During the first quarter of the current fiscal year (November 1, 2023, to January 31, 2024), the Japanese economy continued to recover due to further normalization of social and economic activities in Japan and overseas following the reclassification of COVID-19 as a Category V infectious disease. However, the outlook for the economy remains uncertain because of concerns about the impact on the Japanese and global economies of such factors as the yen’s weakness caused by higher interest rates in other countries and increasing geopolitical risk involving the Middle East.


In the wedding industry, the number of weddings in Japan in 2023 was 480,000 (Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare, 2023 Annual Estimate of Preliminary Vital Statistics), down 30,000 from 2022.


Although the number of weddings and receptions is decreasing slowly as the prime wedding age population declines, the guest house wedding market is still generally healthy.


During the first quarter, as perceptions of the value of weddings continue to diversify in Japan, we took many actions in line with the IKK Group’s philosophy of “dedicated to the smiles and happiness of the special people in your life.” There were internal and external employee training activities to give our people the personal strengths and customer interaction skills needed to provide personalized wedding services. In addition, we used many initiatives at wedding facilities to attract more customers. One major initiative is strengthening our information collection and analysis skills that use our own sales support system. To capture
a larger share of Japan’s wedding market, we integrated digital marketing as a tool to better identify potential customer needs, thus enhancing our ability to attract customers and boosting sales.


First quarter net sales increased 5.0% from one year earlier to 5,156 million yen. Operating profit increased 20.6% to 436 million yen, ordinary profit increased 19.7% to 442 million yen, and profit attributable to owners of parent increased 58.8% to 286 million yen.

 

  A fundamental management objective at IKK is for our corporation to become indispensable to local communities through the contributions we make to society with our style of corporate management based on our management philosophy, “To touch our customers' hearts!” We are also aware that strengthening the growth potential and excellence of our company while increasing corporate value and longevity are among the challenges we face as management.
 

  At IKK, we take seriously our mission and responsibility as a public institution of society and are determined to be a leading company in the wedding industry as we continue to share and test our corporate philosophy. Toward that end, we ask our shareholders and investors for their continued guidance and encouragement.

 

Mar. 14, 2024