Rengo Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Kita-ku, Osaka; President & CEO: Kiyoshi Otsubo) announces that its consolidated subsidiary Hinode Shiki Kogyo Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Hioki-shi, Kagoshima Prefecture; President: Tetsuro Fujita) will consolidate its corrugators.

Hinode Shiki Kogyo has plants in five locations in Kyushu—centering around Kagoshima Prefecture—and is a leading packaging supplier of corrugated packaging and folding cartons in that region. In October 2012, it merged with another Rengo Group company, Taiko Seikan Co., Ltd., a corrugated packaging manufacturer.

Due to the former Taiko Seikan's close distance of only 5 kilometers in a straight line from Hinode Shiki Kogyo's Kokura Plant (Kita-kyushu-shi, Fukuoka Prefecture), a consolidation of the two plants’ operations to increase production efficiency had been studied. With the renewal of the Kokura Plant's corrugator in January 2013, a decision was made to centralize production of corrugated board at the Kokura Plant and shut down the former Taiko Seikan's corrugator.

Through facility consolidation, Rengo seeks to optimize production and supply systems suited to demand in the region, respond more promptly to customer needs and further raise product quality. In this way, it aims to further strengthen Rengo Group's corrugated packaging business in the Kyushu region and Yamaguchi Prefecture.