2024-09-23
[Tenant Company Interview (Gran Green Osaka)] Sanwa Company Ltd.
A large-Floors office with a total rental floor Area of approximately 111,000m2 will be built in the Park Tower and Gate Tower of Gran Green Osaka. This next-generation office will be convenient for transportation, and will accommodate a variety of work styles, with a green space integrated with the park and a variety of workspaces.
The office will house a variety of companies and organizations that are spreading innovation from Osaka and Kansai to the world. One of these is Sanwa Company Ltd. (which will change its name to Miratap Co., Ltd. in October 2024), whose main business is online mail-order sales of housing equipment and building materials. We spoke to the company about its efforts to continue bringing innovation to the building materials industry and the reasons for relocating its headquarters to Gran Green Osaka. (Interviewed in August 2023)
PROFILE
Sanwa Company Ltd. (will change its name to Miratap Co., Ltd. in October 2024)
Established: 1979
Number of employees: Approximately 250 (as of June 31, 2024)
New head office location: 5-54 Ofukacho, Kita-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture Gran Green Osaka Gate Tower 13th floor
Business description: Planning, development, and online sales of home appliances and construction materials, including kitchen and bathroom vanities.
"Because our company's management is promoting remote work, we plan to adopt a free address system in the new office. We are also looking forward to being able to work in a variety of different ways after the move," says Igami.
Sanwa Company was founded in Osaka in 1979 and began selling construction materials online in 2000. By purchasing directly from manufacturers and factories, they were able to sell at low prices, and introduced a "one price" system that allows anyone, regardless of construction company or general consumer, to buy at the same price, creating a business model that allows a fair selection of products.
"I think our business model is quite unique in the building materials industry. Based on our management philosophy of 'customer first,' we purchase directly from manufacturers and factories, cutting down on intermediate costs and achieving transparent, low-price sales. You could say this system is a distinctive feature of our company," says Kazuma Igami of Sanwa Company.
The industry's first rapid advance is not limited to sales prices. In 2018, at the Milano Salone International Furniture Fair held in Milan, Italy, the company unveiled eight compact kitchens with the theme "The Impact of Compact," designed to address the shrinking residential spaces in urban areas.
It was the first Asian company to win the Milan Salone Award, which recognizes the most outstanding company out of 1,841 exhibitors, making its products known for their functionality as well as their minimalist design.
In 2022, they will open a completely unmanned smart showroom in Yokohama. Through the latest audio equipment and monitors installed in the store, staff will be able to provide realistic customer service as if they were there, no matter where the customer is. Since it is a reservation-only system with only three groups per day, it has a reputation for allowing customers to leisurely and calmly examine products.
"We are planning to open a smart showroom in Sapporo in September of this year. So far we have staffed showrooms in five cities across the country: Tokyo, Osaka, Sendai, Nagoya, and Fukuoka, but we plan to gradually expand our showrooms so that customers outside of major metropolitan areas can also visit," says Igami.
Milano Salone, the world's Floors furniture fair, was held in Milan, Italy in 2018. At the fair, Italian design master Alessandro Mendini unveiled eight compact kitchens, including a colorful cabinet-type kitchen and a Building Height-adjustable movable kitchen, which won the Milano Salone Award.
"I'm looking forward to working in a space that represents our own products in the new office. I believe that being there will lead to new ideas and branding," says Kobayashi.
Kobayashi Taiki also emphasized the importance of not just focusing on convenience, but also of "showing" the actual product.
"On the one hand, online shopping has the advantage of being easy to access and purchase, but on the other hand, there is the concern that you cannot see and touch the actual product. It's not a cheap purchase, so we want as many customers as possible to visit our showrooms, and we would like to continue doing so in the future."
Mizuta Akemi continues, saying the company's efforts are not limited to Japan, but it also plans to strengthen its overseas expansion.
"We opened a showroom in Jakarta, Indonesia in June this year. This is our third showroom overseas, following China and Singapore."
We have signed dealership contracts with local and Japanese companies in each country and outsourced the operation and management of showrooms. We are developing business that is closely tied to the local community. We are steadily moving forward with Sanwa Company's vision of "Becoming a corporate group that is most needed in the lives of people around the world."
Mizuta explains that going forward, the company will focus on new businesses in addition to its core e-commerce business. "Recently, we have started a housing business. We have built a design network called ASOLIE, which shares design concepts with member construction companies across the country and works together to supply custom-designed homes. We have also started selling used apartments that have been fully renovated using our own products."
The South Block is set to be home to Time Out Market Osaka, which will be the first of its kind in Asia, as well as the Hilton Group's top-class hotel brand, Waldorf Asteria Osaka. "There are a lot of popular facilities, and I'm looking forward to the food side of things," says Mizuta.
Igami says that with the expansion of this business, it was the perfect timing to move the headquarters to Gran Green Osaka Gate Tower.
"As our business grows, an increase in personnel is an unavoidable problem. In our current office, the work space is spread across two floors, the 21st and 12th floors, which creates the issue of communication between employees being disrupted. We were looking to solve this issue by consolidating all of our work on one floor."
Gran Green Osaka Gate Tower's office space is approximately 6,000 tsubo (5th to 17th floors), with each floor being approximately 480 tsubo in size. Sanwa Company will occupy the 13th floor (1st floor), which will be approximately 1.5 times larger than the current office. "The location close to the station was also attractive for employees commuting," says Igami. Gran Green Osaka Gate Tower can also be accessed from three floor levels: the underground passage from JR Osaka Station, the first floor above ground, and the second floor deck. The office lobby can be reached in about two minutes on foot from JR Osaka Station (Umekita area), which opened in March this year.
"It's important to create an office that employees want to come to. We pride ourselves on being a company that not only provides building materials but also creates stylish spaces, so we are currently in the process of coming up with ideas to create an ideal office environment on the soft side as well," said Kobayashi, revealing his expectations for the new office.
"Our company will be located on the 13th floor, and the fact that we have the entire floor to ourselves has really motivated our employees, and we are excited about our new office, with a view of the greenery of the city park below," says Mizuta. Igami adds that from the perspective of Sanwa Company's branding, Gran Green Osaka is also ideal.
"Gran Green Osaka is a new town being developed through public-private partnerships, so it's garnering attention not only from within Japan but from around the world. We're an Osaka-based company with global aspirations, so we want to soar out into the world with this new Osaka landmark."
Sanwa Company, which continues to grow by overturning conventional wisdom in the industry, and Gran Green Osaka, whose urban development concept is "a fusion base of greenery and innovation," are sure to be the perfect environment for sparking new innovation.
Photo: Koichi Higashitani Text: Akiko Wakimoto
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