Japanese logistics player Seino Holdings saw moderate revenue growth of +3.8% to JPY 631,507m (€4.23bn) and similar operating income growth of +3.35% to JPY 28,501m (€191.1m) for the year end 31 March 2023.
The majority of Seino Holdings’ business (in terms of operating profit, over 75%), is in the transport and delivery industry on mainland Japan. It operates intermodal hubs and trucking depots open to other major land and sea transport companies for middle mile delivery across Japan’s major islands as well as in-house trucking, sea and train transport routes.
One of the obstacles Japanese logistics companies face are labour shortages in both their vehicle driver and warehousing facilities. Seino Holdings has moved all transport over to rail and sea where the end to end journeys are more than 600km (375 miles). This tackles two issues head on – the labour shortages in the short term but also in consolidating cargoes for longer distances, its greenhouse gas emissions.
At the same time it has taken measures to automate many of the processes in its warehouses to reduce its manpower problems. It is looking at other means to ensure it can handle the road transport volumes demanded by clients, to include bigger loads on larger vehicles so fewer drivers are required to move a given volume of goods.
In 2021-22 the company took a number of measures to improve revenues and profitability of this division of the company including opening distribution warehouses in Inzai and Kawashima, Japan.
Source: Seino Holdings
Author: Richard Shrubb
