Media Coverage

Interview of our representative has been posted on the web site of “KENSETSU WALKER”.

2015/01/30

Interview of our representative has been posted on the web site of “KENSETSU WALKER”.

99% are special orders!! The original business model called “co-sourcing”

F&P was established by Fukuda in 2001. By capitalizing on his previous experience at a major general contractor, where he started up and played a key role as a sales leader in the newly-established Logistics and Production Engineering Department and made it grow to achieve sales of 10 billion yen, Fukuda started his own business by specializing in logistics and retail facilities.

“Our company provides diverse services to satisfy our clients’ needs, ranging from finding sites and market research to designing, management, construction supervision, leasing to tenants, and assistance in facility operation. Unlike usual “outsourcing” where the entire operation is commissioned to a third party by a client, our “co-sourcing” features cooperation with our clients to come up with the best solutions with regard to construction planning and real estate uses. Many of our clients are unfamiliar with facility construction and have no departments dedicated to real estate or construction. We therefore supplement such functions on their behalf and play the role of an agent from a neutral and objective standpoint.”

99% of their operations involve special-order contracts, and the past achievements of F&P in design supervision and project management for logistics facility development amount to a total floor area of 4.81 million ㎡.

Our staff is the greatest “resource” of our company

Those who offer such specialized services in diverse fields are the members of F&P staff with a variety of backgrounds and abilities. Each of them exerts the most of his/her knowledge and experience. Included in the members are those with several tens of years of experience in the construction industry, as well as those who come from other wide-ranging fields such as monetary, telecommunication, manufacturing, etc.

At F＆P, the retirement age of a full-time employee is 65 regardless of one’s age of entrance. Also, the employees are promoted no matter how old they are. There is one who had joined the company at age 55 and promoted to an executive at 60, and also one who was hired at 60 and appointed as the director of the headquarters at 64. Thus, the employment style, as well as the working system, at F&P is highly flexible, which has enabled female employees to become an increasingly important part of the company’s force in recent years.

“Expertise resides in people, not in the company. Manpower is the very source of our business,” asserts Fukuda.

Presently, the construction business is thriving for the first time in many years, due to the demands for the restoration works after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the investments toward 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but many see this current construction boom not to last very long.

The spirit of “One More Try!” for continuing to produce new values

“To be sure, the investments may stop when the market becomes over-supplied or because of a rise in land prices and construction costs. But with regard to logistics and retail facilities, which are our specialties, there are always demands for BCP (business continuation plan) even in the event of a disaster, as well as the needs for repairing deteriorated facilities and consequent temporary relocation. Therefore, there is no end to investments. It is true that the domestic construction market is likely to shrink in the future, but business expansion has never been our sole goal. Rather, we have aimed to become a company whose operations are truly appreciated by the society, by providing quality services to our clients and continuing to meet their expectations, which has resulted in our continuous profitability for 13 consecutive years. Our next step, in addition to co-sourcing and real estate conversion, is to work on providing data to more clients at reasonable prices by setting up a database of our specialized services.”

F&P has already started business in earnest in other Asian markets. In 2014, their local subsidiaries were established in Singapore and Myanmar. They have already received an order in Myanmar to design and construct a service apartment building for Japanese businessmen.

“For the time being, our business in Myanmar will center on construction of office buildings and housings which are short supplied. We are presently making preparations to provide the same services there as we do in Japan, once the infrastructure is set up and the construction of Japanese logistics and retail facilities start. Also, we plan to develop our markets in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand, and expand our business to other Asian countries. Our target is to increase our business in Asia to account for around 2% of our total profit in 10 years, with Singapore serving as our base.

Profile

Fukuda, Tetsuya

Fukuda, president and CEO, devoted himself to playing rugby in his high school and college years, and served as a major flanker for both defence and offence. The spirit of “One More Try!” of F&P expresses the spirit of continuing to build up one’s skills and experience by never failing in exerting one’s efforts to the fullest. In fact, the company has recorded profit for 13 consecutive years since establishment, by developing new areas of service in construction and real estate through their “co-sourcing.” Business style. Great expectations are placed on further development of the company and the kinds of values the company will contribute to the society in the future.

*The above is an excerpt from an article appearing in Kensetsu Walker (Jan. 30 issue, 2015) and is dated then the interview took place.