Heihachi Inoo
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He graduated from Keio University's Faculty of Economics in 1930 and joined Morinaga & Co. that year. He became a Director in 1949, Managing Director in 1954, Senior Managing Director in May 1962 and Executive Vice President in May 1970, spending more than 20 years as an officer of the confectionery company. He joined Morinaga Milk Industry as President in May 1974, also becoming a Director of Morinaga & Co. that year. He built his career not in dairy operations but at Morinaga & Co., the largest shareholder.
Selection
In May 1974 he succeeded Isamu Ono as President, and Ono moved to Chairman that month. In the fiscal year ended March 1974, just before he took office, ordinary profit had fallen to ¥0.4 billion on non-consolidated net sales of ¥143.2 billion, a quarter of the previous year's ¥1.7 billion. On April 28 of that year, the Hikari Foundation was launched, fully funded by Morinaga Milk Industry, to provide permanent relief for victims of the Morinaga arsenic milk poisoning incident. He inherited both the settlement of the incident and the rebuilding of shrunken earnings.
Initiatives
Non-consolidated net sales, ¥143.2 billion in FY ended March 1974, grew to ¥244.5 billion in FY ended March 1979, just before he stepped down, and ordinary profit recovered from ¥0.4 billion to ¥2.3 billion. In October 1975 the company opened the Betsukai plant, expanding its plant network. In June 1977 it launched Morinaga Bifidus using the bifidobacterium BB536, collected from an infant's intestine in 1969 and applied to dairy products in 1971 for the first time in Japan. This began a path of carving out shelf space by bacterial strain rather than competing with Meiji and Snow Brand on scale, followed in 1978 by Morinaga Bifidus Yogurt.
Career
Career
Morinaga &
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1964 | Director |
| Mar 1979 | President |
Morinaga Milk Industry
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Jun 1974 | President |
| Jun 1979 | Stepped down as President |