On the heels of strong first-half 2014 consolidated financial results, DENSO Corp. and its North American subsidiaries have kicked it up a notch.
Since November began, the company has:
* announced it will open a 165,000-square-foot shipping warehouse in Nashville, Tenn., at a cost of approximately $6.7 million. "This new warehouse enables us to expand our capabilities to satisfy our customers and also support continued sales growth,” says Britt Autry, vice president of the North American Production Promotion Center at DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee in Maryville.
* expanded its DENSO Logistics Michigan (DLMI) warehouse, located in Belleville, Mich. The company invested approximately $1.6 million to add 40,902 square feet to the facility, which coordinates the distribution of products from various countries, like Japan, Spain, Hungary and Thailand, to a wide range of DENSO’s North American customers.
* received 11 General Motors Supplier Quality Excellence awards worldwide for its efforts in 2014. The award, which is General Motors Corp.'s highest global award for supplier quality, recognizes production plants and facilities that meet a stringent set of quality performance criteria. "Without our employees’ great attention to detail and hard work, we wouldn't be able to achieve these levels of quality and receive multiple awards," says Scott Crockett, director of Quality for DENSO International America Inc.
* introduced new part numbers for its "First Time Fit" lines of Tire Pressure Monitoring System sensors and cabin air filters. The TPMS sensor line was launched earlier this year.
* launched a new line of spark plugs engineered to 1) last more than 100,000 miles on the road and 2) provide more power and superior fuel economy. The new DENSO Iridium TT spark plug features the company's unique Twin Tip Technology. "With iridium overtaking platinum spark plugs as the new OEM standard, we knew the aftermarket needed a top-performing, high-value iridium replacement plug,” says Fran Labun, vice president, Sales Group, DENSO Products and Services Americas Inc.
DENSO posted net income of 122.4 billion yen on net sales of nearly 2.1 trillion yen for its first half ended Sept. 30, 2014. That compares to income of 150.1 billion yen on sales of nearly 2 trillion yen for the same period the year before.
Based on the exchange rate on Sept. 30, 2014, DENSO recorded income of $1.1 billion on sales of $18.9 billion for 1H 2014. It's income-to-sales ratio was 5.9%.
The company's operating income decreased 16.1%, from 192.2 billion yen to 161.3 billion yen.
"Sales increased due to the production volume increase," said Nobuaki Katoh, CEO and president of DENSO Corp. "Despite cost reduction efforts and the increase in production volume, research and development expenditures and investment costs led to the decrease in operating income."
In North America, an increase in car production, boosted by the steady economic growth, led to an increase in sales to 446.4 billion yen ($4.1 billion), a 10.8% increase from the previous year. As a result of the increase in production volume and the cost reduction effort, operating income totaled 13.5 billion yen ($123.3 million), a 44.8% increase.
