Message from the President

For the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020, we achieved net sales of \340,800 million, operating profit of \23,800 million, and ordinary profit of \23,600 million on a consolidated basis, all of which marked record highs. This achievement was driven by our mainstay Gyomu Super Business, which remained strong with full-year same-store sales exceeding those for the previous fiscal year. This is mainly because we have successfully enhanced customer satisfaction by expanding a range of private label products sold at Gyomu Super stores, which are either produced by our group’s domestic plants or imported directly by ourselves under the concept, “the flavors of the world, to Japan.”

Aiming to have over 1,000 Gyomu Super stores going forward, we continue to focus on new store openings and existing store promotions. To increase the number of stores, we need to strengthen the existing stores, thereby further motivating franchisees to open new stores. As the existing stores cannot be strengthened without enhancing customer satisfaction, we will develop more measures to support franchisees to improve cleanliness of the existing stores and motivate the employees. With such measures in place, we will increase the value of the Gyomu Super brand by working in tandem with franchisees.

Also, we will reinforce food production bases through active M&A to drive our corporate vision of “Integrated Food Production & Distribution Operations.” Furthermore, we will continuously differentiate ourselves from other competitors by developing and producing original products at these bases, directly importing a large selection of food products, refining our system of low-cost operations, and strengthening in-store presence and sales promotion.

The current economy of Japan is still suffered by persistently anemic consumer spending. Even in such circumstances, however, our major theme is to get our turn to play offense. Indeed, we need to cut costs more than ever before in various aspects to offer “More Value with Less Price.” As one of the cost reduction initiatives, we have introduced a new logistic system, which can dramatically improve the accuracy of ordering from Gyomu Super stores, reduce inventories, and increase work efficiency. Through such improvement, we will work hard to cut costs and pursue lower cost operations.

Hirokazu Numata
President and Representative Director