6. Expansion of Business Domains

Since our founding, we have developed primarily as an automotive parts manufacturer. The technology and know-how we honed in automotive parts had ample potential for application elsewhere. Using this as a foundation, we proactively ventured into non-automotive fields from an early stage.

In terms of sales, we established sales offices and service stations nationwide to supply and repair automotive parts. This enabled us to provide reliable after-sales service, laying the groundwork for quickly launching and nurturing new businesses in non-automotive fields.

In 1969, we began research and development of air conditioning equipment for residential use, in line with Toyota Motor Corporation's entry into the housing business. We launched the “Inspac” cooler for business use in 1973 and the far-infrared heater “Enseki” in 1976.

During the low-growth period of the mid-1990s, we strongly emphasized expanding our business in non-automotive fields as a policy to ensure business growth as part of our structural change response guidelines.

This served as a catalyst for more vigorous development of new products in non-automotive parts. In this field, too, we focused on developing original products and promoting business independently, rather than imitating other companies.

Our new business approach was to apply and expand the foundational technologies refined in the automotive parts sector to peripheral fields. The key foundational technologies at that time included new materials, semiconductors, production technology, reliability technology, and electronics technology.

Using these foundational technologies, our new business development in the 1990s expanded into promising peripheral fields such as information systems, communication equipment, electronic application devices, factory automation (FA), and environmental equipment.