CEO Mitsuyuki Tominaga aims to increase sales 50 percent by 2030 to 1 trillion yen ($6.4bn). The company aims to lead the running shoe market in Japan, the US and Europe by the end of the year.
In an interview with The Nikkei, Asics CEO Mitsuyuki Tominaga says the Japanese sneaker maker is considering acquisitions to expand its “running ecosystem.” Tominaga was asked why the company has already upgraded its earnings forecast for the fiscal year ended in December and about the targets in its medium-term plan.
“The success of our [high-priced] Sportstyle and the luxury Onitsuka Tiger brand was beyond our expectations.”
”Earnings were already positioned to take off when the baton was passed to me,” Tominaga says. ”We had predicted strong showings in running and sports shoes in fiscal 2024, but the success of our [high-priced] Sportstyle and the luxury Onitsuka Tiger brand was beyond our expectations. We’ve consciously tried to improve the understanding and productivity of all our employees, including those overseas. We’ve included foreign executives in management meetings and held two global summits with the heads of our international business units and others to discuss strategy. As a result, we’ve discovered issues such as how we think about salaries and benefits, and what we need to do has become clearer. We’ve identified winning patterns for 2025 and beyond.”
Asics CEO Tominaga has ambitious goals
When The Nikkei asks what he sees as ”winning patterns” Tominaga emphasizes Asics’ unique membership program.
”We expect an operating profit margin of 14.7 percent for 2024, which is higher than our competitors and new territory for us as well. Our own unique ways to win could include, for example, our OneAsics online membership program. With the Sydney Marathon, we started engaging with runners half a year in advance, and we took steps to boost their satisfaction, such as arranging massages after they crossed the finish line. In addition to horizontal development in regions where we already operate, we need to consider acquiring or partnering with companies in areas not covered by our marathon registration website operators.”
Asked why Asics hasn’t made any moves toward buying registration platforms since its 2022 acquisition of Njuko, Tominaga replies:
”We used to pursue deals actively, but we ran into trouble integrating data and challenges involving personal information. But we’ve started to see progress recently. We could invest billions of yen into expanding our running ecosystem in fiscal 2025.”
”We can become a company with more than 1 trillion yen in sales by 2030.”
Finally, The Nikkei wonders if Asics’ goal to become the market leader in running shoes in Japan, the US and Europe in 2025 is possible.
Tominanga: “Room for growth with Onitsuka Tiger”
”It’s entirely within our reach. Even in North America, where we were somewhat behind, our steady efforts to improve our products and carefully manage inventories have paid off through higher market share. We still have room for growth in areas besides running shoes. We won’t let the success of Sportstyle and Onitsuka Tiger end as temporary fads – we’ll take on the giant market. We can become a company with more than 1 trillion yen in sales by 2030. We also can’t let our operating profit margin drop. We set a target of at least 17 percent for fiscal 2026 when we upgraded our medium-term plan last fall. We aim to be among the highest in the industry in 2025 as well and will strengthen our position in running and tennis shoes to that end. It’ll be important for us to strategically specialize in certain regions and sports and stay in the number-one position.”
