When our founder, Shoya Honda, traveled to the United States, he was impressed by the emergence of suburban stores as the motorization of North American society progressed. One type of store that particularly caught his eye was the home center. Convinced that consumers in Japan, their food and clothing needs having been met, would soon turn their eyes toward their living environments, he decided in 1975 to establish “Joyful Honda,” with the theme of “making living environments richer and more comfortable.”
The company’s name, “Joyful Honda,” is imbued with the founder’s wish to bring smiles and enjoyment and to create joy and dreams together with customers. Even today, as needs and channels have become increasingly diverse, the joy of local communities is our joy, and eliminating customers’ “negatives” and delivering new value has been our style since the very beginning.
Without being bound by the conventions of the home center, we will build stores that are connected to locals with strong bonds of trust and that are loved by their local communities. We also aim to create stores where our employees can feel pride and joy in working in those local communities and in our stores.
We will continue our “innovation” and “challenge” to be the kind of stores that customers will think of first, both in normal times and when they have a problem to solve.


Never forgetting our beginnings, we look forward to welcoming you to the new Joyful Honda!

Review of the Second Quarter of the Fiscal Year Ending June 2024

In order to realize our basic policy for fiscal 2024 of “returning to our roots and creating a new corporate culture,” we have actively focused on three themes.

 

In “investing in people,” in order to improve the working environment of employees engaged in operations, we extended the upper age limit for the re-employment of employees paid hourly with valuable skills from the current “70 years” to “75 years,” and we also implemented a uniform increase to base wages of 50 yen per hour. Through such methods, we secured talented human resources who are full of energy, and created a working environment where employees can work for a long time with peace of mind.
In addition, we introduced a new “scholarship repayment support system” to reduce the financial and psychological burden on employees who are repaying scholarships, thereby creating an environment in which employees can concentrate on their work with peace of mind and thus securing excellent human resources and improving employee retention rates, as part of our aim to enhance corporate value.
In an effort to further improve our “frontline capabilities,” we opened a pop-up store, “JOYFUL Petit,” in the “Kashiwa Modi” commercial facility in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, from November 16, 2023 to January 9, 2024. Female members of the Diversity Promotion Committee took the lead in everything from marketing to planning and store management for this pop-up store. The realization of the first external project to promote diversity will create opportunities that enable anyone to take on the challenge of new corporate activities in the future, fostering a workplace environment in which all employees can work with satisfaction, and leading to corporate growth.

 

In “breaking away from homogenized competition,” as part of our new store opening strategy, we renewed and reopened the JOYHON Oyama Station store in a new format with a focus on three product categories: the professional shop “Hondaya,” with one of the largest sales floors in the Company; “JOY’s STYLE,” with a sales floor offering a wide range of interior products, from kitchen accessories to home appliances, curtains, and more; and “Pet's CLOVER,” a pet specialty store. In order to make the most of the limited space available in this furnished property, we narrowed our selection of product categories, thus addressing demand from customers requiring highly specialized products.
In addition, as a new product strategy, in order to promote “specialization in craftsmen and professional products” and accurately address the increasingly diversified needs of various specialist professionals, we have expanded the selection of craftsmen and professional products on the materials sales floors of our hardware stores, and created “professional shops” at the Joyful Honda Arakawaoki Store and the Joyful Honda Moriya Store, as well as the JOYHON Yoshioka Store. We will continue to expand our creation of “professional shops” at other existing hardware stores, and in February 2024, we also plan to open our fourth “Hondaya” professional shop in Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture, as an independent store. In this way, we are strengthening our efforts to “specialize in craftsmen and professional products.”
In addition, as a strategic growth investment, we acquired all the shares of NAGOMI KOUBOU Ltd. (Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture), a housing repair company. By adding this new business domain to the Company's home center and home renovation businesses, we expect synergies such as improved customer service and more contact points with customers.

 

In “contributing to the realization of a sustainable and prosperous society,” we aim to be a company that is continuously selected by society and consumers. Accordingly, we are actively promoting initiatives such as expanding our range of sustainable products that take into consideration the environment and nature, active support for the dog and cat adoption fairs to achieve a society where rescue dogs and cats can live happy lives, and the utilization of renewable energy through solar power generation and battery storage systems to build a decarbonized society.
 

As a result, for the first six months of the fiscal year under review, net sales were 63,332 million yen (up 1.8% year on year), operating income was 5,527 million yen (down 10.7% year on year), ordinary income was 6,089 million yen (down 9.0% year on year), and profit was 4,180 million yen (down 8.9% year on year).

Projected Business Results for FYE 06/20/2024 (06/21/2023 – 06/20/2024)

There is no change to the full-year forecast of business results for the fiscal year ending June 20, 2024 announced on August 2, 2023.

(Percentages represent year-on-year changes)

Net sales

Operating income

Ordinary income

Profit

Profit per share

million yen

%

million yen

%

million yen

%

million yen

%

yen

Full year

134,000

8.6

10,300

(7.2)

11,260

(8.0)

7,800

(8.5)

120.43