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Kyokuyo Company Ltd. is one of Japan's leading seafood products compa nies. Originally focused on the whaling industry in the 1930s, Kyokuy o has since abandoned that activity in order to transform itself into a full-fledged marine foods company. Kyokuyo's operations include wo rldwide marine products purchasing and marketing, as well as seafood processing through a global network of more than 220 factories, inclu ding seagoing processing facilities. The company also produces food p roducts such as frozen foods and canned seafoods. In addition to its purchasing and processing activities, Kyokuyo remains active in comme rcial fishing, with a fleet of four tuna seiners. Kyokuyo also has bo osted its position in the Japanese sushi market through its partnersh ip with Thailand's Union Frozen Products Co. (UFP). In 2005, that par tnership was strengthened with the creation of a joint venture, K& ;U Enterprise, which began producing sushi for the Japanese and other markets. Kyokuyo is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is led by Chairman Kiyokazu Fukui.
Whaler in the 1930s
Kyokuyo's history dated back to the beginnings of the Japanese whalin g industry in the early 20th century. Ayukawa rapidly became the cent er of the country's whaling industry, following the establishment of the first slaughterhouse there in 1906. At the beginning of the next decade, nearly all of the country's major whalers were based in Ayuka wa.
By the 1920s, the Japanese whaling fleet had expanded operations to i nclude many of the world's primary whale hunting regions. A number of new companies sprang up, such as Ayukawa Hogei, founded in 1925, as Japan began asserting itself among the world's most active whalers. T he new company, like many others in the industry, began focusing on h unting smaller whale species in the early 1930s. This led to further expansion in the Japanese whaling industry, with increasing interests in the northern polar region. Ayukawa Hogei's own expansion into pol ar whaling led it to change its name, to Kyokuyo Hogei KK (literally, Polar Seas Whaling Ltd.), in 1937.
Although Kyokuyo remained an active whaler through the next decades, by the 1950s the company had begun its transformation into a seafood processor. This process was begun in 1954 when the company launched i ts own fleet of factory ships, providing onboard fish processing faci lities. The company then began fishing and processing salmon and ocea n trout in the northern Pacific region.
Kyokuyo's success in fish processing encouraged the company to expand its food production operations in the early 1960s. The first food pr oduction facilities were built in the Hokkaido and Miyagi regions in 1960. Kyokuyo then launched production of canned goods, and at the sa me time extended beyond seafood to include production of cured meats and sausages, among others.
Yet seafood remained at the heart of the company's business. In 1963, Kyokuyo set up what was to become one of its core business areas, es tablishing a marine products imports business. The company then launc hed its worldwide seafood purchasing activity, with a special focus o n the Alaskan market and its highly prized salmon roe and other fish products. By 1970, Kyokuyo also had entered the frozen foods market, building a cold-storage facility in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa. The company also expanded its overall production with the opening of a new factor y in Hachinohe, Aomori.
Kyokuyo's expansion into food production helped shield it from the in tensifying competition and dwindling whale population in the global w haling industry. By then, the whaling industry had shifted away from its interest in small-type whaling, in favor of larger species and la rger vessels. Nonetheless, Kyokuyo remained in the whaling trade into the 1970s. As part of its effort to remain competitive, the company formed a new subsidiary, Hokuyo Hogei, which began operating large-ty pe whalers within the company's fleet.
Shift to Food Production in the 1970s
By then, however, Kyokuyo's shifting emphasis to food production led it to change its name, to Kyokuyo KK, in 1971. In that year, as well, the company added another cold-storage subsidiary, Kyoikuyo Akitsu R eizo, in Osaka, helping to expand its coverage of the Japanese market . Kyokuyo also boosted its purchasing and imports operations with the creation of Kyokuyo Shoki Co. That company began purchasing and sell ing not only marine products, but livestock and agricultural products as well.
Kyokuyo further solidified both its production and sales operations w ith the launch of its own fleet of tuna and skipjack seiners in 1973. The company's fleet sailed under the Wakaba Maru name. At the same t ime, Kyokuyo also entered a new shipping category, launching a fleet of refrigerated transporters, Satsuki Maru. The successful developmen t of these lines of business, coupled with intensifying international pressure on the Japanese government to restrict, and even ban, inter national whaling, led Kyokuyo to exit the whaling industry in 1976.
Kyokuyo sought new expansion areas into the 1980s. In 1980, for examp le, the company founded a new subsidiary, Kyokuyo Shokuhin Co. in Miy agi, which began processing frozen seafood, especially shrimp and pra wn. This was followed by the launch of another subsidiary, in Ehime, in 1984, which began processing crab-flavored frozen food products, s uch as kamaboko. In 1986, the company added to its international ship ping operations with the establishment of Kyokuyo Shipping Co., which included the transport of fruits and vegetables, as well as dairy fo ods, in addition to marine products. Two years later, Kyokuyo expande d its frozen food activities with the creation of another production subsidiary, Sapport Foods Co., in Hokkaido.
