Medium-Term Business Plan (2020 Plan)

The Group has established a medium-term business plan entitled the 2020 Plan, which will run from April 2016 to March 2021. The goal of the 2020 Plan is to achieve sustainable growth and enhance corporate value, targeting consolidated sales of 100 billion yen and consolidated operating profit of 14 billion yen for FY 2020.

Key Policies of 2020 Plan

• 1.Maintain/expand existing business areas
• 2.Step up pace of overseas business expansion
• 3.Strengthen R&D and create business models serving as buds of new growth

Numerical Targets of 2020 Plan

(Billions of yen)

Consolidated performance

Note 1: The net income per share calculation does not take potential shares into account.

Sales by business type

Business Environment Surrounding the Group

Since our founding in 1947, the Group has provided products and services that help improve medical treatment environments in the fields of medical and senior care, and help improve the work of medical and nursing care workers. Seeking to expand our business areas while diversifying and adapting to demographic changes, the Group has recently expanded into areas such as rental wholesale business for nursing care goods and maintenance business. We maintain a high share of the Japanese domestic markets for medical and nursing care bed sales and assistive appliance rentals. Developing new medical and nursing care goods and expanding services are urgent tasks for ensuring further growth.

The business environment of the healthcare industry that the Group does business in is as follows: With all the baby boomers turning at least 75 in 2025, Japan’s population is steadily aging. But reimbursement feesin the medical services and nursing care industries are being lowered to reduce the rise of social security expenses. The medical industry is expected to see increasing investment in products and systems designed to reduce the labor of nursing staff, and in areas such as advanced acute-phase medicine. In the senior care facility market, a policy has been set forth to provide new nursing care facilities such as special nursing homes in order to cover 500,000 more residents who need care by the start of the 2020s. In the home care market, the government is implementing a basic policy of getting patients out of hospitals and back to homes, and has released a policy calling for creation of environments for receiving medical and nursing care at home. This market is expected to grow in future.

As for overseas, medical infrastructure is expected to improve along with economic growth in Asia and other area. Also in future, the populations of countries such as China are predicted to age at a faster rate than in Japan.

The Group will maintain our competitiveness in our mainstay area, the manufacture and sale of medical and nursing care beds in the domestic market. We will also engage in business deals and projects related to medical and nursing care to accelerate our expanding sales of non-bed products and overseas business enhancement. We will also work on new business areas such as sensor-driven systems, nursing care robots and sleep related business.

Business Strategies for Key Policies

1. Maintain/expand existing business areas

The Group’s core business area is developing and manufacturing medical and nursing care beds and accessory products, and we are expanding into the areas of rental wholesale business for nursing care goods and maintenance business. Medical trends being anticipated recently include more advanced medical care with greater use of IT, fewer days of hospitalization for patients, and declining numbers of hospital beds. At the same time, the aging population is expected to result in greater demand for senior care facilities and nursing care at home. The Group sees these changes in the business environment as business opportunities, and we will work on maintaining and expanding these existing business areas while ensuring competitiveness. We are targeting FY 2020 sales of 70 billion yen for our existing business areas.

Specific policies

1. Reliably capture new demand for newly built senior care facilities and nursing care at home.
2. Generate demand for upgrades by developing products adapted to improved treatment environments.
3. Promote comprehensive proposals for advanced acute-phase medicine and hospital rooms.
4. Expand business through Group partnerships in areas such as maintenance services and nursing care goods rental.
5. Improve cost-competitiveness.

2. Accelerate overseas business expansion

Overseas business expansion has been set forth as one of the Group’s management tasks. We have created sales bases to boost overseas sales of medical and nursing care beds and accessory products. By linking these sales bases with overseas production bases in Indonesia, China, France and Vietnam, we have localized processes ranging from product development to manufacture, sale and after-sales service, and are boosting overseas sales of medical and nursing care beds and accessory products. We are targeting FY 2020 overseas sales of 20 billion yen.

Specific policies

1. Speed up business expansion through M&A and partnership activities focusing on Asia and Latin America, where high growth is expected.
2. Extend product lineups ranging from high-function types to popular ones, adapted to regions.
3. Develop various products used in medical and senior care facilities.
4. Improve cost competitiveness through measures such as local procurement and more efficient production.
5. Implement business models developed in Japan overseas, such as comprehensive proposals for products used in hospitals, maintenance services and rentals.

3. Strengthen R&D and create business models serving as buds of new growth

Drawing on the track record we have accumulated in the medical and senior care industry since our founding, the Group is working on starting new business areas through measures such as partnerships with other companies and M&As. These business areas include sensor technology-driven systems, nursing care robots and sleep-related business. By creating new business models, we are targeting FY 2020 sales of 10 billion yen.

Specific policies

1. Use the Smart Bed™ System to create methods that help make facility operation more efficient, such as by reducing the workload of nursing staff. The Smart Bed™ System is a new system that uses contact-free sensors to detect vital signs of patients on the bed, and centrally manage such data.
2. Implement the Smart Bed™ System in community-based care. Develop products and services that help medical care at home such as by identifying precursors of sudden changes in patient conditions, and encouraging hospital visits before conditions become severe.
3. Step up R&D and actively pursue M&A in medical and nursing care market segments expected to grow, such as rehabilitation devices, nursing care robots and medical care at home.
4. Enter the market for people aged 75 and older (who will number more than 21 million in 2025), and enter the sleep/health markets by drawing on the Group’s many years of sleep research.

Basic Policy on Profit Allocation

Dividend amounts are determined by comprehensively considering the replenishment of the internal reserves needed to further strengthen the Group’s financial footing and management foundation in readiness for future proactive business moves in areas ranging from R&D and capital investment to M&A activity, and in readiness for sudden changes in the business environment. We are envisioning a value of 30% as the benchmark for the dividend payout ratio from profit sharing. With the 2020 Plan targeting operating income of 14 billion yen for FY 2020, we are envisioning a dividend of 100 yen.

Caution

The forecast future values presented on this page were created based on currently available information.
Several factors could therefore cause results to vary from these forecasts in future.