Hikari Food Service ＜138A＞ operates the yakiton “Daikoku” and stand drinking “Uotsubaki,” as well as the Yokohama Family Ramen Kaneyama Family Ramen and Yakiniku Marui Butcher Shop.

It started with the opening of Tachinomi Yakiton Daikoku (Sumiyoshi store) in Nagoya City in 2008, and currently, they mainly operate standing drinking shops with an unlimited number of seats that make good use of 10-tsubo small boxes based in Nagoya. The number of stores as of the 3rd quarter of the 2024/11 fiscal year is 60, and (1) Daikoku has 45 stores (number of directly managed stores/number of outsourced stores 6/number of FC stores 15), (2) Uotsubaki has 11 stores (directly managed 9/outsourced 2), (3) Kanayama's 3 stores (directly managed 2/outsourced 1), and (4) yakiniku marui butcher shop (directly managed 1). Also, the sales breakdown as of the third quarter of the fiscal year ending 2024/11 is 94.4% for directly managed stores, 4.1% for outsourced stores, 0.8% for FC stores, and 0.7% for others. The target group is 80% or more in their 30s to 50s, the number of regular customers is 484, existing store sales increased 8.5% compared to the same period last year, and the number of directly managed stores remained at 36 stores.

Cumulative sales for the 3rd quarter of the fiscal year ending 2024/11 reached 1918 million yen, up 17.0% from the same period last year, and operating profit landed at 176 million yen, down 5.6% from the same period last year. Sales hit a record high for the 3rd quarter, but operating profit declined due to the overlapping of 2 newly opened stores and 1 renewed store. At the same time, a downward revision of the full-year earnings forecast has been announced, and full-year sales are expected to increase 13.9% from the previous fiscal year to 2533 million yen, and operating profit is expected to decrease 22.9% to 202 million yen. In addition to delays in store opening plans and delays in starting up new stores, leaving 3 stores in 1 building became heavy. However, the new store opening plan for this fiscal year has been changed from 7 stores to 10 stores, and while the original new store opening plan is being carried out as planned, properties with good locations and favorable conditions have been found, so new stores are being actively opened, and it seems that initial costs and recruitment education expenses etc. associated with this have also been recorded.

The company's ability to continue expanding its stores in Nagoya, which is called the “barren land of standing drinking,” is evident. Since they are developing their business at small box stores in a specialized business category, there are no competitors among listed companies, and they have procured dominant store openings to fill gaps in the area by acquiring small properties that other companies in the same industry are not aiming for, and high operating margins have been achieved. Local private stores can be some competitors, but the scale is quite different because recruitment efficiency is high due to job recruitment by area, and purchasing efficiency can also be improved. Also, due to return store/ladder strategies, they are good at increasing the number of regular customers through services that make use of the stand-up drinking x small box business type and various measures that promote return visits. While aiming to increase the total number of company-wide store visits by getting staff and store fans to become fans of the entire company, sales of existing stores are continuously growing, and continuous growth has been achieved even at stores that have elapsed for a long time after opening.

Going forward, we plan to expand the number of stores based on the basic policy of opening new stores at a pace of 1.1 times that of the previous fiscal year. It seems that they are aiming for 600 stores by 2038 due to the continuous growth of existing stores and the accumulation of new store openings. However, it seems that area expansion will be carried out nationwide targeting the area around stations where the number of people getting on and off is 0.16 million or more per day, and the policy is to actively open stores if a property with favorable conditions and a good location is found. In addition, we recognize that return of profits to shareholders is an important management issue, and the year-end dividend for the fiscal year ending 2014/11 will be a total of 40 yen, an ordinary dividend of 20 yen per share and a commemorative dividend of 20 yen per share. Overall, I would like to keep an eye on steady growth due to the expansion of the number of stores.