Top Message
New Year's Message
We sincerely appreciate your continued understanding and support for our business activities.
I would also like to express my deepest gratitude once again for the many warm words
and support we received on the occasion of our 25th anniversary last year.
Below, we would like to present our key initiatives in 2025 and our aspirations for 2026, focusing on our main initiatives.
We classify the indirect materials market, estimated at approximately 8-10 trillion JPY, into Micro, Small, Mid, and Large segments based on the business scale of our customers. We
promote service development and sales/marketing activities tailored to each segment.
In our Enterprise Business (procurement management systems business for large corporations) targeting the Mid and Large segments, the number of customer companies surpassed 4,000
in 2025. We are strengthening our sales organization to secure further new contracts and expand usage across customer sites. As large corporations face challenges such as labor
shortages and the need for stricter compliance, we aim to contribute to improving customer convenience and creating “value of time” for our customers by increasing our penetration
within these organizations.
In charge of Overall Management, Marketing, and Enterprise Business
In our B2B online business (monotaro.com) targeting the Small and Mid segments, we are deeply grateful and humbled to be serving more than 10 million customers. In 2025, our
product lineup surpassed 28 million items. We also expanded our private brand products, launching products such as oil-removing detergents developed through our own in-house
research.
To increase touchpoints between customers and our products, we have gradually resumed the publication of our product catalog, which had been suspended since 2022. In 2026, we will
continue to enhance our lineup of value-added products to become the site that even more customers choose to use every day.
In charge of Merchandise, Human Resources, and Legal
We are also expanding our business globally, with subsidiaries in South Korea, Indonesia, and India engaged in the sale of indirect materials tailored to the characteristics of each country. Although the overseas business still accounts for a small percentage of our consolidated net sales, we see it as an area with significant potential when looking at the Group's growth over the next decade. We believe that opportunities lie precisely in the differences between countries and markets, and we will continue to take on the challenge of accelerating our growth.
In charge of Overseas Business
In IT, one of our key foundations, we are strengthening both our talent and our development environment. In 2025, we established the India Tech Center, reinforcing our foundation
for data and AI utilization.
In 2026, we will further strengthen this foundation to advance sophisticated and rapid development in marketing and systems. We will focus on accumulating technology and knowledge
and cultivating talented engineers to further enhance our competitive advantage.
In charge of IT Engineering
Improving delivery convenience is not something we can achieve alone. We will strive to improve convenience for our customers by deepening our collaborative relationships with our
partners.
In 2025, we expanded the order cutoff time for same-day shipping to 5:00 PM (17:00) in 42 prefectures.
In 2026, we will focus on "Realizing the Evolution and Stable Operation of our Fulfillment Network." We will proceed with preparations for the launch of Mito Distribution Center,
currently under construction, and strengthen our foundation to deliver products to customers reliably and quickly, including the introduction of a "Delivery Date and Time Selection
Service."
In charge of Operations
In 2026, we will continue to pursue the goal of “thoroughly utilizing data and technology to build competitive advantage in the AI era.”
By fostering collaboration between AI and humans, we will refine our "Find, Fit, and Fast" services—improving the accuracy of product search and recommendations, optimizing
inventory, and automating responses. We will also enhance our customer support and services by utilizing AI agents to support product search and selection, striving to improve a
customer experience where users can choose products that perfectly match their needs.
In charge of Data Science
In 2025, under our new capital allocation policy, we set medium- to long-term goals of achieving sales growth of 15% or more and profit growth exceeding that rate, while also
clearly indicating our commitment to enhanced shareholder returns. We will continue to implement measures to achieve these goals in 2026.
In the area of sustainability, we advanced eco-friendly products and the enhancement of human capital management, receiving "Platinum Kurumin" certification and recognition under
the "Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program."
We will continue to work on measures that support the sustainable growth of our company from both financial and non-financial perspectives.
In charge of Finance and Disclosure
In 2026, guided by our mission "To Innovate Business Procurement Network," we will continue to take on challenges to reduce the burden of procurement for businesses and create time for
them to focus on their core operations. By doing so, we strive to contribute to the development of an industrial society where "work goes smoothly."
We sincerely ask for your continued support and guidance in the year ahead.
January 1, 2026
Our Founding Aspirations
Work with respect for each other.
Test small changes quickly, and adapt based on the results of those changes.
Follow these principles, and MonotaRO will continue to grow.
The founding of a company includes a mission to society. The first mission is to provide new value to society. All industries have existing companies trying to optimize in their own environments. To enter and win there, a new company needs to bring new value which society demands, but which does not yet exist.
When I founded MonotaRO in 2000 with my colleagues and entered the indirect material market, I sensed that we could provide new value through transforming the complex distribution of the indirect material market by utilizing database marketing through the Internet. My colleagues, who also shared a commitment to this value, and I have changed the mechanism of indirect material procurement by constructing and providing a new and efficient purchase platform so that we can distribute sufficient indirect materials, without wasted time and effort, to all businesses nationwide in Japan.
However, the new value that we create must be continually subjected to scrutiny in order to evolve and develop further. If not, this would mark the end of our mission to society. The second most important mission, therefore, is that the company must continue to evolve in order to keep making contributions to society. In Japanese, "kaisha", the word for company, is written by reversing the characters for "shakai", the word for society. I wanted to realize a better society by creating a good company. If each person working at MonotaRO comes to think MonotaRO as a society in which he or she belongs, the evolution necessary for our existence can be incorporated into the system.
In order to accomplish that, first, we must work with respect for one another. We join society’s circle of trust when this mutual respect does not just stay limited inside of MonotaRO, but also expands to the world at large. I believe that Monotaro can continue to grow by consistently testing small changes and then evolve by adapting to the results of those changes.
Founder and Honorary Advisor Kinya Seto