Ito Ham YoneQ Full-Scale Pushes for Food Logistics Streamlining… Expands Joint Delivery with Others

Ito Ham Yoneq Holdings, a major Japanese meat and processed food company with annual sales exceeding 1 trillion yen, is launching a full-scale logistics innovation project to improve food transportation and delivery methods. The company plans to increase transportation efficiency by analyzing truck loading rates, delivery routes, and transportation costs, and is also considering sharing delivery vehicles with other companies.

Ito Ham YoneQ Holdings announced on October 27 that it would pursue a logistics innovation project in collaboration with the Japanese IT company Future Architect.

Ito Ham Yonekyu Holdings is a company established in 2016 through the business integration of Ito Ham and Yonekyu. It operates meat businesses, including beef, pork, and chicken, as well as ham, sausage, and processed food businesses in Japan and overseas. The company announced consolidated sales for the fiscal year ending March 2026 at 1.0714 trillion yen, surpassing 1 trillion yen for the first time. Sales breakdown by business segment is 63% for the meat business and 37% for the processed food business.

Given that about two-thirds of total sales come from the meat business, this project is noteworthy as it represents a move by a large-scale company that produces and distributes meat and processed foods to streamline its transportation and delivery systems.

The core of this project isConsolidating scattered logistics information to reduce waste in the transportation processam.

For example, there are cases where the cargo space of delivery trucks is not fully utilized, or where vehicles heading to similar areas operate separately. Ito Ham Yonekyu plans to analyze these transportation conditions using data and reduce logistics costs by improving vehicle loading rates and delivery routes.

To this end, construction of a system to comprehensively track transportation and delivery status began in September 2026, with the goal of full-scale operation in the fall of 2027.

The new system is designed to allow for the monitoring and analysis of vehicle-specific loading rates, transportation routes, and logistics costs at a glance. Through this, we plan to not only improve the operational efficiency of delivery vehicles but also reduce waiting times for loading and unloading cargo.

We are also pursuing delivery vehicle sharing with other food companies.

The notable aspect of this project isExpansion of joint delivery between companiesall.

Joint delivery is a method in which different companies share delivery vehicles that were previously operated individually. When companies with similar delivery areas, transport temperatures, and delivery conditions transport cargo together, they can reduce empty space in vehicles and efficiently adjust the frequency of shipments.

Ito Ham YoneQ plans to implement joint delivery by cooperating not only with logistics companies but also with other manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers once the integrated logistics management system is fully operational.

In particular, plans are also being considered to utilize the remaining cargo space of vehicles returning from deliveries. However, since specific implementation plans for joint delivery will be developed in collaboration with partner companies, it will not be immediately applied to the entire delivery network.

Responding to the shortage of transportation personnel in Japan

The background behind Ito Ham Yonekyu's move toward logistics innovation lies in the shortage of transportation personnel in Japan.

In Japan, concerns over a shortage of transportation capacity have grown as regulations on overtime work for truck drivers are tightened starting in 2024. This is the so-called "Logistics 2024 problem."

With drivers' working hours restricted, transporting cargo in the same manner as before may make it difficult to secure the necessary transport capacity. Consequently, logistics efficiency—such as increasing vehicle loading rates and reducing the number of shipments and waiting times—has emerged as a critical task for the Japanese food industry.

Ito Ham Yonekyu prepared a mid-to-long-term plan for logistics efficiency in response to these environmental changes and submitted it to the Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in October of this year.

We have been analyzing the current state of logistics and reviewing improvement tasks with Future Architect since 2025, and have now set out to implement them through the construction of this system.

The company plans to establish a logistics system that supports a stable food supply by gradually promoting improved transportation efficiency using logistics data and joint delivery between companies.

The company plans to establish a logistics system that supports a stable food supply by gradually promoting improved transportation efficiency using logistics data and joint delivery between companies.

Source: Ito Ham YoneQ Holdings & Future Architect, October 27, 2026 announcement and official website.
Ito Ham Yonekyu Holdings Official Website