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Last Updated: 2010.07.20

Toray and UNIQLO agreed for a "Second Five-year Plan Under Strategic Partnership"

UNIQLO CO., LTD.
Toray Industries, Inc.
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UNIQLO CO., LTD. (Chairman, President and CEO Tadashi Yanai) and Toray Industries, Inc. (President and COO Akihiro Nikkaku), have concluded an agreement for a second five-year plan under the two firms' strategic partnership. This paves the way for continued, mutually beneficial collaboration building upon the shared success of the first five-year plan. Under this agreement, the firms will aspire to dramatically heighten the speed, efficiency and value-added of material development, production and sales, with Toray establishing a stable, long-term supply base to help UNIQLO as it strives to become the world's number one manufacturer-retailer.

UNIQLO, with a global network of 809 stores that includes 135 overseas as of the end of May 2010, strives to "create truly great clothing with new and unique value." The Toray Group, with a corporate philosophy dedicated to "contributing to society through the creation of new value with innovative ideas, technologies and products," has a presence in 21 countries and regions with 229 group-affiliated businesses worldwide, including 102 companies in Japan and 127 overseas as of the end of March 2010. Through the development of competitive products, a stable global production infrastructure and the establishment of a flexible production structure designed to accommodate sales trends, both companies are intent on further evolving this strategic partnership, which was first formed in 2006, to provide products with unprecedented new value to consumers worldwide.

Overview of the second phase of the strategic partnership

The second five-year plan under the strategic partnership of UNIQLO and Toray will hinge on the following activities.

1.   Continuing to create new markets by developing revolutionary new products.  
2.  Expanding the scale of global joint projects and creating new, international growth models operated by Japanese industry. UNIQLO will maximize its sale of clothing internationally while Toray, as a major textile manufacturer, will develop and expand its production base and capabilities on a global level.  
3.  Striving together to meet a target of 400 billion yen in transactions between the two companies during the strategic partnership's second five-year plan, which will run from 2011 and 2015.

About the first phase of the strategic partnership
UNIQLO CO. LTD. and Toray Industries, Inc. first launched their strategic partnership in March 2006 with a long-term supply agreement. In June 2006, under the first phase of the strategic partnership, the two companies formulated a mid- and long-term policy to guide their work developing and planning new products together. Under this business relationship, the two firms, Toray as a developer and manufacturer of materials and UNIQLO with its SPA (Specialty store retailer of Private-label Apparel) business model, have transcended the traditional borders between their respective businesses to establish a seamlessly integrated system of product development that is unified at all the stages--from material selection through to the final sale--and succeeded in providing apparel and other products that enrich the lives of consumers.

 

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