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Seiren Co.

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Seiren Co., Ltd.
Company typePublic company
TYO: 3569
IndustryTextiles/apparel, consumer goods
Founded1889, established 1923/05/01[1]
Headquarters
Fukui
Key people
Tatsuo Kawada, Chairman and CEO[2][3]
Productsprinted fabrics, chemicals, parts, industrial machines, yarns, clothing[4]
Revenuesales of ¥141.807 billion (Increase7.1%) (2024)
operating profit of ¥13.991 billion (Increase9.0%), ordinary income of ¥16.137 billion (Increase5.2%)
¥12.271 billion (Increase11.3%)[5] (2024)
Number of employees
6,718[6] (2024)
Websiteseiren.com
seiren-na.com

Seiren Co., Ltd. (セーレン株式会社, Seiren Kabushiki Kaisha) (TYO: 3569) is a Japanese fiber production and textile manufacturing conglomerate based in Fukui.[7][8] Seiren was the largest textile printing firm in Japan during the 1980s, and by 2000 exceeded the equivalent of $100 million in gross annual sales.[9]

Overview

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The company's printing business covers apparel, promotional materials such as printed banners, automotive upholstery, and digital dyeing.[9] With over ¥140 billion in sales in 2024, 70% of which is overseas, Seiren spends over ¥6 billion in R&D annually as of 2024. The company also produces materials for construction, environmental, fashion industry, electronics, and medical industry products.[10] In addition to the majority of their sales coming from outside Japan, Seiren also establishes regional manufacturing plants to bring lead times and cost of transport down.[11] The company also develops and produces commercial medical, cosmetic, and polyester products which make use of the silkworm cocoon-derived protein sericin,[12][13][14][15] for which the company holds patents.[16]

The company has 42 offices in 10 countries.[17] In Japan, the company operates 11 subsidiaries and a second HQ in Tokyo as well as branches in Osaka, Nagoya, and sales offices in Hiroshima, Atsugi, Toyota, Wako, and Hamamatsu.[18] Seiren North America, LLC, the company's American subsidiary, is headquartered in Morganton, North Carolina where it has done business under the name Viscotec Automotive Products,[19] with other US offices in Farmington Hills, Michigan, near Detroit, and Irvine, California.[20] The company is a supplier to the American car industry,[21][22] as well as Toyota, and has received capital investment from the fellow Japanese company.[23] It also has supplied other Japanese automakers Nissan, Mitsubishi and Honda.[19]

History

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Seiren traces their history to 1889[24] and the production of habutai silk fabric.[10] The company was founded by Eijiro Kurokawa and Ihachi Ueda.[4] The company's early business specialized in a "refining" process of removing impurities from silk fabric sent from Kyoto, which gave the company its name.[24] The company incorporated as Fukui Seiren Kako Co., Ltd. and established the textile dyeing/finishing business in 1923.[10] Japan's textile industry attained its peak during the postwar period of growth, but subsequently declined.[24] Seiren first entered the electronics market in 1970.[10]

Tatsuo Kawada (born 1940) joined the company in 1962 and became president in 1987, CEO in 2005, and Chairman in 2011.[3][2] He led the release of a textile car seat in 1976 which was a hit for the company and helped him get his promotion.[25] The company faced an existential crisis due to Japanese restrictions on textile exports to the US starting in 1971, contemporaneous oil supply shocks, and a strong yen caused by the 1985 Plaza Accord. During this time, Kawada took over as president, and the company began working on a sample printer to create patterns on fabric for mass production.[24] Kawada helped transform the company through vertical integration of the supply chain.[25]

Seiren began to develop digital printing in 1989, and made inkjet printing available in addition to its analog process in 1991.[9][26] The company was an innovator in a proprietary "Viscotecs" ("VISual COmmunication TEChnology"), a type of late-1980s inkjet printing process which enabled customers to custom-print designs on T-shirts, an early example of mass customization.[27][24] Viscotecs could print in 16.77 million colors, an improvement on the typical 20 colors at the time.[25]

In 2005, the company acquired the textile division of Kanebo Cosmetics, which it turned around into a profitable business by 2008.[25]

References

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  1. ^ "TOKYO STOCK EXCHANGE Listed company search". www2.jpx.co.jp. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  2. ^ a b "Management Team". SEIREN Co., Ltd. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  3. ^ a b "Biography of Tatsuo Kawada". www.daikin.com. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  4. ^ a b "Seiren Co. Ltd. 3569 (Japan: Tokyo)". Wall Street Journal.
  5. ^ "IR Information". SEIREN Co., Ltd. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  6. ^ "Company Profile". SEIREN Co., Ltd. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  7. ^ "Sharp can take heart from Seiren's example of reinvention". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  8. ^ "Textile company Seiren's pretax profit likely to grow 14%". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  9. ^ a b c Ujiie, H. (2006-04-28). Digital Printing of Textiles. Woodhead Publishing. pp. 5, 120, 161, 206, 212, 215–216, 350–351. ISBN 978-1-84569-158-5.
  10. ^ a b c d "About Us". SEIREN Co., Ltd. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  11. ^ Shishoo, Roshan (2008-10-20). Textile Advances in the Automotive Industry. Elsevier. pp. 24, 131. ISBN 978-1-84569-504-0.
  12. ^ "Greetings from Our Representative". SEIREN Co., Ltd. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  13. ^ Reddy, Narendra; Aramwit, Pornanong (2021-04-19). Sustainable Uses of Byproducts from Silk Processing. John Wiley & Sons. p. 117. ISBN 978-3-527-82874-6.
  14. ^ JTN. International Department, Osaka Senken. 1993. pp. 13, 22–23.
  15. ^ Kundu, Subhas C. (2014-03-24). Silk Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. Elsevier. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-85709-706-4.
  16. ^ Indian Silk. Central Silk Board. 2006. p. 21.
  17. ^ "About Us". SEIREN Co., Ltd. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  18. ^ "Business Sites and Group Companies". SEIREN Co., Ltd. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  19. ^ a b "Viscotec Automotive". Asheville.com News. 1999. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  20. ^ "Contact US - Seiren North America". www.seiren-na.com. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  21. ^ "The unexpected source of that luxury feel in car interiors". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  22. ^ Adams, W. (September 2007). "The rise of Japanese textile suppliers to the US automotive industry". Textile Outlook International (131).
  23. ^ "Toyota boost capital ties with auto parts suppliers". F&L Asia. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  24. ^ a b c d e "1677万色の生地を1ｍから、超多品種少量を可能にした染色技術". ダイヤモンド・オンライン (in Japanese). 2017-03-03. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  25. ^ a b c d "2010年7月5日 放送 セーレン 社長 川田 達男 （かわだ たつお）氏 ｜カンブリア宮殿： テレビ東京". 2010年7月5日放送 セーレン 社長 川田 達男 （かわだ たつお）氏 ｜カンブリア宮殿：テレビ東京 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  26. ^ Isaac, Ceri; Bowles, Melanie (2012-10-01). Digital Textile Design Second Edition. Quercus Publishing. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-78067-399-8.
  27. ^ Cie, Christina (2015-02-11). Ink Jet Textile Printing. Elsevier. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-85709-923-5.
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