Profile of Company W

【Business】Nishijin textile manufacturer and wholesaler

【Capital】 10 million yen

【Sales】 80 million yen

【Number of employees】 8

【Founded】 in 1909

【Established】in 1986

Inquiries and issues

We seek to develop international sales channels.

Paccloa’s Proposals and Support

Formulation of international business plan

F/S survey conducted in Finland

Interviews with major textile manufacturers and industry associations and support for business negotiations

Guidance on how to make presentations to international companies

Outcome

First order of dress fabric from Finnish designer

Clarification of international targets and applications with needs in international markets

Importance of strengthening the brand for international markets

Know-how on business negotiations with international companies

Know-how in structuring, delivering, and answering questions about presentations to international companies

Testimonial from the Executive Director

Our company’s product is Nishijin brocade, a silk fabric used to solemnize shrines and temples.

We are able to weave silk fabrics that are rare in the world, using both hand looms and power looms, using real gold and platinum yarns, and with the technique of weaving with Hikifoil.

We are proud to be able to weave the best weft brocade fabrics as a “weaver” of the final process in Nishijin, which has a division of labor system.

We have received numerous awards (from the Cabinet Office, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, etc.) and have delivered to the Cabinet Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and major brands.

Anticipating a decline in demand for high-end fabrics in a traditional industry , we began to develop sales channels outside of shrines and temples, but the high prices of our products were problematic for other sales channels, and we did not know what we should do because we could not spend any money on advertising.

We had no budget for sales channel development.

We decided to make our budget by selling small items, and we were working on our website by ourselves using WordPress.

However, we did not have any English-speaking employees, and even though we had sold to overseas markets, we had no experience in doing so ourselves. They had no experience in developing their own sales channels.

In fact, we were not even making progress in developing domestic sales channels.

It was while I was attending seminars and consulting with various consulting services that I met Ms. Ogawa.

Our company had many customers from my grandfather’s generation, and our clients were mostly fixed, so we had never given much thought to developing sales channels.

Many people had negative opinions about the term “sales channel development.

Ms. Ogawa advised us to reconfirm the company’s current situation and surrounding environment, the attractiveness of Nishijin textiles and our company’s strengths, and we also held several in-house meetings to share the future direction of the company with everyone.

What was impressive in the numerous meetings was what Ms. Ogawa said.

If you just take samples of Nishijin textiles to showcase them internationally, you will end up saying, “Oh, beautiful!

What is it that your company really wants to offer to international customers?

Make sure that you can clearly show what value your products have, who they bring joy and happiness to, and how you can make them indispensable to the lives of the people in the country you are visiting.

In other words, there is no point in going on a field survey if you don’t have something to talk about that will lead to business.

These were the words of Ms. Ogawa, who was a great help to us in our efforts to expand overseas.

Hearing these words made me realize my own lack of understanding of international expansion.

The amount of homework was endless, and I often felt hopeless.

Ms. Ogawa’s accurate replies were very encouraging.

I had not even decided on a target country, and I was thinking,

“If I were to speak of luxury silk resorts, I would say France, wouldn’t I? I was thinking, “France is the place where Nishijin textiles have already landed in France.

We decided to go to Finland, a country that has not yet introduced Nishijin brocade and is an advanced country in design, to conduct market research.

We positioned it as our business goal to provide fabric to companies and creators who found luxury in Nishijin brocade, especially gold brocade, and to create something new and unprecedented.

In Finland, we were able to visit major Finnish textile brands, and we visited 13 companies in 7 days and 6 nights.

The two of us, the president and the managing director, were so exhausted that we could not even take a sauna in the Finnish hotel. From what I have heard about other companies’ international visits, ours was a much easier trip because it was completed within Helsinki.

We were able to deliver our gold brocade to a famous local designer, Teemu Muurimäki, and a Finnish actress attended the Golden Globe Awards ceremony wearing a dress made of the fabric.

After returning to Japan, we were able to improve our website, review our internal systems, and clarify what we needed to overcome and what we needed to revise.

I could understand what Ms. Ogawa said in the interview, “Preparation is everything.

I would not say that international business is now our business, but the experience we gained at that time has definitely become ours.

Without the process of going to Finland, I don’t think our company would exist today.

Ms. Ogawa’s guidance was quite strict, but she seemed to be a good match for our company, and it was very beneficial.

There are not many people who can tell you what you really need to know instead of consoling you when you are going through a difficult time, but we have been receiving his guidance from time to time since Finland.

Since I was too much of a chick, Ms. Ogawa gave us a hard time.

I am grateful for that.

Even now, I am looking for a chance to work with Ms. Ogawa again to achieve international sales channels.