HIDA Journal 2015 AUTUMN No.7

10/18

8　HIDA JOURNALHiroki Co., Ltd.Betting on Ethiopian Sheep Skin!Can you please start by giving us an overview of your company? Our company engages in original brand design, manufacturing, and sales for goods like leather clothing, attire, bags, purses, and accessories, as well as importation and sales of said products. One of their most characteristic features is that our clothing and bags are made using Ethiopian sheep skin, which is a superlative material. Ethiopian sheep skin refers to the hides of sheep grown in the Ethiopian highlands, and it is characterized by its durability despite being thin, delicate, and elastic. It is soft and graceful, with a clingy sensation, and has a feel that can be likened to that of a baby’s cheek. We have factories in two locations: Beijing, China and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We carry out manufacturing by having a single person be responsible for sewing each individual piece, which is the exact opposite of production lines that place the utmost priority on efciency. Creating a piece from start to nish produces affection in the workers for their work and gives them joy, which leads them to improve further. This is the jumping off point for producing excellent products, and our company is based on the philosophy that such an environment leads to top-notch products.Why did you expand into Ethiopia? We were fascinated by the great quality of Ethiopian sheep skin from early on, and in 2007 we began doing business directly with Tunnali (a tanning plant) in Ethiopia. We were condent that if we could create clothing from this material it would undoubtedly astound people the world over. But there was no Tunnali who we could newly contract the work of making clothing to. As such, we needed to overcome some barriers from accepted practices in order to make clothing out of Ethiopian sheep skin, which is generally used to make gloves. Therefore, we stationed a representative from our company in Ethiopia to persistently continue to convey to the President of Tunnali, as well as everyone from its factory manager to its workers, our devotion to manufacturing and our intention to bet on Ethiopian sheep skin. As a result of this, we were ultimately able to succeed in jointly developing the materials for this. At rst, we sent this material to our factory in Beijing, where it was cut and sewn into the finished products before being exported to Japan. The rationale behind setting up a factory in Ethiopia was not because Ethiopia is a country where we could produce goods cheaply, but because it is a country where we could take the time to make good products even better. To be sure, the labor costs there are less expensive than they are in China. But since we contend globally via added-value competition, rather than price competition, there are enormous advantages to having a factory in the country where the materials originate from. In other words, it makes it easier to perform quality control on the materials and perform the sewing in a more thorough manner, and in Ethiopia it is possible to perform time- and labor-intensive work that would not be possible in Japan. What is more, many of the Ethiopian people are warm- and big-hearted, and there is excellent public order. We also want to send out world-class Hiroki original products handmade by the people of Ethiopia to the world at large, which was another consideration in establishing Hiroki Addis. Please provide a summary of your recent experts dispatch. While Ethiopian sheep skin is a high-grade material, because of its extreme thinness and softness it requires sophisticated techniques in every production process. Since we wanted to guide our local staff in these techniques, we decided to use the experts dispatch program. Hiroki Addis has a handbag manufacturing department and a clothing manufacturing department. With this recent experts dispatch, we sent the expert Mr. Yamamura to provide intensive guidance related to sewing, cutting, and skiving techniques for leather bags in line with a basic manual to the staff of the handbag manufacturing department. In specic terms, what sort of technical guidance did you carry out in Ethiopia? We gave thought to how we should improve the sewing level of the We would like to introduce Hiroki Co., Ltd., which boasts a 64-year history since its founding of specializing in leather goods, as a case example of utilizing the experts dispatch program. Hiroki Co., Ltd. is famous for its products in which it uses Ethiopian sheep skin, which is said to be the best in the world. In 2014 it established Hiroki Addis Manufacturing S.C. (Hiroki Addis) in Ethiopia, to which it dispatched an employee from October 2014 to February 2015 for technical guidance. Therefore, we spoke with Mr. Gonda, the company’s President, and Mr. Yamamura, the expert who was dispatched, about their history of expanding into Ethiopia and the results of the guidance provided locally. Head ofce2-89, Motomachi, Naka-ku, Yokohama, KanagawaEstablished1960Capital40 million yen Employees30 (as of April 2015)Description of businessOriginal brand design, manufacturing, and sales for goods like leather clothing, attire, bags, purses, and accessories, as well as importation and sales of said products The building where Hiroki Addis is located (4F)Case Examples of Utilizing HIDA Programs – ODA-funded ProgramsODA-funded Programs

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