【Business succession and overseas expansion】The seventh generation of former recruits succeeded the business on the occasion of the sudden death of the predecessor. Opened a roadside store in Hong Kong with an eye on the long-established overseas expansion and aftercolona of 150 years ago.

At Recruit, he started launching new businesses, and experienced sales and planning. Taking advantage of that experience, we reformed the family business with the following three points as the axis.
1. Branding including CI
2. Creating an environment for passing on skills
3. Develop sales channels centered on overseas markets

Among the above three points, the most significant change occurred in terms of overseas sales channels. Even though the overseas sales at the time of joining the family business were zero, overseas sales have now reached about 80%. Furthermore, in Hong Kong in December 2021, we opened a roadside store in Hong Kong as a base for expanding sales channels for furniture, crafts, fittings, etc. made by Japanese craftsmen as well as our own Sendai tansu, as well as housing renovation business to spread the Japanese modern style living space itself as Japanese culture and spreading them to the world.

1. Branding including CI

In 2011, when Kadoma had just joined the company, Kadomaya had a long history and tradition of 140 years of history, and although it has the skills and achievements cultivated in it, it was a long-established family-owned company, so there was no point of view that it would be utilized as a management resource for branding.
Therefore, although the high quality of products and the story behind them are not generally known, production continued to decline year by year at the same pace as the decrease in the needs of commodes in the world.
Therefore, the first thing that Kadoma who entered the family business worked on the first thing was the creation of visual aspects such as logo renewal and HP renewal with the aim of getting more people interested. In conjunction with them, kadoma worked with the most effort to create a corporate philosophy and vision as a monmaya based on the history and tradition of The Monmaya and Sendai Tansu, as well as the arrangement of the relationship between the two.
HP:https://sendai-monmaya.com
 

Monmaya’s WEBSITE

Corporate Philosophy
Sendai Tansu and Japanese craftsmen create richness and excitement around the world

Vision
Creating a society where people involved in Japanese craftsmanship can be confident and proud
Value
Bringing Japanese craftsmanship to the world and the next generation

By firmly verbalizing the corporate philosophy and vision, the guidelines as a company were clarified, and what monma should work on as the seventh generation of kadomaya became clearer. As a result, the next thing we worked on was the succession of skills and the development of sales channels. * The above corporate philosophy, vision, and values are the latest version that has been refined little by little since 2011.

2. Creating an environment for passing on skills
At the time of joining The Monma, there were five craftsmen in the monmaya, but there was no one to manage production or quality control, and everything was left to the site. Therefore, there were variations in delivery time and quality, and it was not a situation where production volume could be increased as it was.
Therefore, we filled in daily production management daily reports and held a fair meeting at the weekly general meeting, raising awareness of delivery time and quality little by little, and creating a standard for passing on skills to the next generation as a monmaya while aligning everyone’s eyes.
In improving productivity and quality, it was discovered that there was a problem with the room for drying worn-out woodworking machinery and lacquer, and capital investment was made as necessary, and production management and quality control were gradually thoroughly implemented over several years. In the process, some of them did not have any progressively increasing level and consciousness, and some left the monmaya.
Ten years later, after the retirement of several craftsmen and the new company, he was now narrowed down to three extremely high-level craftsmen. Compared to 2011, the current delivery date and quality have been shortened to less than 1/2 of the delivery time, and the quality variation rate has been improved to less than 1/10. As a result, the three of us have more than doubled the production of our products as many as they did 10 years ago, and we were able to create a solid foundation for passing on skills to the next generation.

Finger master’s scolding

3. Develop sales channels centered on overseas markets
At the time of joining the company at Kadoma, sales were only in-house stores in Japan that were 100% domestic and directly managed by the factory. In the future, it seemed to be considering going out of business ahead of the decrease in sales year by year.
After joining Kadoma, he started operations at department stores in Tokyo and other sales channels. As a result, a year later, it was time to hold exhibitions and sales events at department stores nationwide, including long-established department stores major in Tokyo. Three years later, the company also opened its own directly managed store in sendai city center.
However, all of them began to see the limit early. Therefore, kadoma worked on overseas expansion. At the end of 2011, we had already visited Hong Kong, and I felt considerable potential, but it took time to prepare for the actual deployment. In March 2015, we conducted a full-time test marketing in Hong Kong. Due to the results, the development from there was early, and in 2017 it was time to open a directly managed store in a department store in Hong Kong. In addition, the following year, a local subsidiary was established to increase sales year by year, and in 2019, just before Corona, about 70% of sales ratio was overseas. Overall sales also increased nearly three times compared to before joining the company between the gates. However, the impact of the new coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019, led to extremely severe conditions for the next two years.
Sales of kadomaya, mainly overseas, fell below 2/3 due to strict restrictions on going out and the blockade of the China-Hong Kong border. On the other hand, there was also a unique chance that the rent in Hong Kong, which is said to be the highest in the world, would fall. In terms of management, it was not a situation where we could open a new store, but looking ahead to the aftercorona, we decided to turn aggressive, and on December 3, 2021, we opened a new roadside store in the Happy Valley, which is close to hong kong’s high-end residential area.

New Hong Kong Happy Valley store

■About new store (Happy Valley store)
Unlike conventional department store stores, the new store operates completely in-house, so the world view as a kadomaya is fully expressed. In particular, the point I was particular about was to create a modern atmosphere that was balanced and balanced by “Japanese”, although it was a space where you can feel the history and formality of Kadomaya.
For this reason, although the interior has a calm gray atmosphere, the shoji and transoms used in the former main store of Kadomaya, which was also a registered cultural property of more than 90 years ago, are abundantly used as decorative materials for walls and ceilings.
In addition, in terms of our products, not only our sendai tansu, but also solid wood furniture and tables made by Japanese craftsmen, single-plate table tops using precious wood, and crafts of artists close to art are at a level that is not an exaggeration to say that they are the ultimate in Japanese skills.
From the balanced coordination of unique spaces and products described above and finished in a high-quality space, you can catch a glimpse of the level, quality, and good sense of the housing renovation business, which is a new service of happy valley stores.

Inside the Happy Valley store