"Human power" is the source of unique emotions

Inspiring people through food is a truly noble job. The source of the inspiration in the food Toridoll creates is people. More specifically, it is the "heart" within people. Believing in that heart and determined to devote all our efforts to it, we will raise the flag of "heart-based" management, advance new reforms, and aim to become the one and only global food company from Japan.

We consistently pursue the "KANDO Dining Experiences,"
Creating new markets

I opened a yakitori izakaya in Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture in 1985, but in the beginning there were many days when not a single customer came. I constantly thought about "how to get customers to come" and continued to experiment and grow. During that time, I was shocked to see the long lines at a Sanuki udon noodle factory in Kagawa Prefecture where freshly made and boiled udon noodles were served right in front of the customers. I strongly realized firsthand that "what attracts people is a 'KANDO Dining Experiences'." Recreating this noodle factory was the beginning of Marugame Seimen, and based on this idea, we have consistently worked on developing various business formats, store designs, menus, and personnel training to achieve growth.

Emotional experiences include "surprising customers through time-consuming demonstrations and other methods" and "providing customer service that resonates with customers." For example, Marugame Seimen has noodle-making machines and boiling pots in each of its stores. This is a negative from an efficiency standpoint, as it involves investment in equipment, rent for the space required for installation, and running costs due to the need for training to achieve consistent quality. However, by running the noodle-making machines, taking the time and effort to make udon in front of customers, and serving it fresh, an emotional experience is created. There are many udon chain restaurants, but our company has consistently added value by providing an "KANDO Dining Experiences," which has allowed us to attract more customers and establish ourselves in the self-service udon market.

The domestic restaurant industry is expected to face a worsening labor shortage, and efforts are being made to reduce manpower by introducing ordering terminals and food delivery robots.
However, we continue to believe in the infinite potential of people and will continue to cherish the spirit of hospitality. Without trying to be eccentric, we will increase value and create new markets by adding moving experiences to business formats that people are familiar with - that is the Toridoll way.

Achieve record-high revenue and business profit in the fiscal year ending March 2025
The mid- to long-term management plan is revised to focus on organic growth

For the fiscal year ending March 2025, revenue and business profit exceeded our plans, achieving new record highs.

In particular, Marugame Seimen saw growth in same-store sales, with many stores nationwide recording record daily and monthly sales. While we implemented price adjustments in response to rising prices for certain ingredients, we believe that customer understanding of the price increases was largely due to our efforts to improve customer service at our stores, including through our ongoing training programs for human resource development, expanded growth opportunities such as our "noodle craftsman" system with advanced noodle-making skills, and improved work-life balance through increased staffing. Additionally, the huge success of "Marugame Udonut," launched in June 2024, attracted new customers, contributing to increased sales. It took approximately three years from conception to development of "Marugame Udonut." This trial marked a major change within the company, and we believe that the fact that we are now able to sell a labor-intensive product, handmade from scratch in-store, at all stores is proof of increased motivation at each store.

As for other business formats in Japan, Ramen Zundoya, a tonkotsu ramen restaurant originating from Himeji, reached 100 stores, and Kona's Coffee, based on the concept of "the closest Hawaii," also saw a significant increase in revenue due to store openings and renovations, with both formats growing to a scale with sales revenue exceeding 11 billion yen. Ramen Zundoya saw a decrease in profit due to the impact of capital investments associated with the construction of a central kitchen, but going forward, the operation of this facility will lead to increased efficiency and increased profits.

Overseas business will benefit from contributions from Tam Jai in Hong Kong and Fulham Shore in the UK, which became a consolidated subsidiary in the second quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2024.
Revenue increased due to growth in UDON USA and Taiwan. As for Fulham Shore, we will aim to improve performance from 2025 to 2026 by injecting our vision and successful experiences. We have the personnel ready for full-scale development of our overseas business, and we feel confident that we have entered a new phase, and we want to see it blossom.

The financial forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2026 announced on May 15, 2025, calls for record-high revenue of 282 billion yen and core operating profit of 19.6 billion yen (core operating profit).
We are targeting a net profit margin of 7.0% and an operating profit of 14.6 billion yen (operating profit margin of 5.2%). In our domestic business, we will accelerate store openings, focusing on successful formats, and in our overseas business, we will focus on reviewing our portfolio and improving profitability, while strengthening our system for transferring know-how on creating thriving stores from Japan to overseas.

In our medium- to long-term management plan, which ends in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2028, we had set management plan figures that included M&A. However, while we will continue to actively pursue M&A, we recognized that including it in our plan figures could lead to misjudgments due to being bound by numerical targets. Therefore, we have revised our plan to focus on organic growth, which is more likely to be achieved, and set targets for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2028, at revenue of 333 billion yen, core profit of 27.5 billion yen (core profit margin of 8.3%), and operating profit of 23 billion yen (operating profit margin of 6.9%). While we will accelerate growth in our domestic business through an aggressive store opening strategy, we have positioned the period from the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025 to the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026 as a phase for strengthening the Group's overall store format and management capabilities in our international business. We will promote the establishment of a foundation for renewed growth over the medium term, optimize our Group portfolio, and sustainably enhance our corporate value.

