< History >

The principle for its foundation :
To serve people, To make harmony, To be innovative

The principle for its foundation: To serve people, To make harmony, To be innovative Takeo Yamanaka, the founder of Maruni spent his childhood in Miyajima of Hiroshima Prefecture. Influenced by its environment in which traditional handicrafts (wood works) were close to home, he came to be into the wonder of wood' that can take any form of being straight lines or being curved lines, being thick or being thin, as if it were a kind of magic. After graduating from junior high, he went on to a junior college specializing in mechanical engineering. He enthusiastically sought to apply the theories of machines to the wood, the wondrous material he had strongly been attracted by in his childhood. With such an enthusiasm, he taught himself German and read a great number of European books. Immediately after his graduation from the college, he founded Yamanaka Research Center' with other five craftsmen. Thus Maruni with its pride in its high artifice' was given its birth.

Early Period: - Aiming at the modernization of furniture industry -

In 1928 (the 3 rd year of Showa), SHOWA MAGEKI KOJO (SHOWA BENTWOOD FACTORY), the predecessor of Maruni Inc. was founded. It invented the technology to bend wood' which required highly sophisticated skills those days. With its goal of industrializing furniture production that had been a kind of handicraft up to then, it sought for the industrial mass-production of furniture without the special skills of craftsmen.Considering the time's background in which Ford began to mass-produce automobiles, you will know how progressive an idea this company started with.
In 1929, it began to expand its market not only in Japan but in China and Korean Peninsula and was about to make its firm position as a modern furniture mass-producing company. During the Second World War, the company was, with its high technology, engaged in the production of wooden sub-fuel tank, wooden tail unit of planes, etc. These productions in armament industry would eventually become the driving force for the innovative wood-work technologies.

Growth Period: - Renovation of the production system toward mass-production -

After the Second World War, Maruni wasted no time in renovating its production systems and promoting the establishment of its mass-production processes. It introduced various new technologies such as the research and development of artificial wood drying processes. It adopted European rational production processes and improved every possible procedure from the selection of the material to the finished products, which includes restructuring of the factory layout, revising of the operating processes, etc.
The company began to sell deck chairs in 1953, double bunk beds in 1962. Along with the introduction of such items, in 1953, it began to export its products to the USA with its strong cost competitiveness while it acquired the methods of quality and delivery control. Around the same period, with the shortage of domestic wood material, the company looked for the wood whose supply could be stable all over the world and in 1959 it began to deal in Solomon Mahogany (Taun) found in Papua New Guinea. To make extremely hard Solomon Mahogany (Taun) nicknamed Steel Tree' usable for furniture material of constant supply, the company made thorough research concerning its drying processes and cutting technologies, which set the company in the leading position in the technological renovation in the field.

Period Of Its Firm Establishment: - Maruni with its pride in technologies and specialties -

In 1960s, Maruni developed various cutting-edge machines for more highly sophisticated wood-working and succeeded in the mass-production of furniture with carving, which had so far only been possible by the hands of craftsmen. Versailles' which was introduced in 1968 has been the biggest hit product in the history of Japanese furniture industry with its unprecedented monthly production of 2500 sets. Thus Maruni grew to be the number one furniture company in Japan.Versailles' is still keeping its sales as a long seller item.

Period Of Proposition: - From Furniture Designs To Life Designs -

With the coming of 1980s, Maruni began to propose the concept of Total Coordinating as a supplier of comprehensive interior designs. Rather than trying to sell single items or set items, it began to seek for the holistic beauty and function of the interior as a total property by arranging magnificent European Classics with the Japanese sense of life those days. Accordingly it began to produce various board-items along with furniture and their total sales reached the annual sales of 30,000,000,000 yen in 1992. In 1989, to secure the wood material that can be constantly supplied and to enhance the company's competitiveness, Maruni founded a joint company with a company in Thailand and aimed at stronger productivity overseas.

Recovery Period: - Returning To The Original Point, The Creation Of Renewed Maruni-

Since the latter half of 1990s, with the prolonged economic recession of Japan, the influx of Chinese and South East Asian low price goods and the changing of peoples tastes, Maruni has gone under its hard time and seen not small downturn in its business. In 1995, it built a new factory in Dalian China to secure the constant supply of wood material and to enhance its cost competitiveness. In 1999, it succeeded in developing the furniture that produces less formaldehyde, the fruit of Marunis effort to achieve one of its goals of making furniture tender to people'. In the year of 2000, aiming at the production of the 'furniture friendly to the global environment, Maruni acquired the license of ISO14001 for its main factories. In spite of such efforts, the recovery of business is, however, way ahead. Maruni is, currently, in the very struggle for reviving its business. Maruni has always been a company that devotes its business to the production of wooden Western furniture. Therefore Maruni can be labeled as the company that thoroughly knows every nature of wood. Here we, the workers of Maruni, are strongly determined to build renewed Maruni as a maker that will offer happiness of surprise (the new values) and that will provide the products of supreme quality possible to be attained by the ever progressing technical innovations for the people all over the world, sincerely following the original wish and the enthusiasm of the companys founder.

< General Description of the Company >

The Location Of The Main Office
1-9-34 Shingu Hatsukaichi City Hiroshima Pref. Japan

The Location Of The Factories
In Japan :
Hatsukaichi-City Hiroshima Pref. / Yuki-Cho Saeki-Gun Hiroshima Pref. /
Miwa-Cho Kuga-Gun Yamaguchi Pref.
In China :
GAN JING ZI DISTRICT Dalian

The Cities For Its Main Sales Activities
Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kanazawa, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka

The Capital
450,000,000 yen

The Annual Business
7,000,000,000yen*sum total of maruni group:8,500,000,000yen