Kobe Bussan Co., Ltd. President and CEO Hirokazu Numata

The secret to making Gyomu Super want to visit no matter how far away it is

Kobe Bussan Co., Ltd. President and CEO　Hirokazu Numata(Hirokazu Numata)

■ Profile

Born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1980. After graduating from Kyoto Pharmaceutical University Graduate School in 2005, he joined Taisho Pharmaceutical in the same year. In 2009, he joined Kobe Bussan. In 2010, he became the head of the STB Production Department, and in 2011, he became a director. He has held his current position since 2012. Since 2018, he has also been the executive in charge of the Food Service Business Promotion Division.

Kobe Bussan operates a franchise of Gyomu Supermarkets across Japan. Demand is high not only among businesses and households, but also among students at cultural and school festivals. The reason it's loved by a wide range of generations is because, despite its franchise structure, it has grown into an attractive supermarket with incredibly low prices and a private brand. We spoke to Kobe Bussan's president, Numata, about his management philosophy and his time as a student.

During my university days, I studied so hard to get my pharmacist license that I could say I studied harder than I ever have in my life. During graduate school, there were a lot of experiments and I was able to make my own schedule, so after getting my pharmacist license, I worked part-time at a 24-hour pharmacy late at night and devoted myself to my graduate school experiments during the day.
I had always wanted to become a pharmacist, but after enjoying the pharmaceutical experiments in my graduate school lab, I decided to broaden my horizons and started job hunting, eventually landing a job at Taisho Pharmaceutical. I then considered changing jobs when I got married. Since we were both originally from the Kansai region and had been familiar with Gyomu Supermarket since college, I thought about it a lot, and after much deliberation, I decided to try something new and joined Kobe Bussan. Although I had four years of work experience, it was in a completely different industry, so I faced different ways of thinking and had to start from scratch, which was difficult. I became president at age 31, but I don't think I had the skills to become a president at that point. Learning through experience, coupled with a sense of crisis, allowed me to grow more quickly. I strongly felt that I learned things by taking the first step, rather than waiting until I was fully prepared.

■ Have customers visit the Gyomu Super, which is 1km away, instead of the competitor 100m away.

Kobe Bussan's business model is primarily wholesale and food manufacturing, rather than retail. In addition to original products manufactured in our group factories and imported products, which we position as private brands, we wholesale national brand products made by manufacturers to our franchised Gyomu Super. We are unique in that we have a franchise system, and we develop attractive private brand products that will make people want to join Gyomu Super. We also handle many products imported directly from around the world, hoping that foreigners in Japan can enjoy the flavors of their home countries while in Japan. In the food supermarket industry, private brand sales account for approximately 10% of sales, but at our company, they account for approximately 30%, so we can say that our private brand sales are outstanding compared to other companies.
The benefit to customers at Gyomu Super is that they can buy products at low prices. In order to sell at low prices, we focus on sales and administrative expenses. It may be a bit of a difficult term, but it refers to expenses other than cost of sales, such as labor costs and utility costs. Gyomu Super often displays products in their cardboard boxes, but by displaying products in cardboard boxes, we eliminate the hassle of bringing products in from the back room and are able to reduce labor costs. Another key to keeping sales and administrative expenses down is that we stock more frozen foods than fresh foods. Frozen foods have a long shelf life, so it is easier to take measures to prevent food waste and we are able to keep sales prices down.
In the past, we didn't have the bargaining power, so we had no choice but to buy top national brand products at high prices, which meant we couldn't offer them to customers at prices that satisfied us, and we often couldn't even carry them. However, now, thanks to the economies of scale of having over 1,000 stores, we have gained the bargaining power to offer some top brands to customers at prices that we can be confident in.
Our basic goal is to create a store that will make customers shop at Gyomu Super, which is 1km away, rather than at a competitor 100m away. To achieve this, we are committed to developing unique private brand products and offering low prices, and we are committed to providing customers with value that only Gyomu Super can offer, thereby increasing the frequency of customer visits.

■ Satisfying the appetites of people not only in Japan but all over the world

Our goal is to become a "comprehensive food company." In addition to satisfying the appetites of 1 million people, we also want to meet the needs of overseas countries and get people more interested in Japanese ingredients. Japanese food is gaining attention these days, so we are trying to find ways to deliver products with the best quality and price to overseas users. We are currently gradually increasing the number of Gyomu Super stores overseas and researching what local people want.
When hiring new graduates, we place more emphasis on inner qualities than academic achievement. Four traits are particularly important: honesty, sincerity, humility, and a positive outlook. Kobe Bussan's Gyomu Supermarket itself has a rather unique way of thinking, even within the industry, so even those with industry experience may not be immediately effective. That's why we look for people who are well-rounded, who are able to absorb knowledge and experience openly, and who can grow together with us.

■Message to university students

I think student life is a period of preparation before entering society. Of course, I think that studying at an undergraduate level is very important, but I want students to go beyond that and take advantage of the many experiences they can only have at this time. You can't do whatever you want because of financial and other factors, but this is a time when you can have a variety of experiences, including having fun, so I want you to aggressively accumulate experiences and gain a variety of knowledge along the way.

Interviewed by Student Newspaper Online on December 30, 2023 by Shion Teranishi, a first-year student at Kokugakuin University