We promote "Happiness Capital Management,"
Focusing on improving the happiness of our colleagues.

As we continue to grow, we will strive to provide our customers with "KANDO Dining Experiences." To achieve this, it is paramount that our employees and partner staff enjoy their work and approach it with a positive attitude. Based on this philosophy, we will promote "Happy Company Management" ^*1, improving the motivation and engagement of our employees. By providing more memorable experiences and pleasing more customers, we aim to create a virtuous cycle where our stores thrive, sales and profits expand, and these profits are reinvested in our colleagues, generating even more happiness.

Among these, we believe that "heart" is especially important. Heart is our greatest asset, and what we advocate is "Happiness Capital Management" which transforms "people" into "heart." This change will multiply performance many times over. When the heart changes, a desire to provide customers with a good experience is born, and each person will think and make decisions with intrinsic motivation, enabling them to provide more customers with memorable experiences. For example, noticing when a customer spills their udon noodles, or when the udon noodles get cold while comforting a crying child, and replacing them with a new one. This is already done, but we aim for such customer-centric actions to become a natural part of our store's operations.

To achieve this, we believe it is essential to foster "happiness of heart" among those who work in our stores. It is important to create a safe and secure environment where employees feel comfortable going to the store, where their colleagues know their hobbies and interests, where they can have friendly conversations, and where they can say they love working at the store. In such a store, they can gain a sense of contribution by providing products and services and making customers happy. This transforms into pride, and they want to brag about it to their family and friends. We call this cycle the Toridoll Happiness Model, and we aim to improve "happiness" by realizing four elements: "sense of security," "sense of connection," "sense of contribution," and "pride."

As part of this initiative, I am currently working to train Happy Company Officers (HKOs) and deploy them to all stores. HKOs are leaders who have a strong desire to make customers happy, who serve as role models for staff, who value connections and can boost the motivation of their colleagues, and who have their own authority to organize events such as employee birthday parties and barbecues that help build teamwork. Deploying HKOs to all stores will produce a far greater effect than I could by giving instructions from here, and will be a weapon that will allow us to significantly pull ahead of our competitors.

To strengthen our human capital, it is crucial to increase the number of employees who have honed their skills and improved their abilities over many years, which leads to consistently high quality and improved customer satisfaction. The restaurant industry has a relatively high turnover rate, but our company's turnover rate has been decreasing as we have been trying out various initiatives, and we will continue to implement measures that resonate even more with our employees.

*1 While we have been working on this internally for the past two years as "Happy Company Management," we are now using the term "Happiness Capital Management" to describe a management approach that deepens our "Human Capital Management" concept in order to share it more widely with the world.

A dominant presence worldwide
Aiming to become a global food company originating from Japan

The Toridoll Group aims to be the one and only global food company originating from Japan. While some companies have already taken the lead in expanding overseas with ramen and sushi, we will first follow and eventually surpass them with udon. Together with tempura and other foods, we aim to become a leading Japanese restaurant company that is familiar to many people around the world as "MARUGAME UDON = Japanese food."

Furthermore, by expanding beyond Marugame Seimen to multiple brands and having multiple winning strategies, we will be able to collect and analyze information such as consumption characteristics in each area, hedge against risks in food procurement due to climate change, and expand our scope for new store openings, thereby increasing the likelihood of growth. We have experienced many challenges and failures to date, but by repeatedly taking on new challenges, we have increased our knowledge and achieved growth. We will continue to take on new challenges relentlessly, expanding our store network around the world in multiple formats like cells multiplying, and creating demand through moving experiences.

In 2023 and 2025, we gathered all employees in Japan and around the world ^*2 to promote our management philosophy and inspiring experiences. Afterwards, we held a KANDO Forum, connecting leaders from around the world remotely to discuss how to promote and practice KANDO. Furthermore, in May 2025, more than 70 leaders from around the world gathered at our Shibuya office for a week-long "ALL TORIDOLL Happikan MEETING 2025," themed on "happiness," called KANDO WEEK. This time, leaders from around the world once again gathered to tour our stores and participate in workshops, deepening their empathy with our company philosophy and understanding of Toridoll's successful experiences.

At the same time, we are strengthening our governance system to contribute to growth. For example, with regard to outside directors, given that our sales revenue has exceeded 200 billion yen and our overseas business has expanded, we have appointed two outside directors in fiscal 2025: one with management experience and one with business experience. If we can strengthen our organizational and team capabilities, we will be able to accomplish even greater things. With our sights set on the next stage, we will continue to attract even more professional talent.

Our company's global expansion has just begun, and I feel that the opportunities are limitless and filled with great possibilities. In particular, I am conscious of America, which has given birth to many of the world's most dominant restaurant chains, and I want to become a restaurant company that can compete in America and be recognized worldwide. I aim to become a "global food company that opens up the future with unpredictable evolution," and to become a restaurant company that the world looks up to, standing shoulder to shoulder with the major global chains.
Please look forward to the further evolution and progress of the Toridoll Group.

*2 Approximately 2,000 people in 2023, approximately 2,200 people in 2025

TORIDOLL Holdings Corporation

President and CEO