Japan Hume's growth strategy
4. Sustainability Management
As part of its ESG strategy, Japan Hume aims to contribute to sustainable society through its concrete products business, which contributes to social infrastructure development, and e-CON(R), which contributes to achieving a decarbonized society. In terms of growth and SDG investment, the company plans to implement structural reform investment aimed at becoming a 200-year-old company, including investment in precast manufacturing, investment in the e-CON(R) business, investment in equipment for carbon neutrality, investment in digitization, efficiency, and labor saving, and investment in equipment and production infrastructure improvement.
The company formulated a "partnership building declaration" in January 2024, and its Kyushu branch was registered as an SDGs registered company in Fukuoka Prefecture. In March 2024, the company was certified as a Healthy Management Excellent Company 2024 (Large Corporations Category) by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Japan Health Conference, and it has been a supporter member of the Women Civil Engineering Technicians' Association since March 2022, supporting the activities of the association.
Evaluation of the progress of the ambitious mid-term management plan and the strengthening of shareholder return measures
Our perspective
In the construction-related industry, including concrete secondary products, investor expectations for growth are not particularly high due to the perception of market maturity and competition for orders. However, in its mid-term management plan for the period 2023-2027 (Plan R), the company positions its high value-added precast product business as a new growth driver, and shows motivation toward new business development with awareness of sustainability management, such as precast production of low-carbon, high-performance concrete e-CON(R). We highly appreciate the company's ambitious mid-term management plan "23-27 Plan R", its smooth progress in the March 2024 period, and its efforts to strengthen shareholder return measures (increased dividends, implementation of share buybacks, and establishment of a shareholder benefit system). We also want to keep an eye on the progress of the "23-27 Plan R" in the future, in order to confirm the trend of profit expansion.
(Authored by FISCO guest analyst Masanobu Mizuta)