A Study Assessing New Corporate Behavior in the Cat Food Business The Strategic Reshoring of Products by Hagoromo Foods Corporation

Abstract

The present study is the first in the field of agricultural economics to focus on the cat food business─a leading segment in the rapidly expanding pet food market. Cat food is similar to human food products in two respects: two of its major ingredients are tuna and skipjack tuna, which are also eaten by people, and it is produced in the same plants as canned tuna. This study reviewed the pioneering corporate behavior of a corporation that relocated its production base from Thailand, a major overseas manufacturing hub, to Japan in 2015. Further, the decision to reshore was analyzed using marketing research data. The findings indicated that the primary reason for this transition was the firm’s inability to respond to structural changes that have intensified in the industry since 2010. However, the corporation’s reshoring and cooperation with Japanese businesses allowed it to supply unique mid-price range products to compete with the vast number of similar products supplied by major corporations; it could also supply products that can be considered premium. This strategic transition helped the corporation become profitable. Therefore, this corporate behavior can be understood as an appropriate adaptation to the recent changes in market structure.