TRINUS, the Company Behind SiKiTO, Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary

 

Thanks to everyone who has been involved with SiKiTO, our company has reached its 10th anniversary. We extend our sincere gratitude.

Those who have been involved with us for a long time often say, "You've changed a lot in the past few years!" but for us, it felt like a natural progression.

So, we decided to look back at the end of this milestone year.

 

Founding ~ First Hit Product! (2014-2016)

TRINUS Inc. was founded by CEO Sato, driven by his desire to "make more use of resources hidden in local communities!" which he felt during his career in finance and consulting.

In its early days, the company used the web platform "trinus.jp" to connect manufacturing technologies of local small and medium-sized enterprises with the ideas of creators, thereby "bridging" them to develop and sell products.

However, product development, which was almost entirely new to us, was, literally, a series of failures.

Lacquerware sake cups and accessories made with highly skilled artisans were complete duds. Even now, I think they are beautiful, but our presentation and sales methods were incredibly immature. I was horrified when I saw the remaining inventory.

Amidst all this, our first employee joined in April 2017. He would later design the EDA VASE.

In April 2017, we launched the "Hana Iro Enpitsu" (Flower Colored Pencil), which creates flower petals from shavings. The development of this was also very challenging...

The molding of the pencil lead, which used recycled paper as an alternative to PP, repeatedly failed, requiring dozens of prototypes. You can see how long the journey was by looking at the before and after photos.

The product, which took three years to complete, was eventually sold in shops worldwide, won international design awards, and became a long-standing flagship product for our company.

 

Collaboration with large corporations (2018-2020)

Realizing that technologies and resources were also hidden within the R&D departments of large corporations, we embarked on collaboration projects.

We accumulated experience in product development through collaborations with companies like Morinaga & Co., Ricoh, and Lion, but none of these reached general sales. The COVID-19 pandemic also exacerbated the situation, leading to the suspension of most projects. 

 

Full focus on branches (2021-present)

In December 2021, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, we launched "EDA VASE," which allows users to easily display long branches, after four years of development.

The initial production run sold out in just one week, which truly surprised all of us employees.

As we shipped the products, somewhat bewildered, customers started telling us, "Branches aren't sold near me" and "Large branches are difficult to carry home." So, we thought, "Why don't we deliver them ourselves!" and in March 2022, the "Branch Subscription Service" was born!

When the service first started, it was only available in certain areas of Tokyo, with direct delivery by our own staff. Even so, we received a greater response than imagined, and from August of the same year, nationwide delivery via courier began.

As we ourselves became more engrossed in the charm of branches, we learned that the production volume was decreasing due to a decline in the number of ikebana practitioners and the aging of producers, realizing that this too was a "hidden resource."

We then continued to ponder the comfort that "branches" bring to daily life, and in June 2023, we rebranded TRINUS's D2C brand as "SiKiTO."

In September 2024, SiKiTO CAFE also opened in Kaihin Makuhari, Chiba Prefecture.

And that's how we arrived at the present.

Looking back over these 10 years, there were many failures that I can't write about here (lol). But I feel like we arrived at our current position by continuing to utilize the "hidden resources" that appeared before us.

I hope our company's history is an enjoyable read for our customers.

We will continue to work tirelessly to deliver a life with the four seasons in 2025 and beyond, so please continue to support SiKiTO and TRINUS!