- CEO
- Yohichi Ohnuki
- Full Time Employees
- 7,345
- Sector
- Consumer non-durables
- Industry
- Food: meat/fish/dairy
- Address
- Shiodome City Center Tokyo TY Japan 105-7122
- IPO Date
- Sep 1, 1954
- Business
- Morinaga Milk Industry Co., Ltd. manufactures and markets a broad range of dairy products, beverages, and health-oriented foods in Japan and select international markets. Founded in 1917 as Nippon Rennyu Co., Ltd. and established in its current form in 1949, the company maintains headquarters at 5-2 Higashishimbashi 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. It operates through four primary business domains—Nutrition and Healthcare Foods; Core Dairy Foods; B-to-B; and Global—with net sales of JPY547.1 billion for the fiscal year ended March 2024.
Core offerings encompass milk products including homogenized, sterilized whole milk, and enriched varieties; yogurt such as Bifidus Yogurt and Greek Yogurt PARTHENO; beverages like Mt. RAINIER CAFFÈ LATTE, chilled tea, and coffee; ice cream brands including Pino, PARM, and MOW; cheese; chilled desserts; butter; condensed and powdered milk; infant formula under the Hagukumi and Milk Life series; nutritional foods; liquid clinical nutrition via subsidiary CLINICO Co., Ltd.; and desserts and supplements. In the B-to-B domain, it supplies commercial dairy ingredients like cream, probiotics including Bifidobacterium longum BB536, postbiotics LAC-Shield, lactoferrin, lactulose, whey proteins, peptides, and PURESTER electrolyzed water generators to food processors, restaurants, and health manufacturers. The Global domain features wholly owned subsidiaries such as MILEI GmbH in Germany producing whey protein concentrate, lactose, and lactoferrin; Morinaga Nutritional Foods in the US with plant-based offerings like Mori-Nu shelf-stable tofu and Tofurky; and MNF Vietnam manufacturing milk beverages and yogurt, alongside formula milk exports and joint ventures in Pakistan (NutriCo Morinaga), Indonesia (PT. Kalbe Morinaga Indonesia), and elsewhere in Asia.
Recent strategic initiatives under the Medium-Term Business Plan 2022-2024 (fiscal years ending March 2023-2025) include JPY60 billion in growth investments such as Kobe Plant extensions for ice cream (JPY10 billion) and Tone Plant lines for yogurt and beverages (JPY10 billion); overseas M&As totaling JPY10 billion; and a EUR38 million investment in MILEI production capacity for lactoferrin and lactose. The company sold the former Tokyo Plant site for nearly JPY60 billion to bolster cash inflows projected at JPY160 billion over the plan period, while issuing green bonds including JPY15 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2024 and planning JPY10 billion more in fiscal 2025. Shareholder returns feature progressive dividends rising to JPY90 per share for fiscal 2025 (40% payout ratio excluding temporaries), JPY10 billion treasury share acquisitions and cancellations in fiscal 2024 (3.88% of total shares), and another JPY10 billion planned for fiscal 2025 (upper limit 3.92%); introduction of retirement benefit and employee stock benefit trusts (JPY13 billion); and remuneration reforms with performance-linked and stock-based components. Forecasts indicate fiscal 2025 net sales of JPY560 billion (+2.4% year-on-year), operating profit of JPY28.5 billion (+2.4%), and Global business sales ratio expansion to 12.3%, targeting a 7% operating margin, 10% ROE, and 15% Global sales ratio by fiscal 2029 per the 10-year Vision. In December 2024, it acquired 176,800 treasury shares for JPY635 million as part of capital efficiency enhancements amid management focused on cost of capital and PBR above 1.0x.