Pursuing a Group Brand Strategy for the Creation of Corporate Value with the Aim of Achieving 100 Billion Yen Consolidated Sales

2004/03/29

In order to create corporate value, HORIBA, Ltd. has been pursuing a group brand strategy at all of its 40 group companies in Japan and overseas since the beginning of the new fiscal year. Specifically, the names of two of HORIBA’s major domestic subsidiaries—STEC Inc. (head office: Kyoto; president: Atsushi Horiba) and COS Co., Ltd. (head office: Kyoto; president: Yukihiro Mineno)—will be changed on July 1. By placing “HORIBA” at the beginning of both companies’ names to combine HORIBA’s corporate culture and reliability with their specialist technologies, we aim to create a synergy effect.

Together with these changes in group company names, human resource exchanges among group companies, including at the executive level, will be more actively promoted. While enhancing coordination among business and production systems, corporate governance will be strengthened. By also changing the names of major overseas group companies, HORIBA plans to achieve worldwide brand integration by January 2005.

Leveraging the synergy effect resulting from brand integration in its particularly strong field of environment, health, and safety (EHS) and its leading-edge field of semiconductors/nanotechnology, HORIBA is aiming at a 10% increase in its operating margin to become a company with consolidated sales of 100 billion yen by the year ending March 31, 2006.

＜New Company Names＞
・Current company name
STEC Inc.
・New company name (from July 1, 2004)
HORIBA STEC Co., Ltd.

・Current company name
COS Co., Ltd.
・New company name (from July 1, 2004)
HORIBA Advanced Techno Co., Ltd.