An equity stake, not a takeover: partnering with Kirindo (2023)

Can independence and scale coexist?

The heart of this decision lies in deliberately avoiding full integration — choosing independence and complement — even as the majors bundled themselves into one- and two-trillion-yen alliances. Take a majority and you can consolidate the accounts, and your purchasing volume rises directly with it. Even so, President Sadakata held to a one-third stake and left the other side its autonomy. With a Kansai chain whose stores do not overlap his own, he would join forces on procurement and private-label development while each kept its independence. It was one answer to supplementing scale without being swallowed by the top alliances — a choice placed on the line of self-reliance running from Saizu’s day.

That said, the equity method carries limited influence, and it is harder to generate the procurement power of a full merger. The more independence you leave in place, the thinner the fruit that integration bears. Whether the gap to the $6.3B (¥1tn) sales target can be closed by this alliance and further M&A alone is not yet clear. In an industry where the majors assemble two-trillion-yen alliances, how is a mid-sized player to reconcile independence with scale? The equity-method partnership with Kirindo leaves that question open.