Kao Corporation (4452) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everyone. I am Toru Nishiguchi in charge of Consumer Products at Kao. Thank you very much for joining us at Kao Group Cosmetics Business and Skin Protection Business Growth Strategy Briefing. First of all, I'd like to apologize that we are having this session remotely instead of face-to-face. Before I introduce the agenda for today, I'd like to share with you some of the key words describing what Kao Group and especially the consumer products that I'm in charge of must execute now. In one sentence, that is Kao must transform itself speedily now. For that aim, specific actions, transformation will be executed quickly based on the Global Sharp Top strategy. We earnestly hope that you will understand our strong determination. Now this is today's agenda. First of all, I would like to explain the outline of global shop top strategy. And then I'd like to show you a video clip to explain our determination about the Global Sharp Top strategy. And then Mr. Maezawa, in charge of cosmetics business; and Mark Johnson, will explain cosmetics business global Sharp Top strategy. And then we have Mr. Nuriya in charge of Health and Beauty business; as well as Karen Frank, in charge of the Consumer Care in Americas and EMEA, explaining their strategies. The 5 of us, including myself, will be executing Kao Group's Global Sharp Top strategy speedily and sharply. Now let me start the explanation on the outline of the Global Sharp Top strategy. What is shown on the screen is something that Mr. Hasebe of Kao used at the briefing of the business results in August. In executing the midterm plan, K27 under the vision of saving future lives, we have those 3 basic policies. And in addition, we are introducing the ROIC as well as the decisive implementation of the structural reforms and establishment of the Global Sharp Top businesses as shown here. And the meaning of the Global Sharp Top is to contribute as global #1 with leading-edge brands and solutions that address the critical needs of customers. The road map to K27 is shown on the slide. This road map was also presented by Hasebe Yoshihiro in the recent midyear earnings call. As many of you are probably aware, as step 1, we have started specific structural reforms with the main objective of strengthening the comprehensiveness of our core businesses centered on the 3 reforms mentioned here. As step 2, we will speedily implement the global expansion of growth driver areas in the Skincare, Cosmetics and Chemicals businesses. The Chemicals Business has recently been explained by Masahiro Katayose, who oversees this business. Today, the persons in charge of the remaining 2 growth driver areas, the Skincare and Cosmetics businesses, will explain the specific Global Sharp Top strategy. Firstly, in the Cosmetics Business, we will further sharpen our existing G11 and R8 strategies and speedily and sharply implement the global rollout of our 3 brands: SENSAI, Molton Brown and Curél as the first runners in the G11. Until now, the Kao Group's Cosmetics have had a strong image of being originating from Japan. SENSAI and Molton Brown are successful brands in the European prestige market. At this time, we will take on the new challenge of rolling out European brands around the world. After this, Yosuke Maezawa and Mark Johnson will talk to you about the strategy. In the Skincare Business, we aim to become the global leader in skin protection, where we can best demonstrate the Kao Group's unique and comprehensive strength. Skin protection is the embodiment of our vision of protecting future lives. First, we aim to become the global shop leader in the UV care business centered on Biore using the Kao Group's world-class technologies. Secondly, in the self-tanning business, which is in high demand in Europe, the U.S. and Australia, we aim to quickly achieve the same Global Sharp Top position with our Jergens Natural Glow and the Bondi Sands brand, which have newly joined the Kao Group. We will also expand our repellent business, which we have introduced last year globally, starting from Asia to prevent mosquito-borne diseases and protect the future of our children. Karen Frank and Kotaro Nuriya will explain our global strategy for skin protection business later in this presentation. As the document shows, in order to speedily implement the Global Sharp Top strategy, we at Kao Group will seriously change the strategic approach from one that is centered on Japan and originating in Japan to the one where entire Kao Group will focus on the global market to speedily and sharply implement new strategies centered on the growth driver areas that we will cover today. We hope that you will all look forward to the new Kao Group, which is undergoing transformation. Finally, to give you a sense of our passion, we have prepared a video on the Global Sharp Top strategy. And following the video, Yosuke Maezawa will give presentation on our Cosmetics Business. We are newly determined to transform ourselves now. We will become indispensable with leading-edge and unique only-one solutions. That is what we mean by becoming Global Sharp Top. We will