“Air Liquide Japan announced on December 17 that it would integrate the existing four regional divisions into the four business operating divisions from January 1, 2013, deploying staff specialized in industrial gases, electronics, large-scale industries and health care. It also announced to unify its brands sequentially, implementing business activities under the name of Air Liquide Japan instead of the conventional Japan Air Gases.

The Health Care Division of the company dealing with the conventional medical business used to place specialized staff dedicated for respective regions, but from now on, the other business divisions including industrial gas, electronics, large-scale industries in the piping division are also going to deploy such specialized staff to meet the respective regional situation. According to the Communications Department, the arrangement is aimed to enhance expertise as well as to respond to customers’ requirement more quickly and simply.

In order to show up with more vivid clarity of identity as a group, Air Liquide has decided to use an integrated brand of “Air Liquide Japan”, although the company has so far been engaged in the gas and service business under the name of Japan Air Gases.

As part of the reorganization, the business planning office and overseas project group have been newly established. The former deals with the domestic operations and business activities, particularly the sales planning and collaboration of the distributors, while the latter aims to support the overseas business activities of the domestic users. The sales organizing division includes overseas sales.

Under the circumstances of delayed recovery of the U.S. and European economy, it seems that the overseas majors keep an eye on the overseas deployment of the Japanese users who also suffer the economic stagnation and are now approaching the Japanese users increasingly.”