2024 New Year’s Greetings

As we welcome 2024, we extend our best wishes to all for a happy and prosperous New Year. 

I extend my deepest condolences to those who lost their lives in the Noto Peninsula Earthquake early this year, and my heartfelt sympathies to all those affected. Our prayers are dedicated to the safety of everyone in the affected area and the swift recovery of the region. As an integral part of a Total Beverage Company, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan is committed to offering comprehensive support, including the supply of products.

In 2023, the business environment remained doubtful amid global uncertainty, rising costs, and currency fluctuations. Despite the uncertainties, our business maintained an agile growth that could adapt to these challenges. And in 2023, several positive developments stood out.

We established a unified corporate message for the Group "We bottle happy moments.” This year, we aim to build on this message, fostering closer communication with our stakeholders to create ongoing value.

Most significantly was the announcement of our new strategic business plan, "Vision 2028," covering the period from 2024 to 2028. I am pleased to share with you that we are ready to move forward into a new phase, having overcome the impact of the pandemic. This plan emphasizes sustainable growth, focused on profitability and capital efficiency. Key benchmarks include an annual revenue growth of 2% to 3%, a business profit margin exceeding 5%, and a return on invested capital surpassing 5% by 2028. We will strategically implement a variety of initiatives to achieve these goals. For commercial activities, under the new organizational structure starting January 2024, achieving sustainable and profitable growth will involve investing in high value-added products, employing targeted growth strategies by sales channels, implementing flexible pricing strategies to boost profit margins, and executing business transformation in the vending channel. In addition, we will further streamline the supply chain, and improve all processes with our commitment to digital transformation. We will also promote ESG and human capital management.

In November 2023, we announced that we anticipated achieving business income profitability in the same year, ahead of our original 2024 target. This outcome reflects company-wide efforts to drive transformation and implement key initiatives in a challenging environment. We remain confident that our strategy is the correct one.

In 2024, we will continue to leverage the positive momentum of last year and steadily implement key initiatives with the aim of making a strong start on our strategic business plan. We are committed to making great strides toward sustainable growth and improving corporate value under our mission to deliver happy moments to everyone while creating value.

We appreciate your continued support and look forward to working with you this year.