Good afternoon everyone. My name is Takuya Jimbo and I am responsible
for the overall control of the Groupwide transformative Ariake Project, andglobal supply chain-management.
Just two days ago, I held a joint news conference with Daifuku Co., Ltd. toannounce the forming of our strategic global partnership, and I explained ourfocus on warehouse automation.
Today, I would like to talk to you about Fast Retailing’s broader supply-chain
reform drive.

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I would like to divide my presentation into three main areas: our ultimate
supply chain direction and aims, our former supply chain, and our future
supply chain.

2Let me get right down to talking about our ultimate supply chain direction andaims.
To state the conclusion first: Our ultimate aim is to make only what isnecessary, distribute only what is necessary, and sell only what is necessary.
Our president, Mr. Yanai, first mentioned this specific phrase approximately
one year ago when he was talking publicly about Fast Retailing’s futurebusiness strategy in conjunction with the latest corporate resultsannouncement.
Making, distributing and selling only what is necessary was the basic concept
upon which we carved our Ariake Project drive to create an entirely new
information-driven digital consumer retailing industry.
As part of this initiative, we are currently instigating significant changes in all
our business processes, from design, through planning, production,distribution and retail.

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Let me tell you about our three major premises relating to the Fast Retailing
supply chain.
First, the Fast Retailing Group produces 1.3 billion items of clothing annually.
Global clothing manufacture apparently totals approximately 80 billion items,
so, if that figure is correct, that would mean the FR Group alone accounted
for a 1.6% share of annual global apparel production. In other words, Fast
Retailing is one of the world’s largest companies in terms of volume ofclothing produced.
Second, Mr. Yanai touched upon this earlier, but we don’t just produce
clothes in mass volumes, we manufacture clothes according to our LifeWear
clothing philosophy. In other words, we are not a simple mass producer, but acompany that creates an impressive 1.3 billion items of ideological clothing.

Third, we pledge to sell every single item of clothing that we make, so thereis never any waste. Any clothes that our customers no longer need are collected
as part of our All-Product Recycling Initiative and reused as clothing aid for refugees
or recycled materials.

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If we build a supply chain based on these supply-chain premises, then weare going inevitably come up against the sort of problems that you see inslide 5.
In order to produce as many as 1.3 billion items of clothing each year, someproducts take up to a year to complete all stages from design throughplanning, production, distribution and retail. UNIQLO LifeWear productplanning and design takes time because LifeWear is unique clothing that has
been thoroughly thought through with customers’ life needs in mind, andUNIQLO doesn’t simply chase fashion trends and create similar clothes toother companies.
It also takes time to physically produce 1.3 billion items of clothing annually,
because each piece is carefully manufactured from carefully selectedmaterials to ensure we create high-functioning, high-quality clothes.
Viewed overall, our former supply chain did at times result in the making,distributing and selling of some items that were not necessary. Of course, weare already working to transform our supply chain and, as Mr. Okazaki
explained earlier, we are starting to see some benefits showing through.

5This slide explains what we are doing to address these challenges acrossthree stages of the supply-chain, namely the making, distributing and sellingof clothes.
First, we were only able to collect a portion of the available global information
and we were not able to fully reflect this information in our product designand sales volumes. We were not able to obtain all global information because
information was collected manually by humans. Because we were only able
to reflect a portion of the manually collected information in our product design
and planning, it was difficult to devise accurate designs or production volumeforecasts.
Looking next at production, given the long production lead time for massproduced items, our attempts to perfectly match production with sales trends
were not always successful. Manufacturing mass volumes of high-function,
high-quality LifeWear requires materials preparation in huge volumes andpainstakingly careful production processes, resulting in longer lead times.
That, in turn, resulted in a structural problem whereby we couldn’t meet thepeak demand period for certain products if we didn’t make them in advance.
The more you produce, the more thread, raw materials, cutting, and sewing
you need, lengthening the time required for each individual process. Hence,
we were faced with this structural problem of needing to start producing
products one year in advance to ensure they were ready for sale during the6

peak demand period.
The next problems relate to distribution. Our warehouse capacity in retailcountries was in short supply. We ended up generating unproductive work
shifting inventory around, and needing to rely on large-scale mobilization oflabor, which resulted in a tight labor supply and sharply rising personnel
expenses. Our supply chain was full of contradictions, with stores holding
surplus inventory of poor-selling products that had to be heavily discounted
to offload, while at the same time having to deal with stock shortages instrong-selling items.
Considering the overall supply chain, we were faced with two key issues.
First, we were suffering from insufficient visualization of important supplychain related information and volumes as well as insufficient comprehensive
SKU management across all areas. Second, we were unable to forge direct
and uniform links between all our production partners, warehouses, storesand headquarters.

