HOME > IR Information [Business Strategy] In the franchise business, speed is key. To establish a brand nationally and prevent copycats from appearing and tarnishing the brand image, a large number of franchises must be developed in a short period of time. Since going public in December 2002, we have been striving to develop businesses that are appreciated by consumers. To enlarge our market share in a short period, we are aggressively recruiting franchise partners and strengthening our efforts to rapidly deploy franchised restaurants. We are also forming ties with powerful companies in various regions, and have introduced an area franchise system. Now that the franchise environment has become better developed, we are accelerating the pace of our restaurant openings under the assumption that the next year or two will determine our success. Driving this growth are our suburban free-standing "Maido Ookini Shokudo," which we have been developing for the past two years, and our new "Kappogi Japanese-Style Izakaya Pubs." The former were a response to increased demand for family restaurants in suburban areas, while the latter are winning over baby-boomers with a two-pronged approach: family restaurants with an attached bar. Today, we have a total of 400 restaurants, including both company-owned and franchised facilities, but our company-owned restaurants are only located in the Kinki region and around Tokyo. In all other locations, we have employed an area franchise system. Now that the area franchise system has become well established, we will accelerate the speed of our franchise deployment in two business formats, the Maido Ookini Shokudo and the Kappogi Izakaya Pubs. Our plan is to make enhancements to existing restaurants and to aggressively promote a scrap-and-build approach to those that are unprofitable. The overall eatery market, including dining out, home-meal replacement, and dining in, has reached a certain level of maturity, and the structure of that market is changing. As this occurs, we are focusing on family and mass-appeal dining, not fine dining, and are striving to develop brands and businesses in these areas. While the "buffet dining" category is an enormous market with the largest numbers of customers, restaurants must diligently strive to meet demands not only for taste, atmosphere, and service, but for human warmth and friendliness. We therefore believe that there is still quite a bit of room for developing new enterprises in this area in the future. By challenging ourselves toward new heights in this category, we are striving to achieve the highest level of warmth, attentiveness to detail, and concern for our customers in the restaurant industry. Today we have nearly 30 brands and business models. As we endeavor to enhance our existing business models while firmly seeking out businesses suitable for both franchising and direct management, we are focusing on our "buffet dining" business. In the future, we will make every effort to distinguish our brand by continuing to develop businesses that meet the needs of the marketplace. Our ambitions include becoming number one in the category for mass-appeal Japanese-style izakaya pubs as well. Now that the importance of lifetime employment has waned, we have eliminated our compulsory retirement plan and adopted a unique management system whereby individual employees can decide when to retire. We would like to take advantage of the benefits and comforts of traditional Japanese management practices. At the same time, we have already experimentally introduced a performance-based pay system at our shokudo and curry houses, in which workers are paid based on their performance. These restaurants are being managed as financially independent business partners. The key to developing a restaurant business is, of course, making customers happy, but we also want to create an organization in which we can also share in the happiness and joy of the people we work with. While there are some employees who would like to become independent owners in the future, others want to try their hand at cooking while yet others want to study management. We want to do everything we can to support those individuals so that they can all realize their dreams. We believe it is important to link their growth as individuals to our growth as a company.