Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets, JapanConsuming

Michael Causton

Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets

Real Insight on Japanese Consumer Markets

JapanConsuming

JapanConsuming is a specialist research firm producing intelligence on Japanese retail and consumer markets. Founded in 2000, JapanConsuming has become the leading provider of insights on Japanese retailers and consumer trends to retailers, brands, government agencies and investors. As well as a highly regarded monthly report on the market, JapanConsuming produces in-depth reports on retail sectors, seminars on key trends and telephone consulting to investors on trends and retailers.

JapanConsuming was founded by Michael Causton and Roy Larke. 

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

The following is an in-depth review of Japanese retail in the last 18 months covering all the main formats and categories, providing a quick way to see an overview of all the key trends and winners and losers in Japanese retailing now and going forward.FY2020 was an anomaly and one that businesses everywhere will want to forget and never repeat. There was more than enough pain among Japan’s top retailers last year, but equally some formats did surprisingly well given the circumstances.For most, work-from-home was the single most important factor in determining a chain’s fortunes. City-centre stores and shopping centres offering mostly discretionary shopping have been hit hard, as have convenience stores.But those chains selling essentials, healthcare, electronics and, most importantly, food, all saw their fortunes improve. The pandemic has also revealed the strong, dynamic players and exposed the weaker ones. Oh, and everyone needs to be online.

The following is an in-depth review of Japanese retail in the last 18 months covering all the main formats and categories, providing a quick way to see an overview of all the key trends and winners and losers in Japanese retailing now and going forward.FY2020 was an anomaly and one that businesses everywhere will want to forget and never repeat. There was more than enough pain among Japan’s top retailers last year, but equally some formats did surprisingly well given the circumstances.For most, work-from-home was the single most important factor in determining a chain’s fortunes. City-centre stores and shopping centres offering mostly discretionary shopping have been hit hard, as have convenience stores.But those chains selling essentials, healthcare, electronics and, most importantly, food, all saw their fortunes improve. The pandemic has also revealed the strong, dynamic players and exposed the weaker ones. Oh, and everyone needs to be online.

The Polarising Pandemic in Japanese Retail

Equity Bottom-Up

Aeon Group managed to maintain revenues at ¥8.6 trillion in FY2020, the third straight year with little change. Although it has no department store divison to drag it down, GMS operations and its heavy reliance on real estate and SCs, which make up more than 60% of revenues, meant it had a very difficult year in terms of profits – operating profit dropped 30%.
A new five-year plan suggests it will spend heavily on e-commerce, and even wants to earn more from retailing rather than just from renting space. This is what many analysts have been calling for but will take time.

Aeon Group managed to maintain revenues at ¥8.6 trillion in FY2020, the third straight year with little change. Although it has no department store divison to drag it down, GMS operations and its heavy reliance on real estate and SCs, which make up more than 60% of revenues, meant it had a very difficult year in terms of profits – operating profit dropped 30%.
A new five-year plan suggests it will spend heavily on e-commerce, and even wants to earn more from retailing rather than just from renting space. This is what many analysts have been calling for but will take time.

Aeon 2020: A Year of Ups and Downs but a More Profitable Future

Doing bespoke work since 2002....., Custom Products Group

Patrick Hansen

Doing bespoke work since 2002.....

Custom Products Group

Custom Products was started 14 years ago at Lehman Brothers by current co-founder Patrick Hansen, CFA. After 3 years at Lehman, Patrick moved the team to Macquarie Securities where Simon Rigney (co-founder) joined. 3 years ago we took Custom Products independent. 

Our core strength can be summed up three words. 1- Customization - we have very little off the shelf products and most work is done on a one on one bespoke basis. 2- Speed - We pride ourselves in our ability to get requests back to the client very quickly. 3- Confidentiality - We do not redistribute. There is no grace period where we wait a week and then mass blast. Any request stops with that client.

We initially screened for names that do not have a lot of cash relative to their short-term debt. We then went a step further and limited the universe to names that have bonds/loans coming due in the next 3 years. <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/315" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:315:1">Softbank Group Corp (9984 JP)</a> is the largest names to make the list. Softbank's Short-term debt to cash ratio (%) is 221%. Softbank has ¥1.5tn in cash &amp; short-term investments, compared to ¥3.9tn in short-term debt. <h2>Screen Criteria</h2><ol>
<li>Mkt-cap greater than ¥50bn</li>
<li>Short-term Debt to Cash is…</li>
</ol>

We initially screened for names that do not have a lot of cash relative to their short-term debt. We then went a step further and limited the universe to names that have bonds/loans coming due in the next 3 years. Softbank Group Corp (9984 JP) is the largest names to make the list. Softbank's Short-term debt to cash ratio (%) is 221%. Softbank has ¥1.5tn in cash &amp; short-term investments, compared to ¥3.9tn in short-term debt. Screen Criteria
Mkt-cap greater than ¥50bn
Short-term Debt to Cash is…


Names with Bonds Coming Due and Not a Lot of Cash...

Japan

Aeon Hokkaido Corporation operates general merchandise stores called "My Basket"  based in Hokkaido.  The Company is a subsidiary of Aeon Group.

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Aeon Hokkaido (7512 JP)

The Polarising Pandemic in Japanese Retail

A complete review of the Japanese retail sector in the last 18 months, format by format, category by category, providing key trends and winners &...

Michael Causton

Aeon 2020: A Year of Ups and Downs but a More Profitable Future

Aeon has for long had issues with low margins thanks to its dependence on real estate rents over actual retailing. This is changing and for the...

Michael Causton

Names with Bonds Coming Due and Not a Lot of Cash...

We initially screened for names that do not have a lot of cash relative to their short-term debt. We then went a step further and limited the...

Custom Products Group

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52-week Range

Market Cap (USDm)

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