Reinforcing and Expanding Our Ability to Increase Corporate Value

Growth in nonfinancial capital is essential for achieving ongoing increases in corporate value. The Company Group, therefore, is constantly working to strengthen its support for franchisees, develop human resources, practice environmentally friendly management, and contribute to society.

Supporting FranchiseesHelping Partners Grow

The Company, as the franchise headquarters, supports the establishment and implementation of annual plans based on directions set by the headquarters. We do this by deploying counselors, from two sales headquarters – one for the eastern half of the country and another for the western half - to sales divisions in 12 areas across Japan. To help strengthen their operations, counselors visit individual stores once or twice a week to provide guidance on managing sales floors and operating stores in ways that suit local characteristics. Counselors also examine successful initiatives and turn these into best practices. The Company holds regular meetings to strengthen ties with franchise executives and store managers. And Chain Growth Co., Ltd., established in March 2017, provides franchisees with assistance in hiring and human resource development. More specifically, Chain Growth conducts training for store managers and staff, trains automobile mechanics at its training facilities, deploys automobile mechanics to AUTOBACS chain stores, and performs human resource consulting for franchisees.

Human Resource DevelopmentDeveloping Car Professionals

The Company has created e-learning and a multilayered stratified education and training system mainly for store staff. In addition, we tie performance evaluations to Group internal qualifications and automobile mechanic and other publicly recognized qualifications to enhance knowledge and skills, boost employee motivation, and increase store service quality. To help Company Group employees shape their own careers, we have created an environment that includes elements such as periodic (every few years) job rotations and career-based stratified training to help individual employees understand their desires and aptitudes.

In our efforts to create comfortable work environments, the Health Promotion Council, led by the representative director and chief executive officer, and the Health Management Office, as the implementing organ, lead employee health improvement initiatives, which have been praised by outside parties. And to create better working environments for women, we are moving to expand childcare support and regularly conduct workshops to gain feedback directly from female employees.

Environmentally Friendly ManagementTo Create a Society in which People and Cars are in Harmony with the Environment

The Company has established its policy on the environment and created an environmental management system. To lower the environmental impact of our business activities, we formulate specific plans and targets, and assess our progress in achieving these to gain the improvement we seek. To save energy, the Company Group employs various measures, such as no-overtime days made possible by operational and efficiency improvements. And in our stores, we have taken steps, such as adopting LED lighting and using a heat-reflecting coating on roofs, that achieve environmental benefits cost-effectively. Our efforts to use resources more efficiently have included measures such as reducing the use of shopping bags and redesigning the packaging for our private-brand merchandise to reduce our use of packaging materials. And for our service pits, we have engaged a legally compliant industrial waste company to properly dispose of or recycle tires, oil, and other waste materials, and we use our own methods to confirm that this work is performed as promised.

Social ContributionsAs a Group Moving Forward Together with Local Communities

To have stores function as necessary infrastructure for local residents, we devote significant attention to contributing to local communities. We are, for example, installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stands at our stores, and working with local governments to develop ways for our stores to assist people who become stranded during a disaster. We engage in activities such as cleanups in areas around our stores to be better local citizens. To contribute to car culture, we have created experiential attractions at the KidZania Tokyo and KidZania Koshien occupational theme parks for children. We also support motorsports and other activities. Since establishing the ARTA Project (AUTOBACS RACING TEAM AGURI) in 1998, we have endeavored to develop globally competitive Japanese race drivers, participated in racing events in Japan and abroad, and worked from other angles as well to communicate the thrill of racing and create more motorsports fans.