develop brands for global market with Kao's unique only-one technologies as our weapon. We will review conventional system that was specific to each country and region, and we allocate human capital in an optimum way to quickly deploy them globally. The first runners driving Global Sharp Top in cosmetics are our 3 beauty brands, namely SENSAI, Molton Brown and Curél. SENSAI, the pre-stage top share brand in Europe, offer sense of beauty to live carefully and delicately. Molton brand offer British style brand equity of luxury fragrance to growing pre-stage Asian markets actively. As for Curél, based on the solutions built in Japan for dry and sensitive skin, we respond to various skin troubles of different skin types and climate. In the area of skin protection, we aim to protect the skin from environmental stresses that are becoming more severe every year, which is a challenge common across the world. Biore's UV care products provide excellent comfort, uniformity and durability through one-of-a-kind technological capability, creating a number of products in Japan and expanding into Europe and Brazil. Bondi Sands, which has joined the Kao Group, has strength in skin protection. Jergens Natural Glow has gained a large following and a solid trust in the U.S. self-tanning market. With these 3 brands, we will accelerate our global expansion so that consumers can enjoy themselves even under harsh sunlight anywhere in the world with our unique solutions for UV care and self-tanning. Furthermore, we will protect children around the world from the threat of infectious diseases, starting with the repellents we introduced last year. Under the slogan Global Sharp Top, we will leverage one of our client strengths to develop a succession of distinctive brands around the world. Please look forward to Kao's new challenges.

Hello, everyone. I am Yosuke Maezawa in charge of Cosmetic Business. First of all, I'd like to report to you the K25 progress, and then I would like to talk about the vision for the future. And finally, I would like to explain the globalization, which is the key for the cosmetic growth strategy. So looking back at K25. In 2018 and onwards, we focus on G11 and our 5 brands and worked on the business structural reform and established cross-business organization, reorganized marketing division and merged beauty counseling companies for integrated operations. We have taken those initiatives steadily. However, due to the pandemic, the sales started to decline in 2020, so we are slightly behind the K25 sales target. Next is vision. First of all, let me talk about growth forecast of the global cosmetics market. In 2022, the global market size was about JPY 37 trillion. Asia accounted for 38%, out of which China was 20%; Europe, 23%; North America, 22%. In 2027, the world market is expected to reach about JPY 53 trillion. In terms of area, China, Europe and North America continue to be the major parts. And the percentage of other Asian region, excluding China and Japan and Central and South America, are expected to increase. By category in comparison to 2022, in 2027, the fragrance and skincare, especially the dermatological cosmetics percentage are expected to rise. Next, I would like to talk about challenges and opportunities. First challenge is the geopolitical risks in different areas. As we globalize, we will be more vulnerable to geopolitical risks. And what is important is not to depend on one area, but to have a good balance among the different areas. Next is the change in distribution in Japan. Currently, our business, the Japan, the percentage is still high in the current business. We would try to strike a better balance in terms of the area in the world. But for the time being, the impact of Japan market will continue to be important. So the changes in distribution, for example, e-commerce sales expansion and general merchandise store sales decline are important. Therefore, we need to respond to them. As I mentioned earlier, in terms of the area, Asia market is expected to grow. And in terms of category, fragrance and dermatological cosmetics are expected to grow. And this is a major opportunity for us. Also, there's a growing awareness of genderless beauty as a global trend, and this is another opportunity that we would like to capture. The ideal state is to have multiple brands in each country end market to become #1 in category or segment and ultimately to be 1 of the best 10 in the global market. In order to achieve that, we will be taking advantage of our strength, including fundamental technologies, formula, protection technology and global locations. By using those strengths, we will be working on generating attractive brands, promoting globalization, improving productivity and also enhance portfolio through M&As. This slide shows the timeline of those initiatives. SENSAI, Molton Brown and Curél will be the first runners for the globalization, building the foundation for the cosmetics business and to build a resilient Japanese businesses and reorganize it. And we would also try to develop the newer brands after the first runners and strategically invest in those brands. And to support the promotion