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These are some examples of the opinions we received from customers about
our former supply chain.
Comments opinion on fashion trends included: “This shirt is comfortable andholds its shape, but I wish the silhouette was a slightly slimmer fit,” or “I love
this knitwear and buy it every year, but this year’s trend colors and shades
are a little different”.
Customer opinion on sales volumes including such comments as: “The things
I want to buy from UNIQLO always sell out just when I want to buy them.
Can’t you make more of them?” or “Newsworthy UNIQLO items sell out on
the first day. It’s disappointing as I made the effort to come”.

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To address these issues, we are striving to build a supply chain that makes,
distributes and sells only what is necessary by forming partnerships withleading global companies
We are working to reflect the huge volumes of real-time information that wecollect from around the world in product design and sales volumes forecasts.
As recently announced, we have started to build a framework that enables us
to access and collect vast amounts of effective, valuable global information
using Google search engines and artificial intelligence. We are also working
on an initiative that will help us determine accurate designs and sales
volumes using Accenture algorithms based on global information and past
Fast Retailing performance data.
In the production stage, we are working to reduce lead times by accumulating
materials in advance. We will be able to amass materials and greatly reduce
production processes through initiatives developed under our long-standing
partnership with synthetic fiber manufacturer Toray Industries and by working
together with individual production partner factories. We also hope our new
partnership with machine manufacturer Shima Seiki will help us create theproducts that customers most want, and reduce lead times.
In the area of distribution, we are developing automated warehouses aroundthe world, so that we only have to store the stock required for retail in the8retail countries.
For example, to date we used to store products in retail countries before thepeak demand period. However, by building warehouses in low-cost
production countries, we have transformed this system and are alreadystarting to see significant positive benefits. The production-country
warehouses operate like a dam, releasing inventory for transport to retailcountries in time to meet the peak demand period. We are also looking todevelop automated warehouses worldwide together with Daifuku based onour global strategic partnership announced earlier this week. By
simultaneously reducing surplus stock and eradicating product shortages, weshould be able to move away from a business format that is heavily reliant
on discounting, and subsequently improve our gross profit margin.
In terms of the overall supply chain, we have introduced RFID to help us fully
visualize important supply-chain related information and product volumes,
pursue more thorough SKU management, and promote local store
management. We attach RFID tags on all products at the point ofmanufacture to facilitate coordinated comprehensive SKU management. By
joining forces with Google to create a G Suite style framework, we are also
looking to link our global production bases, warehouses, stores andheadquarters directly and uniformly, so we can build a management
framework that facilitates fast evaluation, decision-making, and businessexecution.

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Today, I have talked to you about a few of the initiatives we are introducing
right now. We intend to further expand our partnerships going forward, andenlist the cooperation of world-leading players to help us press ahead with
our supply-chain transformation.
Finally, I would like to talk about one more concrete example, namely the
introduction of RFID. Right now, we don’t have a very clear idea of thewhereabouts of our inventory: what products have been produced in whatvolumes; when that manufactured product will be transported from how manyfactories and when it will arrive at the warehouse; how much of what productis in what warehouse; when, product that leaves the warehouse will arrive atstores, from which warehouses and in what volume, and; how much productis being held in store displays and back rooms. By attaching RFID tags to all
products when they are manufactured, we can ascertain instantly andaccurately how much product we have where. We are now able to instantly
share inventory information with all staff, and achieve fully coordinated SKU
management across the whole supply chain.
To date, to get a clear understanding of inventory numbers and confirm
product levels required large mobilization of labor. This took time andsometimes resulted in human error. Introducing RFID has enabled us tocheck inventory levels instantly, and greatly reduce errors. As a result, we areable to reduce lost sales opportunities, which should lead directly to a pure9

increase in sales.
Our customers used to be dissatisfied with having to wait at the cash desk,
but RFID tags have greatly improved our cash desk processes. RFID tags
also enable stores and warehouses to do instant inventory counts, theprocess for inspecting product for shipment is greatly improved. We expect
these improvements will lead to lower costs.

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Let me close by saying I am convinced that, by pursuing various initiatives inpartnership with leading global companies, we will be able to create a supply
chain that enables us to make what customers want, distribute whatcustomers want and sell what customers want.
Thank you.

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