In the late 1980s, Kyokuyo boosted its international presence with an entry into a number of foreign markets. In the United States, for ex ample, the company set up a number of operations involved in marine p roducts purchasing, fish paste marketing (on the East Coast), and the oversight of a seafood processing company. The company also entered the South American market, notably through the operation of a fish-pa ste processing vessel. In 1991, the company expanded that business th rough the creation of a joint venture with fellow Japanese company Mi tsui & Co. The joint venture took over Kyokuyo's fish-paste proce ssor, with production levels slated at 6,000 tons per year. By Januar y 1992, the company had expanded its partnership with Mitsui to inclu de another joint venture, together with local partner Harengus, the l eading fish-exporter in Argentina, to process surimi for the Japanese market.
The continued development of its food production wing encouraged Kyok uyo to abandon its deep-sea trawling business at the beginning of the 1990s as well. By 1993, the company had discontinued its operations in this area, selling off most of its fleet. Nonetheless, the company remained involved in fishing, and continued to operate a small fleet of tuna seiners into the mid-2000s.
Major Japanese Seafood Company in the 2000s
Kyokuyo took the lead in the establishment of new food quality and hy giene control standards, especially the internationally recognized HA CCP system. As part of this effort, the company launched its own rese arch and development laboratory in Shiogama, in Miyagi, in 1991. Miya gi remained the focus of continued expansion by the company, with the establishment of a second plant in Shiogama in 1994. That facility r eceived HACCP certification the following year.
The year 1995 also saw the addition of a new subsidiary to the ever e xpanding Kyokuyo group, with the creation of Hachinohe Seafood Co., i n 1995. That company launched processing operations for various marin e products, including cuttlefish and salmon. Further development of t he group's Japanese production facilities continued into the 2000s, i ncluding the opening of a new factory in Hitachinaka, in Ibaraki, in 1999. That plant received HACCP certification in 2003.
Yet Kyokuyo also had begun efforts to develop its international opera tions as well. This led the company to found a new subsidiary in the United States, Kyokuyo America Corporation, in 1996. That company ser ved as the group's marine products purchasing agent for exports to Ja pan. Kyokuyo also returned to international fishing waters with the e stablishment of a new purse seiner subsidiary, Kyokuyo Suisan Co., in 1997. That subsidiary not only operated its own tuna and skipjack fi shing vessels, but also provided processing and sales operations and cold-storage warehousing facilities. In 2004, the company opened a ne w shipping subsidiary in Panama, Kyokuyo Shipping Panama.
Kyokuyo moved to boost its presence in the Japanese sushi market into the mid-2000s. This led the company to form a strategic alliance wit h Thailand's Union Frozen Products Co. (UFP), one of that country's l eading suppliers of sushi products, which was then making an effort t o penetrate the Japanese market. The two companies had long conducted business together, starting in the mid-1980s. The companies moved to ward a more formalized alliance in the early 2000s, as Kyokuyo, which relied on UFP for the bulk of its sushi products, sought to head off competitors. This effort resulted in the creation of a joint venture between the two companies in 2005.
The new company, called K&U Enterprise, was based on UFP's supply of raw product and Kyokuyo's expertise in sushi production technique s and technology. K&U began marketing its products under a number of brand names, including Kyokuyo in Japan, Prantalay in Thailand, a nd K&U and UFP elsewhere. In this way Kyokuyo emerged as a leader in the Japanese sushi market. As it moved into the 21st century, Kyo kuyo had completed its transition from whaler to dedicated seafood pr ocessor.
Principal Subsidiaries: Kyokuyo America Corporation; Kyokuyo S uisan Co., Ltd.; Kyokuyo Shoji Co., Ltd.; Kyokuyo Shokuhin Co., Ltd.; Hachinohe Seafood Co., Ltd.; Kyokuyo Foods Co., Ltd.; Sapport Foods Co., Ltd.; Kyokuyo Akitsu Reizo Co., Ltd.; Kyokuyo Shipping Co., Ltd. ; Kyokuyo Shipping Panama S.A.; K&U Enterprise Co., Ltd.; Kyokuyo Sougou Service Co., Ltd.
Principal Competitors: Antarktika Fishing Co.; Mar Fishing Com pany Inc.; ENACA; Maruha Group Inc.; Unilever Deutschland GmbH; Maves a S.A.; Mukorob Fishing Proprietary Ltd.; Hanwa Company Ltd.; Nichiro Corporation.
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