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▼ Sendai Protein Producer Leaps Ahead By Engaging People With Disabilities
- Category:Other
Fassist, a Sendai-based manufacturer and seller of protein products, has grown to become one of the leading protein manufacturers in Japan since entering the market in 2015, competing with major companies.
Behind its success is the company’s vast product lineup, which comes in small lots, and its outsourcing of manufacturing to welfare facilities for people with disabilities.
Demand for protein is expected to grow not only among athletes and sports enthusiasts but also among older citizens who want to stay fit. Amid such a favorable business environment, the company is pursuing the dual goals of growing its own business and raising the wages of people with disabilities.
The company ships about 300,000 1-kilogram bags of its original High Clear protein a year. It has been in business for only eight years and, with just 14 employees, it boasts annual sales of ¥900 million.
President Shuichi Fujikura, 45, proudly states, “We have become one of the top 10 companies in a market dominated by major firms such as Meiji and Morinaga.”
One of the reasons for the company’s rapid growth is its extensive product lineup. For the different types of soy protein, which is made from soybeans, and whey protein, which is made from milk, the company offers a variety of flavors, including chocolate, matcha, banana and apple.
The company’s e-commerce site offers nearly 100 kinds of protein products to meet diverse consumer demand.
All ingredients are imported from the United States and China. Fassist reduces costs by dealing directly with overseas firms without relying on trading companies and by storing products at its own warehouse. The products are developed in-house by three employees who are certified nutritionists.
The company also focuses on direct sales to consumers. With its high-quality, low-price products, it has succeeded in taking over market shares from major companies.
Fassist (pronounced F-Assist) was founded in 2007 by Fujikura, a former sporting-goods store employee who left his job to start a business as a personal trainer. Incorporated in 2011, the company’s first hit product was Mobiban, an elastic training band that sold 100,000 units to welfare facilities and sports gyms nationwide in its initial year.
The idea of launching the protein business came from Fujikura’s experience of being a trainer when he was asked by a client to “run errands” for purchasing protein.
As a way to differentiate itself from major manufacturers and avoid having inventories, the company started out its sales of protein on a business-to-business basis, making products in small lots on consignment.
Initially, the company targeted gyms and personal trainers who wanted to have protein products bearing the names of their facilities or individuals. To break into the market, it set the minimum production volume at 200 kg, as opposed to the minimum 1 ton required by other companies.
A breakthrough came with high school baseball. In collaboration with Zett, a major Osaka-based manufacturer of baseball equipment, Fassist marketed made-to-order protein products bearing the names of each school. The products, blended in accordance with each team’s needs, are still sold to more than 200 teams nationwide, mostly from strong schools.
“For good or bad, baseball is a sport where managers have the upper hand in deciding everything and their teams have a strong sense of unity,” Fujikura said. “Even if we had marketed protein products in the same way to soccer teams, it wouldn’t have worked as well.”
Since 2017, the company has expanded into business-to-consumer deals, selling directly to consumers through its e-commerce site.
Fassist outsources its manufacturing to about 20 welfare facilities in Miyagi Prefecture. Fujikura is looking for a win-win situation in which consumers who buy the protein products become healthier, and people with disabilities get higher wages and a sense of pride — all while the company is enriched.
Powdered protein products are mostly produced at Harakara Fukushikai, a social welfare corporation based in Shibata, Miyagi Prefecture. Fassist has built a factory at one of Harakara’s facilities in the town of Shichigahama, which provides training and working opportunities for people with disabilities.
At the Mio Shichigahama facility, 23 people with disabilities and eight staff members are involved in the protein production. Work such as blending, bagging, labeling and boxing is divided in accordance to the level of each person’s disability.
“Some people with disabilities are rather good at repetitive activities, such as weighing without a single gram of error and neatly attaching product labels,” said Naomi Kato, 39, head of Mio Shichigahama. “Protein production is a job where the strengths of people with disabilities can be put to good use.”
Fujikura is grateful for the workers at Mio Shichigahama. At large companies, protein products are made at factories with the minimum lot size in tons. They are pressed to make large quantities in short periods of time to minimize costs.
On the other hand, mass production in a short time is difficult at facilities for people with disabilities. Fassist’s protein, which comes in small lots of 200 kg at minimum for a wide variety of products, is a “good match” for Mio Shichigahama as it is important for people with disabilities to have the same amount of work every day without interruption, Kato says.
The result of the collaboration has been directly linked to workers’ wages. While the average monthly wage at similar welfare facilities in the prefecture was ¥18,240 in the year ended in March 2022, the monthly wage at Mio Shichigahama exceeds ¥60,000.
Those who work at the facility enjoy their job not only for its monetary reward but also for a sense of pride in making such popular products, Kato said. On one occasion, a worker from the facility went to a large discount store in Sendai on a day off and found packages of High Clear in the health food section. “It seems he boasted to his family who went with him that he was the one who made it,” Kato said.
Fujikura calls his company’s products a “social protein,” in which people with disabilities, consumers and his company all get what they want in a sustainable manner, and he aims to further promote the concept.
“We have been working with people with disabilities since before (the United Nations’) sustainable development goals became a household term,” he said.
“If we can get more people to understand the concept of social protein and buy and support our products, we can raise their wages even more,” he says, looking ahead to his company’s growth.
Kato has set his sights on expanding the idea of working with people with disabilities, saying the know-how his company has accumulated can be applied to pancake mix and flour for takoyaki (octopus balls), for example.
