Second Contract Signed with ONNA Greens AS, Norway, As the Company Expands Its Plant Factory.

NEWS RELEASE

Second Contract Signed with ONNA Greens AS, Norway, As the Company Expands Its Plant Factory.

September 27, 2022
MIRAI Co., Ltd.

MIRAI Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture; hereinafter “MIRAI”) concluded an equipment sales agreement with ONNA Greens AS (headquartered in OSLO; hereinafter “ONNA”) of Norway for the cultivation equipment for a fully closed artificial light-type plant factory for the second expansion phase, in addition to the factory already in operation.

Company with which the contract was concluded: ONNA Greens AS

URL　　：https://www.weareonna.no/

Production base: Area located near Oslo, Norway

Phase 1: 560 kg/day of leafy lettuce equivalent
Shipping of vegetable products started in March 2022

Phase 2: Leaf lettuce equivalent to 700 kg/day, herbs approx. 50 kg/day
Shipping of vegetable products to begin in spring 2023
Contract amount: not disclosed
Items grown: Baby leaves, head lettuce, herbs, kale, etc.

Examples of ONNA’s products sold in Norway

MIRAI’s Role

1. [Sales] Assist in overall factory design, sales of cultivation equipment
2. [Support] Assistance with factory operation, production planning, and troubleshooting during the start-up phase
   Conducting regular weekly web meetings and providing support for early resolution of local problems for about 2 years.
3. [DX] Support for cultivation technology/environmental control/predictive maintenance by remote monitoring system
   Management of temperature, humidity, and other sensor values, alert management of equipment operation outside settings, etc.
4. [Lab] Sharing of information on yield, quality, and commercialization process through test cultivation of new varieties by both companies
   Sharing of process information from the cultivation phase to commercialization, including packaging, and distribution
5. [Equipment development] Cooperation in the development of various labor-saving equipment
   We are working to improve production efficiency by deepening cooperation with Japanese and overseas suppliers.

Since the signing of the first phase contract in December 2020, the company has gained trust with our past efforts, the quality of the harvested vegetables, and the current status of expanding sales destinations, leading to this second contract.

Strengthening MIRAI’s Business Structure

Based on the decisions made at the Regular General Meeting of Shareholders held on June 30 and the subsequent meeting of the Board of Directors, Nagateru Nozawa was newly appointed as Representative Director and COO (formerly: Director and COO) in order to further strengthen the management structure. Together with Yoshio Shiina, CEO of parent company Masaru Industries Ltd. and President and CEO of MIRAI, this will be a two-representative structure.

At the same time, the Plant Business Department was reorganized as a team to solve all issues related to the plant factory business in Japan and overseas. The team consists of personnel who specialize in plant/facility design/control design, personnel who specialize in cultivation technology support, and personnel who support overall plant operations, including quality control. With this team, we will continue to provide support for new plant projects, renewal projects, and post-operational plant operations, based on our strengths in experience including improvements and modifications at our own plants, new launches in Japan and overseas, and subsequent support.

Development and Launch of DX Service: Supporting the shift to Smart Factories

We have started providing a remote web monitoring system as a new service, focusing on efficient data visualization, predictive maintenance activities, and visualization of business numerical management at sites where the latest equipment and older equipment are mixed within the same factory, which is considered to be a challenge for factory management. The system has already been introduced at the ONNA facility and is being utilized by both companies for day-to-day environmental control and predictive maintenance. In addition, in Japan, we have already started providing this service in the spring of 2022 for a plant factory operator that is operating a different system than MIRAI’s equipment.

New Service

This is a remote web monitoring system created by MIRAI members based on the “SensorCorpus” IoT platform service from Infocorpus Inc. (headquartered in Meguro-ku, Tokyo; https://infocorpus.co.jp/).

The fixed monthly fee keeps down the initial development cost for the client, and allows for quick response to necessary changes according to the level of improvement at the site.
In addition, we are developing our own temperature and humidity sensor that takes into account the indoor environment unique to plant factories, and plan to introduce a commercial product to the ONNA factory. We are in the process of producing it in a communication format and price range that is easier for sensing.
*DX : Abbreviation for Digital Transformation

About Product Development

Our customers mainly purchase vegetables for commercial use. Due to the recent sharp rise in the cost of goods and raw materials, our customers are conscious of using raw materials with higher yields, and they have set a specific goal of reducing food waste in order to realize sustainable business management.

Therefore, we are developing our frilled lettuce and green leaf, which we have been producing and selling for some time, by using mainly seeds developed for plant factories and by improving the cultivation environment, in order to create products with higher yields of use, and with an awareness of texture and feel.

We are now in the process of conducting trial production of developed products at each customer’s site of use, and are repeating mutual evaluations of the texture as well as the usability. We are aware that we are also a member of the menu proposer in the development of food service and home meal menus, because we are a producer.

Future Development

In the overseas business, MIRAI will establish production bases for plant factory vegetables in each country and region, aiming to create bases for “local production for local consumption” and “stable supply” in the target areas. The main players will be local business operators, and MIRAI will focus on equipment sales and cultivation support.

In Japan, in addition to selling vegetables produced at our own Kashiwanoha Factory, we also sell vegetables produced by other companies that operate artificial light-type plant factories, mainly for commercial use.

In this respect, as past achievements, we have held regular joint meetings on quality control, shared seed information with customers to ensure standardization of quality, and worked together on complaints to ensure speedy response time. In addition, we have established a nationwide cooperative relationship in the area of logistics, which is a relatively difficult task for plant factories, and we are building a system that enables us to ship vegetables closer to the customers who purchase them. We will continue to build on these cooperative and collaborative relationships to meet the demand for vegetable products grown in plant factories in Japan.

< Company Overview > MIRAI Corporation President & CEO: Yoshio Shiina Representative Director & COO: Nagateru Nozawa Foundation: September 2004 Establishment: November 2015 Capital: 75,500,000 yen   Address: 221-1 Aotashindentobichi, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba, Japan Phone: 04-7192-6655

<Inquiries regarding this release> MIRAI Co., Ltd. Sales Department or Administration Department +81-(0)4-7192-6655   <Inquiries about employment> Recruitment: https://miraigroup.jp/recruit/   <Other inquiries> Inquiry form: https://miraigroup.jp/#contact