National Clothesline

Sankosha Co., Ltd. celebrated its 30th anniversary earlier this year in Tokyo, Japan, with hundreds of guests on hand for an all-day, formal event.

Following morning presentations where renewed attention to customer service was emphasized, guests were treated to musical entertainment and a full-course meal. Mitsuyuki Uchikoshi, founder and CEO of Sankosha Group, spoke about the past, present and future of the company.

The company was an outgrowth of Uchikoshi’s experiments in machine design which began in a drycleaning plant that he had opened in 1968.

“Running a cleaning store, my eyes always went toward one thing — the machines,” he recalled. “The old machines that the previous owner had left me had shortcomings. I was constantly thinking ‘If only the machine could do this’ or ‘I wish I could do this with the machine’ and desired to make my workplace exactly what I envisioned.”

After successfully designing a separator for his drycleaning machine, he turned his attention to getting the wrinkles out of clothes.

“Washing can be done in large amounts with a machine, but finishing could only be done one at a time by hand,” he said. “I believed that there must be some way to do the work more easily, and my thought process began once again.”

He started by making improvements on an existing steam cabinet with experiments that included dripping water onto a hot frying pan and observing the way steam was formed on contact. If the same affect were applied within the steam cabinet, he decided, wrinkles would come out more effectively.

The result was greater efficiency and less hand-finishing in his plant.

“As I focused on reducing labor with machines that produced a finish that was incomparably beautiful, I was turned toward making machines,” he recalled. “In 1975, I entrusted the cleaning shop to one of my top workers and made the decision to go into machine manufacturing.”

In 1978, a year after building his factory, Sankosha was formed with the steam cabinets as the main product. He next turned his attention to a wool finishing machine, working on a prototype that removed wrinkles by mechanically stretching the garment and would be easy enough for even a novice to use. The result was the originally named Sunformer.

Demand was strong for the machine and Uchikoshi formed a dealer network to sell the Sunformers in Japan.

Two years later he set his sights on developing a solid body shirt finishing machine.

“At the time, it was impossible to get a perfect worry-free finish with a shirt machine without having to use a hand iron,” he said. “This is because each shirt has a different design, different measurements, and is made of a different material. No matter how excellent the machine may be, a person has to touch up by hand in the end.

“With the main product for a cleaning store being shirts, and since there was a need to touch everything up, I figured I should find a way to make touch-ups easier.”

If it were possible to do the sleeves, tucks, and body at once and the collar and cuffs together at once, the process would be reduced to two operations, he observed.

When the new Sankosha shirt machine entered the market, little skill was necessary to operate it, so even a part-time worker could be hired to keep up with production when needed. Success led to the construction of a new factory in 1985 in Kanoyacho, Hachioji, which is the company’s headquarters today.

Three years later, recognizing that there was a limit to the Japanese market, Uchikoshi set sights on overseas development.

“With America in mind, we displayed our machines at the trade show held at McCormick place. Within a group of local dealers, the third-generation president of The Minnesota Chemical Co., Michael Baker, expressed an interest in our machines. Upon the advice of Mr. Baker, I decided to enter the US market with our machines,” Uchikoshi recalled.

In 1993, a U.S. office was opened near Chicago, IL.

“In the beginning we faced comments like ‘Japanese makers will not take care of after-sales service and this causes consternation’.” Uchikoshi said. “Apparently there was another Japanese manufacturer who sold in the U.S. without a U.S. office and was notorious for their lack of service.

“Japanese makers’ irresponsible sales practices became quite a theme in the industry. In order to wipe away this preconception, I went around to numerous cleaners explaining our commitment,” he said.

Today, Sankosha USA provides about one half of the Sankosha group’s total profits.

Also in 1993, Uchikoshi’s oldest son, Yusuke, joined the company and took charge of the financial side of the business.

Four years later, youngest son Daisuke joined the company and began working to refine the assembly line, then installed a paint booth to bring in-house work that had previously been outsourced.

As part of the 30th anniversary celebration, Uchikoshi announced a “new epoch” for Sankosha.

“The era when we created new machines from my ideas has ended. At some point a company needs a group leadership structure in order to grow,“ he said. “I think that time is now.”

As such, he said he is withdrawing from management and turning duties over to his sons. Yusuke will be president; Keisuke will head international affairs and Daisuke will manage production.