“I would like to do more to improve the wages of workers with disabilities, which is a common issue throughout Japan.”
Behind its success is the company’s vast product lineup, which comes in small lots, and its outsourcing of manufacturing to welfare facilities for people with disabilities.
Demand for protein is expected to grow not only among athletes and sports enthusiasts but also among older citizens who want to stay fit. Amid such a favorable business environment, the company is pursuing the dual goals of growing its own business and raising the wages of people with disabilities.
Small-lot strategy
The company ships about 300,000 1-kilogram bags of its original High Clear protein a year. It has been in business for only eight years and, with just 14 employees, it boasts annual sales of ¥900 million.
President Shuichi Fujikura, 45, proudly states, “We have become one of the top 10 companies in a market dominated by major firms such as Meiji and Morinaga.”
One of the reasons for the company’s rapid growth is its extensive product lineup. For the different types of soy protein, which is made from soybeans, and whey protein, which is made from milk, the company offers a variety of flavors, including chocolate, matcha, banana and apple.
The company’s e-commerce site offers nearly 100 kinds of protein products to meet diverse consumer demand.
All ingredients are imported from the United States and China. Fassist reduces costs by dealing directly with overseas firms without relying on trading companies and by storing products at its own warehouse. The products are developed in-house by three employees who are certified nutritionists.
The company also focuses on direct sales to consumers. With its high-quality, low-price products, it has succeeded in taking over market shares from major companies.
Fassist (pronounced F-Assist) was founded in 2007 by Fujikura, a former sporting-goods store employee who left his job to start a business as a personal trainer. Incorporated in 2011, the company’s first hit product was Mobiban, an elastic training band that sold 100,000 units to welfare facilities and sports gyms nationwide in its initial year.
The idea of launching the protein business came from Fujikura’s experience of being a trainer when he was asked by a client to “run errands” for purchasing protein.
As a way to differentiate itself from major manufacturers and avoid having inventories, the company started out its sales of protein on a business-to-business basis, making products in small lots on consignment.
Initially, the company targeted gyms and personal trainers who wanted to have protein products bearing the names of their facilities or individuals. To break into the market, it set the minimum production volume at 200 kg, as opposed to the minimum 1 ton required by other companies.
A breakthrough came with high school baseball. In collaboration with Zett, a major Osaka-based manufacturer of baseball equipment, Fassist marketed made-to-order protein products bearing the names of each school. The products, blended in accordance with each team’s needs, are still sold to more than 200 teams nationwide, mostly from strong schools.
“For good or bad, baseball is a sport where managers have the upper hand in deciding everything and their teams have a strong sense of unity,” Fujikura said. “Even if we had marketed protein products in the same way to soccer teams, it wouldn’t have worked as well.”
Since 2017, the company has expanded into business-to-consumer deals, selling directly to consumers through its e-commerce site.
Working with people with disabilities
Fassist outsources its manufacturing to about 20 welfare facilities in Miyagi Prefecture. Fujikura is looking for a win-win situation in which consumers who buy the protein products become healthier, and people with disabilities get higher wages and a sense of pride — all while the company is enriched.
Powdered protein products are mostly produced at Harakara Fukushikai, a social welfare corporation based in Shibata, Miyagi Prefecture. Fassist has built a factory at one of Harakara’s facilities in the town of Shichigahama, which provides training and working opportunities for people with disabilities.
At the Mio Shichigahama facility, 23 people with disabilities and eight staff members are involved in the protein production. Work such as blending, bagging, labeling and boxing is divided in accordance to the level of each person’s disability.
“Some people with disabilities are rather good at repetitive activities, such as weighing without a single gram of error and neatly attaching product labels,” said Naomi Kato, 39, head of Mio Shichigahama. “Protein production is a job where the strengths of people with disabilities can be put to good use.”
Fujikura is grateful for the workers at Mio Shichigahama. At large companies, protein products are made at factories with the minimum lot size in tons. They are pressed to make large quantities in short periods of time to minimize costs.
On the other hand, mass production in a short time is difficult at facilities for people with disabilities. Fassist’s protein, which comes in small lots of 200 kg at minimum for a wide variety of products, is a “good match” for Mio Shichigahama as it is important for people with disabilities to have the same amount of work every day without interruption, Kato says.
The result of the collaboration has been directly linked to workers’ wages. While the average monthly wage at similar welfare facilities in the prefecture was ¥18,240 in the year ended in March 2022, the monthly wage at Mio Shichigahama exceeds ¥60,000.
Those who work at the facility enjoy their job not only for its monetary reward but also for a sense of pride in making such popular products, Kato said. On one occasion, a worker from the facility went to a large discount store in Sendai on a day off and found packages of High Clear in the health food section. “It seems he boasted to his family who went with him that he was the one who made it,” Kato said.
Fujikura calls his company’s products a “social protein,” in which people with disabilities, consumers and his company all get what they want in a sustainable manner, and he aims to further promote the concept.
“We have been working with people with disabilities since before (the United Nations’) sustainable development goals became a household term,” he said.
“If we can get more people to understand the concept of social protein and buy and support our products, we can raise their wages even more,” he says, looking ahead to his company’s growth.
Kato has set his sights on expanding the idea of working with people with disabilities, saying the know-how his company has accumulated can be applied to pancake mix and flour for takoyaki (octopus balls), for example.
“I would like to do more to improve the wages of workers with disabilities, which is a common issue throughout Japan.”
- June 19, 2023
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