Management Policy

About the NICHIAS Philosophy

About the NICHIAS Group’s Corporate Slogan

The external environment surrounding the NICHIAS Group is changing significantly, with global warming measures including decarbonization, rapid digitalization, and the shift to electric vehicles (EV).

To respond to these changes, the NICHIAS Group must strive for even greater efficiency and speed by linking its six proprietary “Insulation and Protection” technologies together with its unique business model that it has developed over the Group’s 126 years in business.

Based on this, the long-term vision of the NICHIAS Group is to help resolve social issues toward realizing a sustainable future.

NICHIAS will continue to give its all to achieve these goals together with its corporate philosophy of helping to make a brighter future with its “Insulation and Protection” technologies.

The Vision of the NICHIAS Group

The vision of the NICHIAS Group is to be “a company that is a good place to work and full of smiles”.

“A company that is a good place to work and full of smiles” is home to the “many happy faces” and “thank-yous” of all its stakeholders, which includes company employees as well as customers.

To bring this vision and NICHIAS’ corporate philosophy to life, in its Medium-Term Management Plan (from fiscal 2016 to fiscal 2021), NICHIAS committed to a “product-focused strategy” from fiscal 2016 and a “people-focused strategy” from fiscal 2019.Also, in the new Medium-Term Management Plan formulated this fiscal year, NICHIAS will implement a five-year “systems-focused strategy” from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2026 based on its slogan of “Shikumi 130”.

With the external environment changing significantly and issues to be resolved becoming more complex, by implementing this “systems-focused strategy”, NICHIAS aims to become a company that can further adapt to change.

New Medium-Term Management Plan Slogan

New Medium-Term Management Plan: ‘Shikumi 130’

Many issues cannot be solved by a single department, and the more complex and difficult an issue, the more connected the issues become. Therefore, they cannot be solved unless the entire company pulls together.This “systems-focused strategy” will be key to resolving these problems in a prompt, efficient, and effective way.

“Shikumi” is embedded with the meaning of “shi” from “shiawase” (happiness), “ku” from “kufu” (creative action), and “mi” of “mirai” (future) (see the figure above). To obtain happiness, we must take creative action and create the future. From this, a new happiness is born.By embedding this cycle of generating happiness, NICHIAS will continue the smooth implementation of its “systems-focused strategy”.

In order to achieve the “systems-focused strategy” to realize its vision of being “a company that is a good place to work and full of smiles”, the NICHIAS Group has highlighted the following five major specific challenges:

The first challenge is to “increase profitability”.By linking its proprietary “Insulation and Protection” technologies and unique business model developed over 126 years of business, NICHIAS will increase its profitability together with its efficiency and speed.

The second challenge is to “select and focus its business”.NICHIAS will continue to select and focus its business from an overall optimization perspective to respond to rapid changes in society and allocate its limited resources effectively.

The third challenge is “efficient business management”.By further advancing the use of digital technologies, NICHIAS will increase the efficiency of its business management and be able to visualize business operations and ensure safety and stability at each workplace.

The fourth challenge is the major social issue of “addressing environmental issues”.With environmental problems such as decarbonization and carbon neutrality becoming increasingly severe, the NICHIAS Group works on cutting its CO₂ emissions and waste, as well as business practices that incorporate environmentally-friendly products and energy-saving demands.

The fifth challenge is “strengthening its business foundations.NICHIAS will strengthen its business foundations, which also include BCP measures, to prioritize safety and further improve its quality.

NICHIAS has outlined numerical targets as NICHIAS Performance Indicators (NPI) and will continue to promote efforts for the five challenges above.

Challenges of the NICHIAS Group

Company-Wide Numerical Targets of the New Medium-Term Management Plan

The new Medium-Term Management Plan has numerical targets up to fiscal 2026 to achieve the challenges throughout the NICHIAS Group.

Approximately 60 billion yen of investment in facilities is planned for up to fiscal 2026 to achieve the numerical targets with ease. In terms of sales and profit levels, a revenue of 250 billion yen and an operating income ratio of 15% are the targets, with the goal to achieve stable growth and increase the level of profitability.

NICHIAS carries out business management with a return on equity (ROE) of 13%, a return on invested capital (ROIC) of 12%, and an earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 45 billion yen as its management indicators.

As its environmental targets, NICHIAS has established targets for reducing its CO₂ emissions and industrial waste and to help realize a carbon-neutral society and recycling-orientated society by further promoting energy-saving efforts and introducing the use of solar panels.With regard to the reduction in CO₂ emissions brought about through the use of NICHIAS’ products and services, an NPI is currently being formulated and will be published soon.

Numerical Targets of the NICHIAS Group

Strategy by Segment

The three fields that the NICHIAS Group focuses on are the advanced technology field including semiconductors and electronic components, the field of social infrastructure at the core of people’s lives, and the environmental field.

In its energy and industrial plants business, NICHIAS believes it has an opportunity to win customer demand for energy saving associated with decarbonization, and will strengthen its involvement in energy saving and next-generation energy projects.

In its industrial products business, as its main business, NICHIAS will build an optimal production and distribution system and dictate its selection and focus based on the profitability of each product.

In its advanced products business, NICHIAS will continue to work closely with its key customers and build a production system that predicts market trends.

The autoparts business will continue to improve the profitability of conventional engines while researching the demand for next-generation vehicles, as well as aiming to develop new products and satisfy specifications.

In the building materials business, NICHIAS will give top priority to improving profitability and aim to separate itself from the rest of the pack with eco-friendly products and manufacturing methods.

Strategy by Segment

Thinking Behind Dividends

The NICHIAS Group will endeavor to enhance its management foundations to increase its profitability and at the same time strive to feed profits back to its shareholders fairly over a long period through increasing its corporate value.

Under this fundamental policy, NICHIAS has increased the dividends it pays out for 13 years in a row since 2009.

NICHIAS sees the feeding of profits back to its shareholders fairly over the long term as an important management issue and places importance on continuing to pay out stable dividends.To further clarify and enhance its stance of feeding back profits to shareholders, from the second quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, NICHIAS made it its basic policy to aim for a DOE^※１ of 3.5% or more and to continue to pay progressive dividends^※２ during its current Medium-Term Management Plan.

※１　DOE: dividend on equity ratio = total dividends ÷ shareholders’ equity
※２　Progressive dividends: A dividend policy that maintains dividends without them decreasing, or increases dividends in line with profit growth

Dividends Over Time