GD2020 – Yokohama Rubber’s new mid-term management plan

The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has unveiled a new medium-term management plan for the years to 2020. This new plan, dubbed Grand Design 2020 (GD2020), is the successor to the Grand Design 100 (GD100) plan that spanned the period from 2006 to 2017. GD2020 calls for a fortification of Yokohama’s business foundation by deploying a growth strategy that encompasses original approaches to each operational emphasis. Yokohama Rubber says GD2020 is a “framework for supporting new strides by Yokohama into the decade of the 2020s.”

Core strengths will be redefined under GD2020, and Yokohama Rubber will address focused strategic priorities in each sector of operations. The company’s strategy in the consumer tyre business includes working to expand its presence in the market for premium-grade tyres as well as asserting “leadership in studless snow tyres for Japan, in studded snow tyres for Northern Europe and Russia, and in winter tyres for other European nations.” Meanwhile, the GD2020 strategy portrays commercial vehicle tyres as a “pillar of sales and earnings in Yokohama’s second century,” positioning off-highway tyres – including its ATG and Aichi Tire Industry businesses – as a pillar of that growth. The company’s strategy in its non-tyre ‘Multiple Business’ operations under GD2020 calls for an allocation of resources “on a priority basis to sectors of strength.”

In addition, GD2020 presents three priority emphases for fortifying Yokohama’s business foundation: A strengthening of the company’s financial position by reducing interest-bearing debt and idle assets; revitalising Yokohama’s corporate culture through human resources measures for energising the company’s organisation; and minimising corporate risk through systematic management. The chief quantitative targets in GD2020 are to raise net sales to 700 billion yen, up 8.3 per cent over 2017, and raise operating income to 70 billion yen, up 29.1 per cent.

GD100 spanned the period from 2006 to 2017 and comprised four three-year phases. Net sales increased from 451.9 billion yen in 2005 to 668.0 billion yen in 2017, and operating income increased from 21.9 billion yen to 51.9 billion yen. Globalisation proceeded rapidly under GD100, with the overseas percentage of Yokohama Rubber’s net sales increasing from 23 per cent in 2005 to 56 per cent in 2017.