A Quick Guide to Unicharm
(Chapter 3: Unicharm’s objectives)

Today, rising income levels, primarily in Asia, are prompting an expansion of the middle class and an increase in disposable incomes among women. As the advancement of women in society progresses, Unicharm expects similar circumstances to proliferate in the Middle East and Africa, as well as Asia, realizing a global future of consumer trends driven by women.

In light of these changes, the Company’s latest medium-term management plan, the 12th MediumTerm Management Plan, Project-L, which got underway in fiscal 2024, will build a foundation for Unicharm to grow to become the world’s best company, symbolizing the advancement of women, by capturing megatrends in relation to women, who have a natural affinity with its business activities.

The L in Project-L incorporates the three concepts of Lady, Life, and Love.

Unicharm will aim for net sales of ¥1,150.0 billion in fiscal 2026 by creating and focusing on products and services for women during the three years between fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2026, maximizing the lifetime value of all people and pets throughout the world under a basic policy of enhancing the Company’s relative value and helping realize a cohesive society.

Under its new medium-term management plan, the 12th Medium-Term Management Plan, which covers a three-year period beginning in fiscal 2024, Unicharm aims to achieve net sales of ¥1,150.0 billion, CAGR of 6.9%, core operating income ratio of 15.8%, and ROE of 15.0% in fiscal 2026 by steadily implementing its strategies. In fiscal 2024, the opening year of the plan, the Company is targeting consolidated net sales of ¥1,006.0 billion (an increase of 6.8% year on year) and core operating income of ¥144.0 billion (an increase of 12.5% year on year), both of which would be record highs.

Unicharm believes that it must aim for shareholder returns that are compatible with maximizing its ability to generate operating cash flow and prioritizing further growth investment in the nonwoven fabric and absorbent material businesses to maintain and improve the sound financial position that underpins its business strategies.

In addition, during the period of the 12th Medium-Term Management Plan, we will continue to nurture our human capital, focus investments on sustainability transformation (SX), increase investments in growth markets, such as the nursing care and pet care markets in Asia, and make proactive investments in six key African countries (Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ivory Coast, and Ghana) and India and neighboring countries based on the stable growth of our feminine care business overseas. We will invest proactively in digital transformation (DX) to create new value in mature markets, such as Japan and China, by leveraging digital technology to make extensive use of life and data sciences. In terms of the environment, we are investing in increasing the visualization of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, promoting GHG emission reductions by ensuring that emissions are visible, measurable, and manageable.

In these ways, we aim to increase our core operating income ratio 0.7 percentage point year on year to 14.3% in fiscal 2024 by improving our gross profit rate through efforts to promote the passing on of value and to reduce raw material-related costs while strengthening investments with an eye to the future.

For shareholder returns during the period of the 12th Medium-Term Management Plan, we will consistently and continuously increase dividends based on the growth of our consolidated performance over the medium to long term while prioritizing business investments for realizing ongoing growth. As for purchases of our own shares, we will continue to return profits based on a total shareholder payout ratio of 50%, combining shareholder dividends and purchases of our own shares, by buying back shares flexibly and as needed.