Seiwa Food's false labeling of an origin of country of eel) created a great concern among people we did business with. All of our employees handled day-to-day duties with a sense of crisis; however, we could have generated better figures. I have a sense of remorse and a feeling of accomplishment at the same time."

Food Sales Business reported \102.9 billion in sales, or up 11.8 percent, and \1.955 billion in operating profit, an outstanding increase of \2.4 billion, verses an operating loss of \478 million last year. Declined sales of livestock products were counterbalanced by a sales rise in marine products, leading to an operating earnings growth in both marine and livestock products.

Chum salmon and mackerel exports hiked. With the company's key items, shrimp, squid, and scallop steadily showing strong sales performance, a newly consolidated subsidiary Alliance Seafoods Inc., also played a contributory role in revenue and profit increases.

Debut at Europe Seafood Show Next Year

In describing the third medium term business plan which is currently in progress and has FY09/2011 as the last year, President Yoshikawa expressed his strong interest in expanding overseas transactions by Food Sales Business and clearly stated the target numbers, "\10 billion in exports and \30 billion in imports." Furthermore, the company intends to debut at the European Seafood Show in Brussels next April.

The original article was published on December 1, 2010 and was translated by Kiyo Hayasaka

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