Good analysis, I've recently been researching Japanese companies and came upon your blog. One retailer I like is Seria (2782), they are the second largest 100 yen store. Over the past 10 years as the 100 yen stores saturated the market and their growth went to regular retail growth Seria invested in data analytics including POS data. Using this data they were able to grow faster taking market share while their competitors diversified overseas and outside of the 100 yen category. Their stores have less products per store but have higher sales and they are at a PE of about 14 at the moment. Below the retailer average above of 15 despite a history of long term growth and management forecasting about 10% growth into the future.
Thank you so much Christopher! I'm super interested in 100 yen stores! I still can't believe they can keep their prices at 100 yen in this climate, but I assume we'll see some heavy margin losses during this quarter... Do you have any articles about Seria? I'd love to know more about their business model
No articles I'm afraid pieced that together from my knowledge of dollar stores outside Japan (also interested in BME in the UK), reading the investor relations sites and speaking to people who've worked there (one Japanese friend and the Daiso store in Sydney Australia). Was hoping to bring them up and get some insights here.
That would also be one of my weaknesses of Seria, they're doing all this great work with their data systems but unlike they're competitors they're not moving into categories above 100 yen. In looking at dollar stores in the US and UK the category just means cheap now and they now have plenty of goods above a dollar, but in Japan they seem to really stick to the dollar concept.
This year, Nitori is dead focused on conquering Asia. In January, they opened their first store in Malaysia and in March, their first store in Singapore. If these stores do well, they're likely to already have a fast-track expansion strategy in place in these regions.
Good analysis, I've recently been researching Japanese companies and came upon your blog. One retailer I like is Seria (2782), they are the second largest 100 yen store. Over the past 10 years as the 100 yen stores saturated the market and their growth went to regular retail growth Seria invested in data analytics including POS data. Using this data they were able to grow faster taking market share while their competitors diversified overseas and outside of the 100 yen category. Their stores have less products per store but have higher sales and they are at a PE of about 14 at the moment. Below the retailer average above of 15 despite a history of long term growth and management forecasting about 10% growth into the future.
Thank you so much Christopher! I'm super interested in 100 yen stores! I still can't believe they can keep their prices at 100 yen in this climate, but I assume we'll see some heavy margin losses during this quarter... Do you have any articles about Seria? I'd love to know more about their business model
No articles I'm afraid pieced that together from my knowledge of dollar stores outside Japan (also interested in BME in the UK), reading the investor relations sites and speaking to people who've worked there (one Japanese friend and the Daiso store in Sydney Australia). Was hoping to bring them up and get some insights here.
That would also be one of my weaknesses of Seria, they're doing all this great work with their data systems but unlike they're competitors they're not moving into categories above 100 yen. In looking at dollar stores in the US and UK the category just means cheap now and they now have plenty of goods above a dollar, but in Japan they seem to really stick to the dollar concept.
Thanks. Do they have an overseas expansion plan and also a following in Asia?
This year, Nitori is dead focused on conquering Asia. In January, they opened their first store in Malaysia and in March, their first store in Singapore. If these stores do well, they're likely to already have a fast-track expansion strategy in place in these regions.