of the globalization of the existing brand, we would also try to enhance our portfolio through the M&As. Next, let me talk about the specifics of the globalization. The 3 brands as first runners that I mentioned, in comparison to the competitors, there is still room for further global expansion. For example, SENSAI are sold in 47 different countries right now, but the other competitors in the world are selling their products in more than 60 countries. As for Molton Brown offered in 35 countries, competitors have doubled that size the number of the countries. Curél is much behind the other competitors. But of course, that we are not talking about the increase of the number of the countries that we sell our products in, but it means that we have other opportunities to go into in terms of the markets. And by increasing our global presence, we believe that we can build the better trust as a global brand. Now let me talk about each first runner one by one, starting with SENSAI. SENSAI uses Koishimaru silk, which originates in Japan and is a very precious silk essence used as a key ingredient. So after using this, your skin will become like silk. And we are very particular about how to use it. Just like the autumn tea ceremony, it's not just a formality, but also the efficiency. And we're proposing that the order of use of each product is important to become more beautiful. And so this is called Saho or routine of SENSAI. It's another uniqueness of SENSAI. SENSAI started in Europe 4 years ago and as a high-quality, high-value brand has become the high price range top share brand. We started also in Japan and China more recently, and we will be focused on the Asian market, and we would tune our brand and try to focus on the purpose that is live carefully and delicately targeting affluent Chinese consumers especially. Now in Q4, in Shanghai, we'll be planning to open the flagship store in Shanghai. And in October, we will be making the announcement in detail. And we will be focused more on the purpose of SENSAI, that is live carefully and delicately, so that the people can understand the value that we offer. And we also look into the other areas, such as golf clubs, yacht clubs and luxuries hotel and spa, where the affluent consumers are likely to frequent to provide opportunities to experience SENSAI. In addition, we will look into the luxury malls and department stores. And starting with Shanghai, we will be implementing the dominant strategy and applying this to other cities of China and Asian market so that SENSAI can become the unique and leading-edge luxury brand. Next is Molton Brown, one of the Royal Warrant holders, has a strength that is the unique and original fragrance and has a luxury image and has worked on providing refills, so both luxury and sustainable. Like SENSAI, Molton Brown is currently focused on Europe, but will actively expand into Asia in the future. In Europe, Molton Brown is supported by people who are particular about their lifestyles and value, the history and traditions of the U.K. And in nature, the brand is also expanding, targeting people who aspire to produce style luxury and enjoy spending time in luxury hotels. The Molton Brown strategy in Asia, which we call the Molton Brown Village strategy, is to create a more luxurious image for Molton Brown by enabling customers to experience the same worldview and products in our flagship shops as in our U.K. shops and to experience Molton Brown in the ammenities of luxury hotels. We will also develop the e-commerce channels so that customers can purchase products, not only for themselves, but also as gifts. For example, in Tokyo, customers can experience the brand's worldview and products at directly operated shops in Marunouchi and Tamagawa, and confirm the luxury brand image with amenities at luxury hotels such as Shangri-La Tokyo, which can also be purchased via e-commerce. We will be rolling out in major cities in Japan, such as Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya, as well as in Asia. In Asia outside Japan, the Village strategy has been launched in [indiscernible] in '21 and in Taipei from this year. In November this year, we will launch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and next year in Bangkok, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. Before we move on to Curél, Mark Johnson, who oversees the Cosmetics Business in Europe and the U.S., will give us a video message on the expansion strategy in Europe and in the U.S. with a focus on SENSAI and Molton Brown. [Presentation]

