Winning By Focus: From Film Labs to Global Niche Leader

Noritsu Koki has spent the past seven decades reinventing itself, and under its current leadership the company is turning that discipline into investor-friendly growth.

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RYUKICHI IWAKIRI CEO OF NORITSU KOKI

Back To Core, Built for Scale

Founded in 1951 as a photo-processing equipment maker, the company rode the minilab boom to world leadership before the digital shift undermined the legacy business. This was followed by a period of selling off the founding business and moving into many unrelated fields. The reset came with a return to manufacturing excellence and a portfolio simplification built around three global niches: Teibow (pen-nib components and metal parts), AlphaTheta (DJ equipment), and JLab (personal audio). “It’s not a negative reorganization, it’s a positive reorganization—and it brought positive results,” said CEO Ryukichi Iwakiri.

AlphaTheta and Teibow already hold No. 1 positions globally in their categories, while JLab leads the U.S. true-wireless earbuds market under $100. The strategy is not about being big everywhere; it is about being the best somewhere and compounding from that base. “We will keep our one and only one position,” said Iwakiri. That focus underpins the latest midterm business plan announced on February 14, 2025, which extends growth through 2030 with a mix of organic expansion and targeted dealmaking.

Alpha Theta (DJ).

JLab (earbuds).

Three Pillars, One Playbook