Strive to Achieve Both Solid Growth and Corporate Governance with an Eye on Developing into a Trillion-Yen Company
SUGI Holdings Co., Ltd.
Director & Chairman
Eiichi Sakakibara
Toward Achieving Sound Growth
The history of SUGI Pharmacy started as a single "family pharmacy" in Nishio City, Aichi Prefecture. It
was a thriving store well-known for the personality of its founding husband and wife, who would not only
provide health advice to local customers but sometimes even offer life advice. Serving our customers
wholeheartedly - this way of service in the days of the pharmacy’s founding has eventually developed
into the unwavering philosophy of the SUGI Pharmacy Group, "Respect for Each Customer in Front of Our
Eyes," which is still engraved in the heart of each and every employee today.
“Immutability and fluidity” means to value the unchanging essentials while quickly adapting to changes
of a new era. I believe that this “immutability” is exactly represented in our customer-first attitude
that has been passed down and never lost since our founding.
Currently, the SUGI Pharmacy Group is constantly adding new members. In September 2024, I&H Co., Ltd.
(Hanshin Dispensing Group), which operates nationwide under the lead of Hanshin Dispensing Pharmacy,
joined the SUGI Pharmacy Group. Accordingly, the area in which we run stores has been expanding.
Furthermore, with the expansion of our overseas business operations, the number of our overseas partner
companies has also been increasing, enabling us not only to contribute to local communities through SUGI
Pharmacy's operations in the fields of merchandizing and prescription dispensing, but also to contribute
to the field of overseas healthcare.
As our network continues to expand at an accelerating rate, we feel that it is more important than ever
not to just pursue the increase in our corporate size, but also to strive to achieve sound growth. The
starting point for this is the philosophy of "Respect for Each Customer in Front of Our Eyes," and I
believe that one of my most important responsibilities is to do my utmost to share the philosophy so
that the SUGI Pharmacy Group can come together as one.
Commitment to Strengthening Governance to Develop into a Sustainable Company
As indicated by the sales of 878 billion yen in FY2024, the SUGI Pharmacy Group is continuing to
experience steady growth. One of the targets that we have set beyond this growth curve is to develop
into a trillion-yen company. To accomplish the target, we must be more conscious of the "fluidity" of
“immutability and fluidity” and rapidly respond to the changing times with a solid management
structure.
In recent years, the speed at which information spreads via social media and other platforms has been
accelerating more than ever, and we are now in an era where a company's credibility can be damaged
instantly. The arrival of such a society has made corporate governance and risk response even more
crucial.
As we celebrate our 50th anniversary next year and work to create a future that will continue for the
next 100 years, we have begun efforts to identify management risks from an ultra-long-term perspective
and further reinforce our corporate governance system.
This means strengthening our in-house risk management system in order to prevent problems in advance and
respond quickly to them. To this end, we will deepen our collaboration with an external auditing
organization and ensure corporate transparency from a third-party perspective, thereby strengthening our
structure for identifying potential risks in advance and dealing with them. In addition, we will further
strengthen our internal audit function to quickly eliminate on-site risks and promote efforts to listen
to the voices of our employees. This means placing a focus on each employee, which will lead to
engagement management to maximize employee motivation and also to the promotion of respect for
diversity.
Furthermore, the reinforcement of our corporate governance system to build a solid management foundation
inevitably entails the development and reinforcement of our information management and compliance
systems. To that end, we will also accelerate multifaceted efforts such as the necessary training and
countermeasures, harassment prevention, and sustainability promotion.
Our philosophy “Respect for Each Customer in Front of Our Eyes" has now been evolved to apply not only
to "customer," but also to all the other stakeholders of the Group, including employees and suppliers,
as shown by the fact that our FY2025 Code of Conduct refers to “Focus on Each Individual.”
The SUGI Pharmacy Group is pledged to continuously uphold the spirit of "immutability and fluidity,"
keep the unchanging philosophy in mind, and continue to change and grow in order to contribute to local
communities.