ALPINE ELECTRONICS, INC. (E01840) Stock Price

Alpine is a company whose main business is manufacturing and selling audio equipment and information/communication equipment for automobiles. The company develops and manufactures in-vehicle audio systems and car navigation systems, operating globally. As part of a group under Alps Electric as its parent company, it handles a wide range of products from electronic components to finished goods.

The company's customers are primarily automobile manufacturers and sales dealers, generating revenue from both original equipment integration into finished vehicles and aftermarket sales. In Japan, sales are primarily conducted through its subsidiary Alpine Marketing, though direct sales are also made to major customers. Overseas, the company has established sales bases in North America, Europe, China, and the Asia-Pacific region to advance local operations.

The business is divided into two segments: audio equipment and information/communication equipment. In addition to Alpine Manufacturing in Japan, the company has built a global manufacturing network with production bases in Europe, China, Asia, and North America, establishing an efficient supply system that responds to regional demand.

Alpine is working to establish itself as a Mobile Media Innovation Company under its corporate vision "VISION2020" targeting 2020. The company has set a management goal of achieving a consolidated operating profit margin exceeding 5%, with its development, production, and sales divisions working together to pursue sustainable growth and improved profitability. In particular, the company positions the three-year period from 2017 as a critical phase for corporate transformation, accelerating the achievement of medium-term management targets and building growth foundations for 2020 and beyond.

In priority investment areas, Alpine continues investment in its existing information and communication equipment business while increasing its research and development investment ratio in new fields such as products that integrate with smartphones and human-machine interfaces. The company is undertaking company-wide efforts in product structure reform and design process reform to improve quality and strengthen price competitiveness, while actively implementing capital investments for production management reform. Through these initiatives, Alpine is achieving dramatically higher quality levels and building a system to meet the stringent requirements of automotive manufacturers.

In new market development, Alpine is leveraging the fusion of technical strengths from its management integration with Alps Electric to expand business in the CASE domain (connected, autonomous driving, sharing services, and electrification) and create new businesses. The company is optimizing each function from development to sales through a global five-region structure (Japan, Americas, Europe, China, and Asia), advancing customer satisfaction improvement and profit structure reform. By actively shifting resources toward growth areas, the company aims to establish a robust corporate foundation.

Regarding technological innovation, Alpine is rapidly advancing synergy creation from its management integration with Alps Electric. As the automotive industry enters a once-in-a-century period of major transformation, the company is transitioning from a supplier of individual module products to a comprehensive supplier capable of proposing HMI systems for entire vehicles. Through mutual utilization of both companies' technical strengths and management resources, Alpine is shortening the period from new product development to market launch and establishing a system to respond swiftly to rapidly changing customer needs.