Sanpo-yoshi Communication

Pricing is management

Risshun (the first day of spring)Although we have begun to hear the footsteps of spring on the calendar, a severe cold wind is still blowing in the business environment. In 2026, when soaring raw material and energy costs will become the norm, we would like to express our sincere respect to our customers who are struggling to steer the field day by day.

Pricing is management.

The late Honorary Chairman Kazuo Inamori, the founder of Kyocera Corporation and a god of management, once said, "Pricing is management. The customer is happy to buy, and the company is also prosperous. I understood it to mean that the greatest job of a manager is to find the point at which the customer is willing to buy and the company is prosperous.

However, determining this "one point" is no mean feat. Especially in times of high prices, such as the current one, there is always the fear that asking for a price increase will drive customers away. As a business owner myself, I understand the anguish of this situation.

Limitations of "intuition and experience" and the reality seen in M&A

In fact, we are currently working on further refining cost accounting in our printing department by inviting an outside consultant. This has led to a series of revelations, including the discovery that some processes that should have been profitable are in the red, and that too much setup time is being spent. We have also had bitter experiences in the past when we acquired other companies in the same industry through mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

The company we took on had excellent technology, but when we looked into the actual situation, we found that the cost accounting was surprisingly "sloppy. However, when we looked into the actual situation, we found that their cost accounting was surprisingly "sloppy. As a result of their over-optimistic thinking based on long years of intuition and experience, the company had been accumulating orders in the red without realizing it, and was losing the strength to invest in the future.

Not being able to see the cost is like running at full speed in a fog. This is no way to make appropriate pricing decisions.

Measuring "machine cost" and "man cost

In your industry, you may be sensitive to fluctuations in raw material costs, but you may have an unexpected blind spot in calculating "machine costs" (operating costs of machines) and "manpower costs" (labor costs of people).

For example, how much does it cost to produce one product in terms of depreciation, electricity, and maintenance costs for a machine? How much is one employee's "minute" spent on packaging or inspecting a product converted into a monetary amount? By visualizing these costs, you may find that you are not actually making a profit, or that you can find points where you can improve efficiency.

We, too, continue to make efforts to visualize actual costs by keeping work records at our seal and paper container manufacturing sites.

If we have a precise understanding of our own costs, we can confidently and honestly explain to our customers, "This is how much it costs us. That is why this price is fair." This is the "aggressive price increase" based on trust, which in turn protects the company, protects the employees, and protects the customer. I believe that this is the "aggressive price increase" based on trust, which in turn protects the company and its employees, and is the "last fortress" for continuing to deliver high-quality products to customers.

With all due respect, the sticker and paper container industries are also scheduled to raise prices of base paper and other materials this spring, and we assume that other companies in the same industry will also propose price increases. We will negotiate with our suppliers to mitigate the impact as much as possible, and we will have no choice but to ask them to revise their prices after working to control price increases through our own self-help efforts as well.

We would like to avoid a simple price revision, and would like to make a proposal that takes into account changes in specifications, changes in specifications, and changes in order quantities. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

Marushin Corporation

Representative Director Yoji Hiraki