Thank you very much. I will now move on to Curél. As a brand that caters to the concerns of dry, sensitive skin, Curél has been performing well, mainly in Japan and China, while expanding the category based on our purpose. One of the factors behind the success is the fact that the brand has been sincerely addressing its target customers with solid evidence based on ceramide research that has been going on for more than 20 years. Currently, Curél is sold in 12 markets worldwide, including Japan, China, Thailand, Singapore and the U.K. But more can be done outside Japan and China. In the future, we intend to accelerate the expansion of sales in existing countries and the development of new countries in Europe. In doing so, we will naturally utilize Curél's strength such as over 20 years of ceramide research, over 40 years of dry, sensitive skin research, trust as Japan's #1 derma brand and product range with a strong benefit. In the case of Curél, the business model is to capture broader customer base in each market than SENSAI or Molton Brown. There may be cases where we will not be able to meet the needs of sensitive skin in each market if we simply roll out the products we sell in Japan as they are. If necessary, we would like to consider developing our business model to include products for skin problems specific to each market and area. The 3 brands that we have chosen are in the globally growing fragrance, skincare and derma care categories. And we have selected them as brands that can aim for #1 in specific segment based on the uniqueness of the brand. SENSAI and Molton Brown overlap in some channels, but Curél will be developed in a different channel to SENSAI and Molton Brown. In other words, by globalizing these 3 brands, we aim to accumulate a variety of knowledge in different categories and different channels and also develop the necessary human resources and build the organization. By running these first runners in this way, we hope to create the infrastructure and pathways for global expansion for the brands that will follow. In order to nurture the next globalization priority brands while keeping the first runners running, we have selected strategic investment brands from the G11, which are KANEBO and KATE. KANEBO is trending well, partly due to the launch of a serious attractive products, but I believe that the growth of the brand is also supported by the fact that we are honestly pursuing our purpose, offers not nearly beauty, but hope, and that an increasing number of people share a belief in this. We would like to expand this purpose driven branding in existing Asian markets and regions and promote brand building on a global scale rather than just exporting products. We will first cultivate and nurture stores in the Japanese market, which is the source of our branding, and then invest in online and offline experimental content that can also be used for the purpose branding in Asia. We will also strengthen the dissemination of information to people of Chinese descent and prepare their expansion into Mainland China. As a brand originating from Tokyo, KATE aims to expand its fan base among young people in Asia. We will create a special base in Tokyo, where not only Japanese people, but also visitors from Asia can experience the world of KATE and its products. We will also actively communicate the appeal of KATE by creating places that can be easily accessed from overseas, such as the metaverse. We will first reinforce the development of existing markets in Asia by firmly fostering the image of KATE from Tokyo, Japan. We will select brands that we will globalize its priority and expand our sales overseas, while increasing our share of the Japanese market and rebuilding the business foundation damaged by the pandemic in the midterm to '27, and we hope to clear our initial target of JPY 300 billion in sales by 2027. This is the end of my presentation on globalization strategy, which is the key to the future growth of our Cosmetics Business. Thank you for your attention.

Hello. I am Kotaro Nuriya in charge of Health and Beauty Care. I will cover #1 and 3 here. And then I will show you the video clip by Karen Frank in charge of Americas and EMEA. And at the end, I would summarize with the growth strategy. Nishiguchi introduced the skin protection business to you, I'd like to add some explanation. We divide this into 3 categories. Number 1 is the UV care to prevent sunburn. Number 2 is self-tanning to create the tanned look without UV exposure and environmental skin protection, including the product to repel mosquitoes from the skin. As a whole, this is a business to protect skin from the external environment, and we will try to become Global Sharp Top. Let me start to explain each one, starting with UV care. So UV care business is a major category. Why we aim to become Global Sharp Top in sunscreen market? Because the market size is big, and the growth is expected. And due to the pharmaceutical laws and regulations, the market entry is challenging. There are no global top brands. Number three, the UV risk is a social issue. The UV care is unsatisfied market. Number four, Kao has superior products with unique technologies. Let me explain one by one, starting with the market. The global market size is about JPY 1.5 trillion, and it's growing every year, and the future growth is expected. Due to the pandemic, the growth was suspended, especially for about 2 years. But this year, with the extreme heat in the world and as people started to go out more, future growth is now expected. Secondly, from the perspective of competitors. There are different pharmaceutical laws and regulations in different regions. So for example, in Asia, it is considered as a cosmetic product. But in the United States, it is managed under regulation