Draft:JK Holdings Co.,Ltd.

JK Holdings Co., Ltd.

JK Holdings Co. (English: JK Holdings Co.,Ltd.) is a trading company specialising in building materials and housing equipment, with headquarters in Koto-ku, Tokyo.

It is the number one housing equipment trading company in Japan in terms of sales and is known within the housing industry for its private brand Bulls and its core company, Japan Kenzai Corporation.

It is also a global company with 13 offices in seven countries, but the percentage of overseas sales is low, with the bulk of sales coming from Japan (as of 2023). The company is listed on the Standard Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The core of its sales is the building materials wholesale business (Japan Building Materials, etc.), which accounts for 82.5% of total sales, but the company's business domain covers upstream and downstream of building materials distribution, including its subsidiaries Timbalum and Keytec (manufacturers), Monohin (former Mitsui Bussan Forestry), JK CARGO (warehousing) and Timberscape (construction).

The company name JK is taken from the abbreviation of the core company Japan Kenzai, which is different from JK.

Corporate History
1937 - Founder Takeshi Yoshida establishes the company by cutting, selling and delivering plywood.

1949 - Maru Yoshiyoshi Shoten K.K. established in Sumida-ku, Tokyo, to purchase and sell various types of plywood.

1958 - Harumi Plywood K.K. (now Keytec Corporation, a consolidated subsidiary) is established as a thick and special-sized plywood factory.

1963 - The company name is changed to Marukoshi Co. The company decides that it is difficult to expand its business by solely wholesaling existing plywood and starts selling new building materials.

1972 - The organisation of the Marukyoki-kai (now the Japan Building Materials Association), a communication organisation with customers, is set up.

1973 Sales exceed ¥20 billion.

1978 The first Maruyoshi Market (exhibition and sales fair) (now the Japan Building Materials Fair) is held.

1980 Turnover exceeds JPY 50 billion.

1987 50th anniversary of the company's foundation.

1990 Turnover exceeds 100 billion yen.

1990 Head office building built and relocated to Koto-ku, Tokyo.

1990 The company's shares are listed on the OTC market of the Japan Securities Dealers Association.

1991 K.K. Keiyo (now Keytec Co., Ltd.) began manufacturing LVL for domestic timber structures.

1996 First overseas office established in Malaysia.

1996 Listed on the Second Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

1998 The company is merged on equal terms with Koukoku Housing K.K. and changes its name to Japan Kenzai Corporation. Head office moved to Mejiro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo.

1999 The first Japan Building Materials Fair (exhibition and sales fair) is held.

1999 Equal merger with TMC Co.

2001 Turnover exceeds 200 billion yen.

2003 Listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

2004 Tsusho Corporation (Osaka) becomes a subsidiary.

2006 Transition to holding company structure. The company changes its name to JK Holdings K.K.

2007 Head office moved to Koto-ku, Tokyo.

2008 JK Timber Structure Group (now JK Timber Construction Group) formed.

2013 Turnover exceeds 300 billion yen.

2019 Keytec Corporation's Yamanashi plant begins operations; 100% domestic timber used.

2022 Following a reorganisation of market segments, the company moves from the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange to the Prime Market.

2022 85th anniversary of foundation.

2023 Turnover exceeds 400 billion yen.

Positioning
There are many trading companies and wholesalers of building materials and housing equipment throughout Japan, but JK Holdings differs from its competitors in three ways: it has a manufacturer function, it has a large number of offices, and it has an engineering department for wood construction. JK Holdings is unique in that it is attempting to overcome the future decline in new housing starts by expanding its sales channels from residential to non-housing.

Manufacturing divisions (private label)
As noted above, JK Holdings has private brands centred on "Bulls" and "J-GREEN" (other private brands of building materials wholesalers include Jutec's "Sumijitsu" and Nice's "ZENIYA"). "Bulls" handles many secondary materials (equipment and consumables necessary for construction, such as curing tape and adhesives), while "J-GREEN" mainly handles timber products such as plywood using domestically produced timber. Other in-house products include Keytec's LVL beam 'Keeram Mega Beam' and the non-flammable interior material 'Baumkuchen', which was jointly developed by Keytec, Big Will and Yoshino Gypsum..

Recently, wood-structured buildings in non-residential buildings are moving into the realisation phase, with Timbalam, a subsidiary of JK Holdings, developing CLT products and Sumitomo Forestry announcing a plan to construct a 70-storey super high-rise wooden building, and in fact in 2022, major general contractors Obayashi Corporation and Takenaka Corporation have already announced construction results for high-rise pure wood-structured buildings of over 10 storeys.

While J-GREEN products are produced and distributed from the company's own factories, many Bulls products are manufactured by other manufacturers on an OEM basis, and some of the top manufacturers of fittings, such as Daiken Kogyo, have their own products. However, the same method is also applied to private brands of other companies in the same industry, and catalogue references show that the same products are listed at the same price, just with a different product name. Thus, differentiation not only in terms of product prices but also in terms of product content and service content is a future challenge for the company.