"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 "exciting food experiences,"
Creating new markets

I opened a yakitori izakaya in Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture in 1985, and in the beginning, there were many days when not a single customer came. I was constantly thinking about how to attract customers, and through trial and error, I continued to grow. It was during this time that I was shocked to see long lines forming at a Sanuki udon noodle factory in Kagawa Prefecture, where freshly made and boiled udon noodles were served right before your eyes. This made me realize firsthand that what draws people in is the 'emotional food experience.' Recreating this noodle factory was the beginning of Marugame Seimen, and based on this idea, we have consistently worked to develop various business formats, store development, menu development, and human resource training, thereby achieving growth.

Examples of moving experiences include "surprising customers through time-consuming demonstrations" and "customer service that resonates with customers." For example, Marugame Seimen keeps noodle-making machines and boiling pots in each of its stores. This requires investment in the equipment, rent for the space required for installation, and training to ensure consistent quality, which increases running costs, making it a negative in terms of efficiency. However, operating the noodle-making machines, taking the time and effort to make udon in front of customers, and serving it fresh creates a moving experience. While there are many udon chains, our company has consistently added value through "moving food experiences," which has attracted more customers and established 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.

Promoting "spiritual capital management"
Focusing on improving the happiness of coworkers

We will continue to pursue growth by providing our customers with "exciting food experiences," but to achieve this, it is most important that our employees and partner staff are able to work in a fun and positive manner. Based on this idea, we will promote "hapikan management" ^*1 and improve the motivation and engagement of our employees, thereby providing more exciting experiences and pleasing many customers. This will result in our stores thriving, increasing sales and profits, and returning those profits to our coworkers, creating even more happiness, establishing a virtuous cycle.

Of these, we believe that "heart" is particularly important. Heart is our greatest asset, and we advocate "mental capital management," which transforms "people" into "heart." This change will multiply performance. Changing our hearts will create a desire to provide customers with a good experience, and each employee will be intrinsically motivated to think and make decisions on their own, enabling us to provide more moving experiences to more customers. For example, if a customer spills their udon noodles, or if the noodles get cold while soothing a crying child, we will notice and replace them with new ones. This is still something we do today, but we aim to make this kind of customer-oriented behavior completely natural in our stores.

To achieve this, we believe it is important to foster "happiness of mind" among store workers. It is important to create an environment where employees feel safe and secure, where they can visit the store and find fellow employees who know their hobbies and pastimes, have connections that allow for friendly conversation, and express their love for the store. And by providing products and services in such a store and making customers happy, employees can gain a sense of contribution. This turns into pride, and they will want to brag about it to their family and friends. We have designated this cycle as the Toridoll Happiness Model, and we aim to improve "happiness" by realizing the four elements of "security," "connection," "sense of contribution," and "pride."

As part of this initiative, we are currently training and assigning Happy Kan Officers (HKOs) to all stores as the store's highest-ranking executives. HKOs are leaders who have a strong desire to please customers, set an example for staff, and motivate their colleagues while valuing connections. They also have their own authority and can organize events such as employee birthday parties and team-building barbecues. Assigning HKOs to all stores will produce far greater results than if I were to give instructions here, and they will be a weapon that will set us apart from our competitors.

In order to strengthen our human capital, it is important to increase the number of people who have honed their skills and improved their abilities over many years, which leads to stable, high quality and improved customer satisfaction. The restaurant industry has a relatively high turnover rate, but our turnover rate has been decreasing through various trial and error initiatives, and we will continue to implement measures that will resonate even more with our employees.

*1 We have been working on this internally as "Happy Kan Management" for the past two years, but in order to spread this concept more widely to the world, we are now using the term "Spiritual Capital Management" to refer to a management style that deepens "Human Capital Management."

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