of the OTC Pharmaceuticals. Therefore, the market entry is challenging, and there are no global top brands. As you can see in this table, there are no brands or Procter & Gamble or Unilever. This is one of the characteristics of this category, which means that if you can overcome the pharmaceutical regulations and laws, there is a major business opportunities. In Kao, with Biore brand, we have overcome such difficulties. And of course, it was difficult, and it took a lot of work and time. But starting with this year, we have expanded into North America and Europe, and we want to accelerate this growth further. The third is the perspective of consumers. As human being evolve, we gained the melanin pigment other than the hair to protect our skin. But there are UV rays that cannot be fully prevented by melanin. And due to this, you will get some burns or aging of the skin and eventually, it could lead to skin cancer. So there are many people who use sunscreens. But when we ask the question whether people experienced sunburn even if they are wearing the sunscreen, most of the people said yes. So UV care is a social issue in the world and is unsatisfied market in our view. So Kao developed long-lasting, unique coating technology that even covers the micro-sized gaps. More specifically, the UV protection agent is contained in a capsule. This is an in-house manufacturing technology of Kao's Chemical Business. We have a patent for this. This is the unique and only one technology. And thanks to this technology, the Kao's UV care and sunscreen are supported by many people in the world. Now I would like to present the current sunscreen UV care business status for this fiscal year. This year, sales grew significantly due to the recovery of the market after the pandemic, as well as improved market share. The market is expected to increase by 30%, and the Kao's market share is expected to improve significantly by almost 30% to just over 22% in Japan. And as a result, we expect shipments to exceed 60% for the whole season. The market has returned to its more or less normal level in September. But due to the lingering summer heat, shipments have remained very strong. The driving force behind this is Biore UV Aqua Protect Mist. Many people buy a second bottle to reapply when they go out, which has contributed significantly to market expansion. This year, this product became a big hit with a market share of more than 7%. It was also, thankfully, very highly acclaimed as a hit product by the mass media. We believe that this product has grown into a product that will have a strong impact for the full year. Thank you very much. As you can see, sunscreen is a very promising market and a category where Kao's unique technologies can be applied. Karen Frank, who is in charge of Americas and EMEA, will continue with a video presentation on the self-tanning business. Please start the video. [Presentation]

Thank you very much. We hope that you could feel that Karen is really driven with the addition of a strong ally, the Bondi Sands. Thirdly, I would like to talk about environmental skin protection. In Asia and Latin America, dengue fever infection is a major societal issue. Kao has developed a technology that uses skin-friendly ingredients to create a mosquito repellent barrier on the surface of the skin. Starting with Thailand last year, we launched Biore Guard Mos Block. And we intend to gradually expand the business to areas that have risk of dengue and develop into a skin protection business that duly protects lives. Now I would like to talk about the growth strategy for the skin protection business as a whole. First of all, we will sequentially launch new products with new technologies, mainly in UV care. Secondly, we will expand the number of countries and brands by adding the acquired Bondi Sands brand. Thirdly, we will promote synergies across the skin protection business. We will not do this in sequence, but we'll aim to accelerate the speed of growth by proceeding simultaneously. Lastly, I would like to show our numerical targets. Our target for the skin protection business is to expand sales from the current JPY 43 billion to JPY 74 billion by 2027, and our geographical focus will be China and North America. In 2030, we aim to reach JPY 100 billion by adding repellents and brand synergies. The target for 2027 is plotted above the table of our current market share rankings in the global skin protection market. Our aim is to achieve the global #1 share of the skin protection market in 2027 and become the Global Sharp Top player in the market. And as you can see, each area is targeting to achieve substantial numerical targets. Finally, at Biore, we have been working to create a society in which we can enjoy the joys of being human based on the concept of skin as human interface that connects people in society. Kao wants to free everyone from skin stress through its skin protection business. We believe that the world will be faced with a severe environmental stresses in the future. In the midst of this, we want to create a society that is full of smiles. That is all I have to say today. Thank you very much for your kind attention.