The next president of Japanese meat processing and importing giant, Nippon Meat Packers, is a company veteran who will bring decades of marketing experience to the post when he takes over on April 1.

Regarded as a strong numbers man, Noboru Takezoe helped craft four medium-term business plans for Nippon, including the latest one which goes into effect on the day of his promotion.

"We aim to increase the sales volume of fresh meat by five percent a year," he told Japan’s Nikkei newspaper this week, highlighting the company's growth targets. "We won't be content at being around 1 trillion yen in size," he said.

Takezoe San, currently NMP’s vice president, spent 27 years marketing Nippon’s fresh and processed foods, and helped develop private-label brands for food cooperatives, which demand high standards for quality and flavour.

His name has long been floated as a candidate to take over from current Nippon president Hiroshi Kobayashi, who was well known to Beef Central.

Nippon Meat Packers Inc – parent company of NMP Australia, this country’s third largest meat processor – also revealed plans to expand abroad and tackle other challenges. However the Japanese business environment was fraught with uncertainty from such factors as soaring grain prices and the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement talks, comments in Nikkei suggested.

"We seek to grow our operations overseas not to supply the Japanese market, but so we can sell products locally," Takezoe San said.