On October 1, 2020, Yamada Denki changed its trade name to "YAMADA HOLDINGS CO., LTD." and changed to a holding company structure.
YAMADA HOLDINGS CO,. LTD
Representative Director, President
and
YAMADA DENKI CO., LTD.
Representative Director and President
Tsuneo Mishima
Since breaking into the housing business in 2011, Yamada Denki has been developing a store format to meet the diverse needs of customers and the market environment while continuing with management reforms in response to changes in our society, such as the declining birthrate, aging population, and popularity of IoT (Internet of Things). The new types of stores include our Kaden Sumairu Kan providing ‘total-living and comfortable living spaces’, our large-scale urban stores known as LABI, and our specialty reuse and outlet stores, YAMADA web.com. This diverse and extensive store network is our greatest strength. As the Yamada Denki Group moves forward to becoming a holding company in October 2020, the businesses of Yamada Denki will be specialized into the management of the consumer electronics business. It is under this new framework that we want to put the finishing touches on our concept of ‘total-living, comfortable living space’.
Yamada Denki used to place ‘low cost’ in front of everything. However, as consumer attitudes move away from a “want” based consumption to a consumption based more on “needs”, an important point for us to consider is to what extent we can discover the needs of our customers so as to provide products for them. The customer service contest, which was based on the high-quality customer service guide we newly introduced in 2019, and the job descriptions of our sales engineers, are measures for us to value customer service more than ever before. I believe this symbolizes a shift towards a business that emphasizes not just ‘low cost’, but also ‘quality of service’.
Even during the recent coronavirus pandemic, many customers visited our suburban stores. These stores carry many products that make life easier for those having to stay home or work from home, showing us once again how significant we are as a company. As such, Yamada Denki will continue to strive to be a company that lives up to the expectations of its customers. The Yamada Group will also contribute to building a sustainable society by focusing its efforts on achieving the “Provision of comfortable living space and establishment of a social system”, one of its important issues toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) the Group announced in December 2019.
BEST DENKI CO., LTD.
Representative Director and President
Koji Ono
Since its founding in 1953, Best Denki has always run its consumer electronics business with a ‘customer first’ spirit, opening stores mainly in the Kyushu, Okinawa, and Yamaguchi areas, as well as expanding overseas. Since becoming a part of the Yamada Group in 2012, we have focused on running our stores at a local level, making efforts to increase the share of the Group's sales. On assuming the position of director of the subsidiary consumer electronics segment, I have been working to find synergies between the Group’s companies.
Currently, due to the coronavirus pandemic we have entered an unprecedented recession in our home base of Kyushu. The serious economic situation continues in the transportation and warehouse sectors, as well as in the hotel, tourism, and restaurant industries leading to a drop in sales and increased costs associated with fighting the virus. It is difficult to predict how the future will pan out, but no matter how it evolves we would like to continue to support local communities through, not only sales of our home electric appliances, essential for daily life, but also through our ongoing activities sponsoring children's events and promoting sports, etc.
In the consumer electronics business, we believe that it is not just price but, because they interact directly with customers, it is the quality of service our employees give that is of the utmost importance. We encourage our employees to gain external qualifications, such as the home appliance advisor certification, to develop employees into consumer electronic specialists. To help them take these qualifications employees are given support in the form of grants, etc. In addition, we will make efforts to create a work environment in which employees can work comfortably, a place where employees can work to their full potential regardless of gender, somewhere where employees can create their own action plan to strike the right work-life balance.
In December 2019, the Yamada Group established its important issues toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. As a company, we believe that further development in terms of the reuse and recycling of consumer electronics is one of the important objectives for us. The Yamada Group already has the environment in place where everything from sales to buy backs and recycling, as well as the sale of reused products and recycling of used parts can be completed. By focusing on our business activities, including at our outlet stores, we will help achieve one of these important issues, namely “Building a circular economy and protecting the global environment.”
YAMADA HOMES Co., LTD.
Representative Director and Chairperson
Fumihiko Masuda
The Yamada Group offers a wide variety of services that embody its concept of ‘total-living’, which include housing, consumer electronics and finance, etc. The Group’s ability to respond quickly is a feature that sets it apart from other companies. How to attract customers in the housing segment is an important point in terms of business expansion. As such, we recognize that utilizing the strengths of the Yamada Group, which boasts an overwhelming ability to attract customers, is a major strength.
The housing segment is a business area that can contribute to the construction of high-quality social infrastructure by providing services that are closer to the needs of customers, and homes, that form the basis of our daily lives. In other words, it is a segment where business and social contribution are directly connected. We believe that we will be able to provide even more value to our customers by more carefully utilizing the stock assets we have accumulated over the years, including the homes we have built and our relationships with our customers. We will continue to do this in a straightforward manner, without sacrificing our policy of delivering products of value to our customers.
YAMADA Environmental Resources Development Holdings Co., Ltd.
Representative Director and President
Mitsumasa Kuwano
In the Environmental Resources Development segment we are developing businesses with the three pillars of product reuse & recycling, waste reduction, and the use of recycled materials to build a circular economy. The foundation of which is the consumer electronics business, the backbone of the Yamada Group. Here, used appliances are reused and, if they cannot be resold, they are recycled and their parts reused. Products that are difficult to recycle are compacted and disposed of. We believe our greatest mission in this business is to build a system and infrastructure that enables this cycle to be completed as a whole.
Furthermore, the Yamada Group has the added dimension as a manufacturer through its YAMADA SELECT brand. As such, we want to fulfill our social responsibilities as a manufacturer and retailer by building and commercializing an infrastructure within the Group that can complete the two product lifecycles of; manufacturing-sales-collection-reuse-resale and, manufacturing-sales-collection-recycling-recommercialization-manufacturing.
YAMADA FINANCE SERVICE Co., Ltd.
Representative Director
Kenichi Koyano
In order to support the Yamada Group’s strategy of ‘total-living’ from a financial perspective, the finance segment is developing services in six areas: new build homes, renovations, payment services, insurance products, life planning proposals, and real estate information. Along with providing customer-focused financial products in each area, such as with our Yamada Flat 35 for new build homes and the Yamada Living Loan for renovations, we aim to put into practice a proposal-based style of sales that addresses customers’ financial needs in many different ways.
Each company in the finance segment has only a short history and, up until now, we have been individually seeking ways to expand our respective businesses. So that we can make the finance business’ catchphrase of “A partner to make customer dreams come true” a reality with a certain amount of speed, it will be necessary for us to integrate the finance business in the future. We believe that it will be possible to meet a wide range of financial needs only if we can do this, which is why we are currently aiming to become a comprehensive financial company. Looking to the future, we will continue to secure an assortment of financial products and superiority in terms of their conditions not found at other consumer electronics retailers, so that we can develop the financial business as a powerful weapon in the Yamada Group’s style of proposal-based sales.
Yamada Trading Co., Ltd.
Representative Director and President
Akihiko Iwai
The service segment includes a diverse lineup of businesses, including the trade businesses of house building materials and housing equipment, as well as the service industries of construction, wholesale, restaurants and travel. For example, an important role for Yamada Trading is to keep in close contact with each company of the Yamada Group so that we can propose products that meet the needs of each company, as well as procuring requested products efficiently, helping to keep costs down. We understand that building a collaborative service system to maximize synergies for the entire services segment is a major challenge for the future.
In the services segment, we will actively work to solve social issues through our business. A case in point being when we worked with other segments to purchase masks and other hygiene products which had become scarce due to the spread of the coronavirus, putting them into the hands of many people. In this segment we will continue to seek out things we can do for society, moving quickly to contribute to the development of the Group as well as to a sustainable society.