Shirokiya
 | |
| Company type | Holding |
|---|---|
| Industry | retail |
| Founded | Tokyo, Japan (1662) |
| Headquarters | Honolulu, Hawaii |
Key people | Hikotaro Omura, founder Koji Hayashi, President & CEO Walter Watanabe, Board of director & Store Manager revenue = $38 million (January 1], 2005) |
| Products | various |
| Website | www.shirokiya.com |
Shirokiya was one of Japan's oldest companies, as well as the largest retailer during the early 20th century. In the 1950s, it was purchased by another Japanese corporation and began an expansion overseas, primarily in Hawaii. However, in 2001, the company was largely dissolved. Today, the only remnant of the original company is the Shirokiya department store in Honolulu, a division of Shirokiya Holdings, LLC, a United States-based corporation.
Company overview
Shirokiya, Inc. (the store) is overseen by a seven-person board, all of whom own a part of Shirokiya's parent company, Shirokiya Holdings, LLC. The CEO & President is Japanese native Koji Hayashi, who also oversees the few functions of the company that still remain in Japan. Director and Store Manager Walter Watanabe, as well as the remaining directors, oversee the bulk of the operations, also serving as store senior management.
At present, Shirokiya's primary holding is the department store. The company also holds the North American rights to Book Off, a Japan-based bookstore-and-music chain owned by former Shirokiya corporate parent Tokyu Group, and Saint-Germain Bakery, a confectionery also owned by Tokyu. Branches of Book Off and Saint-Germain are located within the current Shirokiya store.
History
Hikotaro Omura opened a dry goods store at Nihombashi in Edo, (now Tokyo) in August 1662. Omura called the store Shirokiya Gofukuten, a name that would last until the 20th century. Over the next few hundred years, the store slowly expanded, and as Japan entered the Meiji era, Shirokiya and its main rival at the time, Mitsukoshi, expanded into selling clothing and other goods in 1886. In 1903, Shirokiya opened a western-style department store, followed by the creation of a larger store down the street eight years later.
The turning point for Shirokiya were a series of natural, financial and man-made disasters that devastated the company's fortunes. The first was an earthquake in 1923 that completely destroyed the original department store building. This was followed up a few years later by a major fire on December 16, 1932, which destroyed the larger building and caused 14 fatalities. Finally, Shirokiya's assets, mainly centered in Tokyo, were devastated during World War II and the following occupation of Japan, whereas Mitsukoshi, spread throughout the nation, fared better.
By 1958, Shirokiya was clearly on the downturn; despite the use of innovative marketing techniques common in the west but unheard of in Japan, Mitsukoshi had a commanding lead on the retail industry. In order to protect itself from a hostile takeover, Shirokiya agreed to be absorbed into the Tokyu Group, a railway company expanding into the retail industry at that time. Shortly afterwards, the Shirokiya name disappeared from Japanese life.
Tokyu era
However, that same year, Tokyu decided to expand internationally, opting to use the Shirokiya name. On October 29, 1959, the first branch of Shirokiya outside of Japan was opened in Hawaii's then brand-new Ala Moana Center. The branch would later move to its present location in Ala Moana, across from Liberty House (now Macy's) in 1966. A branch store was opened in Maui in November 1973. A second branch was opened up at Pearlridge, near Pearl Harbor, on April 2, 1981.
Though the three stores were popular with both local residents and tourists, the stores had an uneven profit record. By the 1990s, as the Japanese economy collapsed, the Tokyu Group went heavily in debt, up to $470 million up to fiscal year 2001. To save costs, Tokyu began to shed its overseas businesses, either selling them off or closing them outright. Eventually, attention turned to the Shirokiya stores, with the Pearlridge store closing in March 2001 and the Maui store shuttering in May of that same year.
Customer outcry was immense. Led by Senator Daniel Inouye, a petition signed by 30,000 residents of Hawaii and Japan was sent to Tokyu, in the hopes that Tokyu would find a fitting end to the "Shirokiya crisis". News reports both in Japan and Hawaii began to report that Tokyu would simply close all of its retail outlets and sell off its other properties and focus only on its Japanese businesses. This was compounded when Tokyu declined to renegotiate its leases for all the stores.
Modern era
However, in a surprise move, Tokyu in July opted to take a $23 million loss, selling the company to the seven highest-ranking executives of the store for the amount of $1 (one dollar). The deal, which included the Book Off and Saint-Germain rights, as well as the right to build a future expansion at Tokyu's lone remaining Hawaii asset, the Shirokiya Department Store at Ala Moana Shopping Center, ensured the survival of Shirokiya, though there were some reports in the Japanese media about the loss of one of Japan's oldest companies to the U.S.
The newly-formed Shirokiya Holdings acted immediately, closing the store for a year for a $1 million overhaul, as well as the streamlining of operations and assets, and the renegotiation of the lease on the remaining store. On November 17, 2002, Shirokiya reopened its doors to great fanfare and then-Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano declaring the day to be "Shirokiya Day". The following year, on July 14, 2003, Shirokiya Holdings reported a net profit of $35 million, the largest profit in the history of the company under Japanese or American ownership.
Trivia
- The 1932 fire at the Nihombashi store is believed to have been the catalyst for the decline in kimonos as everyday wear. During the fire, 14 customers and employees, all women, refused to jump out of windows onto life nets, for fear that their kimonos would fly open and expose them to the crowds below. Shortly after the fire, the sale of trousers and underwear skyrocketed throughout Japan.
- Shortly after the original store was rebuilt in 1924, it featured a state-of-the-art research and development division that created rice cookers, tape recorders and electric cushions, all under the Shirokiya brand. However, as Shirokiya's fortunes waned, the head researchers, Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita departed in 1946, taking all 20 employees with them. The division survives today as the Sony Corporation.